[comp.mail.elm] Hiding Alias Names on To Line

sascmc@unx.sas.com (Chris Conn) (05/30/91)

I have a mailing list (The Dead Runners Society) that I run by receiving
messages from members and then forwarding them out to an alias list.
 
At first I just mailed them directly to the list but as the group got
bigger I started sending the messages to myself and then sending Bcc's
(blind carbon copies) to the group. That way they didn't see everybody's
name.
 
My question is this: is there a way I can mail To: an alias list and
have the receivers not see all of the names on the list?
 
Thanks for any info,
-- 
Christopher Mark Conn | Keep your hands open, and all of the sands of the
sascmc@unx.sas.com    | desert can pass through them. Close them, and all
SAS Institute, Inc.   | you can feel is a bit of grit.
Austin, Texas         |                        - Taisen Deshimaru

bill@camco.Celestial.COM (Bill Campbell) (06/02/91)

In <1991May30.163650.6483@unx.sas.com> sascmc@unx.sas.com (Chris Conn) writes:

>I have a mailing list (The Dead Runners Society) that I run by receiving
>messages from members and then forwarding them out to an alias list.
>
>At first I just mailed them directly to the list but as the group got
>bigger I started sending the messages to myself and then sending Bcc's
>(blind carbon copies) to the group. That way they didn't see everybody's
>name.
>
>My question is this: is there a way I can mail To: an alias list and
>have the receivers not see all of the names on the list?
>
IMHO the best way to handle mailing lists like this is using an
MTA like smail rather than depending on Elm's aliasing.  I use
smail2.5 here to distribute/redistribute several mailing lists.

The advantages to me are:
    1.  The alias files are simple ascii files that can easily be
        updated from a database.  I don't have to run ``newalias -g''
        every time I add/delete from the list.

    2.  Smail2.5 allows aliases to include files with the
        complete list and the include file is only read when
        the alias is used.  This makes the alias file much
        smaller (thus faster to search).

    3.  I can use full name aliases rather than having to
        remember a specific alias.  For instance, this is useful
        to me when I want to send mail to a particular member of
        the Seattle Unix Group I just send the mail using an
        address Bill.Campbell, Ray.Jones.

    4.  If a person has both e-mail and fax, I can send a fax by
        using the address fax.George.Clute (or fax.g.clute) since
        I build the full name alias file with fax as the first
        name (fax!12062329186!Bill_Campbell fax Bill Campbell)

    5.  These alias files are accessible to any program sending
        mail including fastmail.  I only have to maintain one
        alias file rather than several.

    6.  When I mail to the list, Elm saves the posting in
        ~Mail/<listname> where <listname> is much simpler than
        some e-mail addresses (I send faxes by using an address
        fax!<phone_number>!Recipient_Name!... which drives Elm
        crazy)

    7.  The To: line is simple.

Bill
-- 
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