[prog] Mailing list software - how does the emailing work? (mass bcc?)

[Dan]

> So the To: address does actually get sent but the recipient discards it?

The SMTP protocol ignores the headers, including "From", "To" and "Cc".
The actual recipients are specified in a part of the message called the
envelope, which your mail client fills in for you as a convenience. The
PHP mail() function is simply a wrapper for the SMTP protocol, so it
also ignores the "To" header.

The upshot of this is that you could probably get away with sending
e-mail with a header like "To: Simba the Elephant". However, some mail
clients might choke on that because they're not expecting it. I really
don't know what most mail clients do when they receive messages with
weird "To" headers (or no "To" headers at all), so I don't know what a
good "To" header would be for you, but rest assured that the server
ignores the "To" header.

> Also in regard to BCC'ing people, is there a limit at which point it
> may be marked as SPAM?

No, it's spam if and only if the recipient didn't ask for it. As long as
he signed up for it and can unsubscribe if he wants, it's not spam.

P.S. - a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and some lawyers who
have only a little knowledge write "spam" in all caps. Hormel (which
makes the SPAM lunchmeat) says that you should write the name of its
product in all caps and write about junk e-mail using lowercase letters.

-- 
   They've signed me up for every advertising campaign
   and mailing list there is. These people are out of
   their minds. They're harassing me.
       - spam tycoon Alan Ralsky, who was signed up for tons of
         (paper) junk mail after publicly proclaiming that
         he had no regrets about his spam empire.