Cleaning an email list

[TalkDevelopment]

I have an email list that goes back to 2005. Does anyone know of an opensource software or another free way to clean this email list from fake email addresses, etc?

Most of the only services are so expensive.

Thanks

 

[buyselldoms]

Way out of date, even the non-fake have probably expired or fell into disuse. Of little value.

 

[TalkDevelopment]

Yes but this is a forum with new member and old members alike. I cannot just toss all old emails because many are still help by valid members.

And I did not mean the entire list was from 2005. I meant that is basically when it was started. In the beginning though the site owner did not have email validation on so I am unsure which are good and which are not.

Thanks

 

[buyselldoms]

Get the most recent emails from those who have most recently logged in?

If they have stopped signing in then they probably aren't interested in being contacted.

 

[TalkDevelopment]

That is not practical and not good practice. There are still many members who monitor the site but may not post.

The way to do this is to use an online service or software that sends emails to all these addresses and checks for validity. It does this not through my server but through multiple addresses in some cases to avoid blacklisting.

As I stated before, these services are very expensive and I wanted to know if there was an opensource option or another inexpensive or free way. Just deleting emails because members have not signed in is out of the question.

 

[buyselldoms]

Why not simple send mass email to all of them?

 

[TalkDevelopment]

Because sending out a mass of email with many bounces ruins reputation with Google and Microsoft. This gets you blocked eventually especially by Microsoft. I know because I have already been through it. That is part of the reason I am wanting to clean this list before I do my next mass mailing.

 

[Hybrid Names]

send them newsletter "we are checking active users and if ur active user please click here to verify email" something like this

 

[TalkDevelopment]

I think you missed my last email.

I cannot mass email everyone to find out which bounce because this will ruin my mail reputation with Microsoft. Sending massive amounts of bounced emails is a major no no.

To those in the know:Again, I need email cleaning software preferable Open Source to clean my email list.

Thanks

 

[Atomic Domains]

Waste of time. There are plenty of free email validation tools, but you are wasting your time....

The email list is not targeted... We are talking about 9 year old emails here...]

1. The majority of people will not be interested in whatever you are pitching, because interest change in 9 years.
2. Even if the emails are valid, they may not be monitored. How many times have you changed emails in the last 9 years.
3. I hope you didn't pay for a 2005 email list... If you did smack yourself

 

[TalkDevelopment]

Ok, I do not think you are reading my posts.

## -As I said, the list is not 9 years old. 9 years ago was when it was started. This is a couple forum communities and this is not only for marketing. It is for notifications mostly, events, contests and newsletters.

The list was started back in 2005 but it goes all the way up to current and yes, there are many members who are still with us and have been with us since 2005 so I do not plan on just deleting old emails.

####### THERE ARE PLENTY OF FREE TOOLS? Why now answer my question then and list some please?

 

[Atomic Domains]

http://www.32bit.com/email-verifier.html
http://e-mailvalidator.com/

And many more.... (Bing is your friend)

 

[TalkDevelopment]

yes, I have seen those and I have searched and searched which is why i posted here. They are both very expensive. I am looking for Opensource. Everything so far I have found is expensive.

Thanks

 

[buyselldoms]

Because sending out a mass of email with many bounces ruins reputation with Google and Microsoft. This gets you blocked eventually especially by Microsoft. I know because I have already been through it. That is part of the reason I am wanting to clean this list before I do my next mass mailing.

Of course it ruins reputation and likely to get bad marks against the IP, as you are spamming.

People gave their email address (if it is indeed a forum) for the ability to log in and have a username to discuss things... and to be notified of PMs and post replies if they have selected that... NOT for a few years don't the road some idiot to start sending them email trying to sell them stuff.

Listen to IceDude! Non-targeted email lists are pointless. I would also advise that there isn't necessary a sure away of knowing if an email address exists, not all set ups will return this information or might treat all addresses as deliverable... you can do HTML email with images that load so you can detect if a user has viewed (email clients normally block this by default, and not everyone gets HTML format emails), wait for a user reply, unsubscribe link or tracking links on to your website.

Email lists are either targeted (expensive but more chance of converting as they are real and deemed interested) or untargeted (really cheap, dirt cheap... likely duplicates, fakes, expired, unchecked... and they add your email to their next list just for enquiring).

The way of knowing whether emails were fake or not was for the forum to require a user to validate their email address to use their account - most if not all forum software allows this. Most free email providers expired accounts that weren't logged into after 30 days... some just deleted emails and allowed you to access it again. Due to the age of data this is likely so many of the emails are likely to have been abandoned. There really is no value to these email addresses.

