Action Against 5G News

[address@concealed]

Dear [% user.gecos %],

This message is to test a new mailing list server for use with the AA5G
campaign.

You may recall that hitherto we have used Mailchimp to send messages to
supporters who subscribed via the AA5G website's 'Contact us' form. This
worked well but since Mailchimp cut the maximum number of contacts allowed in
their free subscription from 2,000 to 500, given that we have over 2,000
contacts, I had to take out a monthly paid subscription. Given this expense
and the greatly reduced traffic through Mailchimp these days, it seems
wasteful to continue the Mailchimp subscription. Accordingly, last year I set
up my own mail and mailing list servers, the latter using the excellent open
source Sympa software. Unfortunately, early tests were disappointing as they
revealed that my mail server was unable to connect to certain email providers
such as @btinternet.com, @virginmedia.com and doubtless others. It turned out
that my mail server needed a 'reverse DNS PTR record' so that its IP address
could be verified as belonging to the campaign-resources.org domain. In
January I approached my ISP (Briant Broadband, a lovely locally owned company)
to ask them to create this record but rather surprisingly it turned out that
they didn't have the infrastructure to do this. I waited patiently all this
year and made periodic inquiries on progress, to no avail. Eventually, I
approached Zen Internet, of whom I was once a very satisifed customer, and
ascertained that they had everything I needed, so armed with this ammunition I
said to Briant that I'd signed with them on the understanding that I would be
able to run mail and list servers behind via their connection and that if they
were unable to provide the requisite PTR record, that I would be reluctantly
obliged to transfer my business to Zen. This did the trick and within a few
days the PTR record was in place and I was able to send to the previously
blocked domains.

So... we're now at the point where the list needs testing, which is where you
come in. I've set up a small list of test email addresses, to each of whom
this message has been sent. You can manage your subscription by visiting
https://lists.actionagainst5g.org/sympa/info/news. The first time you do this,
hit the Login button, then click the 'First Login?' link and enter your email
address and click 'Request first password'. This should send you an email with
a link to click that will allow you to set your password. That done, you can
click Subscriber Options to set up your delivery options.

If you receive this message, please let me know by emailing
address@concealed (don't try to reply to this message, it won't
work).

Once it's confirmed to be working correctly, I can import the contacts from
Mailchimp, terminate my subscription and start using the list in earnest.
Might be worth thinking about the first bulletin to send out--e.g., is there
any further news on the ECHR case?

Thanks & best regards,
Adrian