How I'm Transferring the Spamtacular Email List

Earlier today (October 28), I sent a short notice to the Spamtacular mailing list. Starting November 2, 2026, the email people get when I publish a new post will come from my own mail system instead of AWeber. When you transfer an email list, the easiest thing to lose is the record of who said "yes" and who said "no," so I want to walk you through how I'm handling mine.

The list is small and still growing, and three things pushed the move. First, AWeber is one of the few providers that still offers a free tier, but history shows that free things don't last forever. I'd never hold changing that against them. A company has to decide what it can afford to give away, and I hope the people there make money hand over fist. Second, my needs are simple: a new post goes up, a new email goes out. Finally, I think the people who hire me appreciate knowing that I can run the whole show myself, from the signup form to the mail server. Email deliverability isn't just something I talk about; it's something that I have to work at myself.

The new system is Mautic, the open-source marketing automation platform,¹ running on my own mail infrastructure. The software matters less than what it means for me: Everything AWeber handled for me but out of my sight is now expressly my job: processing bounces, honoring unsubscribes, handling complaints, and keeping authentication in order. That is the part of an email program most senders never see, and it often decides whether the mail arrives.

Moving the list didn't require asking anyone for new permission. You signed up for Spamtacular updates, and you'll get the same posts from the same author for the same reason. Permission is specific and personal. It attaches to the sender and the purpose. A different brand, a new kind of mail, or a list handed to someone else would each need a fresh "yes." But this is a software change.

I deliberately sent the move notification from AWeber. My existing subscribers recognize the old sender, and the unsubscribe link still works. Anyone who uses it before November 2 will not be moved as a subscriber. Beyond that, I'll keep checking back for at least 60 days to make sure I catch any stragglers.

But anyone who clicks "unsubscribe" in this email will be moved as an unsubscribe. This is the step many, if not most, transfers skip. The usual approach is to export the active subscribers, import them, and call it done. Unsubscribes stay in the old account, and the next time an old export or stale signup record touches the new system, someone who said "please stop" starts getting mail again. A suppression record is the memory of that request to stop, and it has to travel with the list.

The last piece is telling people what actually changes. For Spamtacular, that is the sending address. Anyone who filters or allowlists my mail needs to add [email protected], or the first message from the new system could land somewhere they won't look. 

The list is clean on the day of the transfer. Whether it stays clean depends on what the new system does with the first bounce and the first person who wants out. I'll report back on how that went after the first of the year.