Now hang on, it isn't what you think! Although the name might be considered super suggestive in the gay community, Mandrill is actually a "transactional email" platform from the very popular Mailchimp email marketing company.

So what exactly is GLRF doing in bed with Mandrill? Resolving email delivery problems. Although GLRF has its own virtual dedicated server, emails were often delivered to member's spam boxes. Mandrill resolves that by providing automatic email authentication so email boxes like Hotmail don't think GLRF emails are spam.

Over the past three weeks, we have reconfigured all of our email transmission codes to route through Mandrill and so far, it is working like a charm.

• The GLRF Cox Box Squax newsletter, transmitted through Phplist, now routes email through Mandrill.
  
• The All Oars Network, originally configured to send emails through an organic phpmail script, now routes email through Mandrill.
  
• Members who register with GLRF or who need a password reminder, and who previously were sent emails through a phpmail script, now receive their emails through Mandrill.
  
• All of the GLRF email boxes that you see around the website now route the outgoing emails through Mandrill.
  
• The new GLRF ecommerce site software, Prestashop, now routes all emails through Mandrill.
  

Okay, so you have to be a total geek to feel some embarrassing swelling in your rowing shorts about Mandrill but ensuring everyone gets their emails the first time is critical.

Finally, there is a revealing feature with Mandrill - it shows every email that goes out, who it went to, and if the email was opened by the recipient, and on what date and time.

Gotcha!

Excuse us, we need to turn around and 'adjust' ourselves in our rowing shorts ... :rolleyes: