[Mailman-Users] From a computer-numbskull who needs a Rosetta Stone

[Dr. Irving David Shapiro]

Hi!

I was referred to your site by a nice guy at our ISP who thinks you 
might be able to help us. So I logged on. Now I know what it feels like 
when you're in Rome but can't talk like the Romans do (to analogize an 
old proverb).

Now please don't get me wrong -- I think you're site is wonderful. I'm 
just not sufficiently computer-literate to make heads or tails of it.

Anyway, here goes.

We have a collection of some 170 essays that we want to send out in the 
form of e-mail messages, starting with our current e-mail address list, 
one at a time, weekly. I've attached a generic pdf file (done in 
PageMaker, but we'll have it converted to HTML when we're ready to go), 
generic in the sense that it'll be exactly the same in each mailing 
except that the essay title, the essay itself, and the related quotation 
will be different. The TO: field should show only the name of the 
recipient and the FROM: field should be Mens Sana Foundation although 
the Mens Sana Foundation doesn't have an e-mail address per se -- I do.

Please now focus on the bottom of the attached file. The four buttons 
you see will (obviously) be at the bottom of each e-mail message that'll 
be sent out during this campaign. The two middle ones are for the 
purpose of unsubscribing and subscribing, respectively. So not only 
would you have to send out the e-mails weekly (every Sunday night) if we 
sign up with you, but you'd also have to delete and add e-mail addresses 
to our list as people unsubscribe and subscribe.

Another thing. Whenever someone subscribes, we would want a message 
(that we would provide you with) to be automatically sent to him or her. 
The same would be true for anyone who unsubscribes (a different message, 
or course).

And finally, could every message open with a voice greeting?

OK, having given you the specs, more or less, the big question: can we 
do all the foregoing with Mailman?  Also, assuming that the answer is 
"Yes," given that we're a 501(c)(3) (which means there's never any money 
around here to hire help) and given that my grandchildren know 
infinitely more about computers and the Internet than I'll ever know but 
they never have enough time to help out Grandpa, is there someone there 
who'd be willing to take us under his/her wing all the way through the 
process until we can do it ourselves without worrying about the outcome?

Gratefully,

Dr. Shapiro

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Irving David Shapiro ~ LyceumOnline/Mens Sana Foundation
Voice: 510-835-2946
Address: 492 Staten Avenue, #1102, Oakland, CA 94610, USA
Web: http://www.menssana.org ~ http://www.menssana.org/books
E-mail: shapiro at menssana.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~