For those who send out mass electronic mailings (especially those going off-campus) there are many things to take into account. One person's newsletter is another person's spam.

OIT supports and recommends using LISTSERV (lists.princeton.edu) for mass email distribution. Please register for a LISTSERV account(click here) to send mass email and follow the best practices bulleted below. If you choose to distribute mass email from your personal email account, your email could be blocked by OIT email security systems. 

If you do need to send mass email on a temporary basis from your personal account, there is a risk that your account could be blocked from sending email by Microsoft. We highly suggest using the Listserv service to avoid any chance of disruption to your email service.

If you decide to distribute information electronically please keep in mind that people are very sensitive as to what arrives in their Inbox. Take into account the following:

• A visible and operable unsubscribe mechanism should present in all email messages
• Recipient opt-out requests should be honored within 10 days
• A legitimate physical address of the publisher and/or sponsor should be present
• All messages should contain accurate From: lines
• All messages should contain relevant subject lines
• Identify who exactly is sending the message
• Indicate where, when, and how the recipient was added to the list

Most of the above is taken from the compliance section of the CAN-SPAM Act. The others are conventions that should be followed if possible.

Unfortunately the consequences can be harsh if you are perceived as a spammer. Your list may be blocked by an entire organization or, in the worst case; all of the University's e-mail might be blocked by an ISP (e.g. AOL, Yahoo!).