Can I make a email list form where the input data automatically gets added to the outgoing email list?

Question

I'm not sure if I'm wording this right. But I want to add an input field on my website to join a mailing list. I would imagine that the email address they input would then automatically get added to an outgoing email list. I've been using formmail and CGI to recieve data such as contact info or invoices to my email. Now I'd like to know if and how the mailing list is possible. Can anyone help or point me to a website that would have that info? Thank you very much!!

Answer 1

This is pretty simplistic, but it's worked fine for mailing lists of a thousand names or so. I have a form that collects the visitor's name and email address, and calls a simple Perl script (formmail is Perl, isn't it?). I keep the email list as a DBM file, keyed by email address, and add the visitor thusly:
dbmopen(%MAILLIST, "$maillist", 0644) or die "cant open mail list: $!";
$MAILLIST{$formdata{'email'}} = $formdata{'name'};
dbmclose %MAILLIST;

I also send the visitor a confirming email with an opt-out link in the form ..remove.cgi?email=[e-mail]

Answer 2

i just go a similar response to a craigs list add that i posted for a job. I got an email back instantly. and then another instructing me to go to a website to fill out and submitt a job application. the application was, well it didn't seem like an application at all, just a request for contact info...doesn't seem legit to me...