How robust is simple news?

Currently, we have +3000 subscriptions to the Drupal newsletter here on drupal.org, and all works fine. The number of subscriptions actually almost never is an issue with simplenews as long as you can set crontabs, and as long as you're not talking about sending millions of e-mails.

Do _not_ use poormanscron.module with simplenews however, as it will almost certainly result in duplicate sending. If you can set crontabs, and even better, if you prevent anyone else but the server from running cron.php (which is a good idea anyway), you should be fine. I known of people using simplenews on sites with over 10.000 subscriptions without any problem. I once did a test with +8000 addresses, and I didn't experience problems.

Sorry to interrupt this discussion, but does this mean I can't use poorman'scron at all? I am not too proficient with setting up cron tabs and was planning to use poorman's for notifications and other stuff related to my site's needs.

ramdak5000: you can use poormanscron, but several users reported problems with sending emails when using poormanscron. When you use it, I just can't guarantee that simplenews will work as expected. But you say you're not skilled to setup cronjobs. Can I then conclude that your host allows cronjobs to be set, but you don't know how? In that case, I really advise you not to use poormanscron, not only for simplenews, but it will be much more reliable in general. If you need assistance in setting up crontabs, search the forums, or ask it in the forums, use the support mailing list, google for it, ... There is plenty of information out there, and it isn't difficult at all.

lucidcarbon: you can fire cron.php manually, just make sure that no multiple crons are running. So wait until one run is finished before starting a new one, and don't manually start a cron run at the moments the system is going to run (or is running) a cron. Normally, this should cause no problems, as cron.php should deal with these situations, but experience shows that this is not always the case. However, in your case, 1200 e-mails are probably going to be sent in 1 run.

Thanks you DriesK.

I suppose poormanscron automatically activates the cronhook when enabled, so you can't turn if off on a per-module basis. That would've been useful. However, this is one more motivation to learn crontabs. You are right. My host allows me, but I am not skilled. They even have a beginner's interface to setting up crontabs, so I have no excuses, really.

By the way, it is nice of you to go out of the way to respond in such detail to issues. I know you may not be able to do it always, but I just wanted to tell you I appreciate it very much.

Why would Simplenews send me a test newsletter with the actual domain missing? All the href tags miss out the domain and only include folders as in "blog/post/" etc, no http! Help!

Why are you re-opening an issue that is totally unrelated with your problem?

You already filed a separate issue for this problem today, and I replied immediately. Please post any further comments in the relevant issue: http://drupal.org/node/45178.