BetterWorld Mailing List Database

July 2005

This is a product I was working on throughout the 1990's, using my then tool of choice, Visual Basic 3.0 (Microsoft Windows only). Although mailing list apps are sort of a dime-a-dozen, I thought that my product did have some features that set it apart, such as "householding" (ability to associate multiple people with a single household), and intelligent duplicate checking, which included a Soundex calculation for last name variations, and a database of first-name equivalents, such as "William" = "Bill".

As of 2000, it was still in use by several non-profits in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Unfortunately, due to the aging of the development language, and my time constraints as the primary breadwinner for my family (constraints I did not have when I started), I have discontinued this effort in its original form.

However, the old code base continues to have life in it! I have incorporated some of the functionality, including the duplicate checking mentioned above, into a partial web-enabled rewrite using Perl and mySQL. Although I have no immediate plans to make this a publically-available application, I am using it privately as the mailing list for the Schoolhouse Arts Center. If you are interested, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do!