Dada Mail is a web-based
electronic mailing list
A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is re ...
management system that can be used for announcement lists. It can also be used to create and manage discussion lists by the use of an included plug-in called Dada Bridge, which requires a cron task.
Dada Mail is written in
Perl
Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offic ...
.
Features
Dada Mail handles Closed-Loop Opt-in subscriptions and Closed-Loop Opt-out unsubscriptions, sending complex announce-only and/or discussion mailing list messages, archiving/viewing/searching/resending/syndicating (rss, atom) sent messages.
Unlike more traditional electronic mailing list software, like
Majordomo
A majordomo is a person who speaks, makes arrangements, or takes charge for another. Typically, this is the highest (''major'') person of a household (''domūs'' or ''domicile'') staff, a head servant who acts on behalf of the owner of a large ...
, there is no email interface to send commands to Dada Mail. Rather, almost all administration of the mailing list is done using a web-based control panel. Closed-Loop Opt-in subscriptions are done by sending a confirmation email message, but the actual mechanism is simply a unique confirmation URL.
History
Dada Mail was initially written in December 1999 and released as version 1.0 in January 2000, between Justin's first and second semester at the
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...
. Its original name was Mojo Mail, a name that came to Justin after having a dream about making a successor to the
Majordomo
A majordomo is a person who speaks, makes arrangements, or takes charge for another. Typically, this is the highest (''major'') person of a household (''domūs'' or ''domicile'') staff, a head servant who acts on behalf of the owner of a large ...
program, after struggling with that program's email-based interface for a non-profit client.
The name of this specific program was changed on December 1, 2003, after Justin Simoni received a letter from a lawyer representing Mediaplex Inc. that the name was in violation of their trademark. The name was changed to, Dada Mail.
Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...
is a direct reference to the early 20th century cultural movement. Justin considers Dada Mail a conceptual work of art
See also
*
List of mailing list software
This is a list of notable electronic mailing list software, which facilitate the widespread distribution of email to many Internet users.
Systems listed on a light purple background are no longer in active development.
References
{{reflist ...
*
Electronic mailing list
A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is re ...
References
External links
Dada Mail homepageDada Mail at GitHub*
{{Perl
Software using the GPL license
Free mailing list software
Mailing list software for Linux
Free software programmed in Perl
Free email software