 

[TalkDevelopment]

Wow, you guys must be joking. I feel like a broken record here.

#1 - Back in 2005 when the site was created the owner back then did not require email validation as we do now.

#2 - How exactly is this a non targeted list?

#3 - Yes, forum notifications, forum news, etc.. We also notify members of event updates and news and occasionally send out promos for contests and sponsors.

#4 - AGAIN - The entire list is not that old! We started in 2005! The object here is to separate the older or disabled, fake etc emails from being sent to.

The services do this in a way that uses various ip addresses and email domains(not mine) so nothing gets blacklisted. When they get a bounce or error they remove it from the list. There is also software that does this. What is the issue with this?

Can anyone answer my question rather than argue with me about something you do not understand? Should I dump my entire member email base because some emails are old? Have you even read my posts?

ONE MORE TIME - Many of our members go all the way back to the beginning and still use the same email address as do I. Age has nothing to do with it. I still use some of the same email addresses I had in the 90's. And AGAIN, the object here is to clean the list so my emails that already go out only go out to good addresses and not addresses that are no longer working.

Thanks for the replies but if you have no answer to my request you are not helping.

 

[buyselldoms]

We get it.. started in 2005... but if they don't visit your forum in the last 6 months they are seriously not interested!

We get it.. started in 2005... but if they don't visit your forum in the last 6 months they are seriously not interested!

We get it.. started in 2005... but if they don't visit your forum in the last 6 months they are seriously not interested!

 

[TalkDevelopment]

Obviously you do not know how forums work. Members often come back after years and even if some do not log in does not mean they do not monitor the site and our emails for our event updates.

No offense but you are really not helping at all. I am not here to argue about this. I am asking for help locating an inexpensive way to clean an email list. You should probably stick to buying and selling domains because you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to a forum's member base. I have been doing forums since 2004 and websites long before that. I know something about this and I do not need your opinion on my member base.

 

[buyselldoms]

my experience of forums long predates yours... this isn't what the debate is, however. If you knew half as much as you say you do, you will realise (like I have stated) that in the database will contain valuable information as to when a user last logged in.

Rule of thumb, the longest since they have last logged in, the less likely they are interested in receiving an email.

Your "Members often come back after years and even if some do not log in does not mean they do not monitor the site" statement doesn't wash. If people really do come back and do NOT log back in AND you want to communicate with them or sell them something, display a message to guest users to get them to subscribe!

If people are reading your forums as a guest as opposed to a registered member, it means they aren't interested in being involved within the community. More to the point they do not want to read emails from you. If you prefer you can simply require a log in to view the forum content!

I have personally registered for the same forum multiple times over the years... forums are tricky to get people to remain engaged in conversation... so many web forums, people typically pick one or two to use, and not multiple... so over time you prefer one to another... and its probable you might go back in the future. If you don't know your previous account details, you simply create a new account in about 2 minutes. If your guest viewers are past members, they would subscribe to the site (if such an option was available to them) or register again.

 

[N-A]

I understand your dilemma 100%. You have a forum, so they are targeted users. However, validating them from your server would blacklist your IPs.

Your best bet is using an opt-in provider such as AWeber or MailChimp to validate emails. These services can be costly, but effective if you're going to use it one time.

If you have more than 1 million emails to verify and more than 4 IPs; along with a larger budget, for around $1k you can get a monthly license of GreenArrow MTA. Using this software on your servers, once setup, will not only validate your emails by automatically unsubscribing bounces, but it will also prevent you from being blacklisted as it's programmed to know the sending rate each ISP will handle (essentially not banning you and giving you a high inbox delivery rate). In addition to that, you can see who actually opened your newsletter.

I hope this was of value to you.

 

[Name Trader]

Personally, I would delete all email addresses who haven't logged in since 2009-12-31 (I would probably increase that to 2011-12-31). We don't know how many email addresses are we talking about here. But I would seriously suggest if they haven't logged in for 2.5yrs, they are unlikely ever to log in again. So, you delete one or two valid email addresses. If they come back to your forum, they can always register again. Not a biggie, imho.

I have had some success with Advanced Login System (ALS) found on ThemeForest.net. I have identified hundreds of dead email addresses with this software, without ever getting my IP's or domains banned. YMMV.

But if you are serious about this cleaning, you could use MailChimp and stay within their free limits, by adding 2K emails send them an email, eliminate the dead email addresses, save live email addresses, delete all email addresses on MailChimp, rinse and repeat. You could do this 6 times before reaching their 12k emails per month for the free account.