3.6. Summary
With just a few simple scripts, you can provide a basic mailing list service where members can correspond with one another as a group and discuss topics relevant to their interests. Granted the service written in this chapter may not be as feature-rich as popular mailing list mangers like Mailman, LISTSERV, and EZMLM, but it's a great starting point. You now have a basic foundation to build upon in whatever direction your individual needs dictate. Perhaps you might want to allow HTML messages, allow attachments, or archive individual messages and integrate a web-based front-end to what you've written to build something like Google Groups or Yahoo! Groups.
The idea of processing e-mail messages doesn't stop at just mailing lists. Perhaps you may want to write a blogging application that allows its posts to be updated via e-mail. Or, maybe you need a community photo album that updates its images from e-mail attachments. Think creatively!
In the next chapter you'll explore building a custom search engine.
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