As noted above...
Keep in mind, people - we're aiming to have this sent in on February 1, 2009!
Not today, not in a few months, but on February 1. A large flood of emails all on one day is the point of this.
Cheers!
Tex - will be writing his own letter based on the one above.
As an technology professional here is my 2 cents on this.
If you intend to flood someone's email you will be blacklisted and the emails will end up in Junk Mail or not get through to the recipient.
Even if it reaches the recipient it will look like another Viagra, Cialis email to them, if they see a mass of emails with similar subject/content.
You will accomplish nothing.
There are legions of guys, like me, trying to prevent mass email campaigns from reaching the intended recipients. (SPAM)
You are better off sending few emails a day.
Not trying to be a party pooper.
As another technical professional I'd suggest you reaxamine what a blacklist is. Blacklists are IP based, for blocking offending servers. So all these Shaw, Telus, (ISP) based email accounts are going to get thier ISP's email server blacklisted for sending an email to multiple recipients? I don't think so. While its possible to get blacklisted if they origininated a mass spam from thier own email server, and then only if someone listed it, it isn't going to happen since the vast majority of users are not sending email from thier own server.
Also the reason it won't get blocked like VIagra and CIAlis spams do, is that many of the better engines use dummy accounts to harvest spam messages, knowing that any unsolicited email to these accounts doesn't belong and is spam. Since this email doesn't fit that rule it won't get blocked.
What is possible is that the recieving server may rejected the spam as spam from recieving the flood of similar email with the same subject line, or a key phrase, if it's configured to keep track of incoming email and rank it, which a quick check will tell you it is (MIMESweeper v5.3.1.2323), however even the makers say it's only 99.5% effective.
The other possibility for it getting blocked is some over zealous geek at the ministry has heard about the email and has already added a rule to the server to block the message based on it's subject, or a key phrase. Tough to do though, if you change the subject line, and the content.
So folks, change the form off the letter, and especially the subject line. That's one of the tricks all those viagra messages use to get through the spam filters- they mis-spell viagra, so the spam filter can't use a key word to block the message.
It can't hurt to make the email more personal anyway, as it has a better chance of being read, or considered a legit concern from a legit voter.
If you really want to have fun with it, send an individual message to each receipient, save it as a draft so it's ready to go, then send it on the date. (make copy paste your friend) Or if you know how, and are using something like outlook for you email client, you can also do that all in advance and set outlook to send the email at a later date, so long as your outlook is left open. (right click on the message in your drafts, click options, set the do not delvier before option), then send it, it will sit in your outbox and send on the sate you tell it to. Just don't open it once it''s in your outbox, as it won't send until you hit the send button again.
So make sure each email a little different. It has the added benefit of increasing the load on the server, far more than just sending one email to mutliple receipients and takes up more server space.
You can also add a delivery reciept/ read reciept if you like, though those are usually blocked, it might tell you if it was delivered to the server. (also increase the server load a little bit more)
Chances are though it will pass the spam filters just fine until some minsiter complains, and a geek goes and addresses the issue. Even then will be tough to block, since it's from a valid server, from a valid account, and doesn't meet the normal tests to rank it as spam, other than it being the multiple messages with similar content. Plus if it got out that an official was blocking protest letters, it would not make for good press.