Sending Mass Emails
If you need to send mass email on behalf of Launchpad, here are some things to consider.
- Do you really have to send the email?
Seriously, think about it. Is the email absolutely necessary?
Be cautious and try to find other means of notification -- blog, identi.ca, twitter, etc. If you do have to send email, then make sure you blog first. Emails should be supplementary notifications where the importance of the notification warrants contacting people directly.
- Build email script on other people's work
See spam.py in lp:~launchpad/lp-dev-utils/trunk as an example
A flawed script that deryck used is at lp:~deryck/+junk/lpjunk
- Ideally, we will eventually build a standard way to do this in Launchpad.
- Make data changes first
- If your email is based on changes being made on Launchpad, then make those changes before sending email.
- Remember: you're sending email to people
Not projects, packages, etc. Make sure you send one email per person.
- Ensure the people have permissions for required action
- Make sure you know the difference between bug supervisors, drivers, and other celebrities and who can do what on Launchpad. This can be deceptive. Ask around and also look at the code path email recipients will hit.