"Refer a Friend" scripts

Any recommendations?

[Denise]

Hi,

I'm looking around for a (preferably free) "Refer a Friend" Perl script, however I have only been able to find scripts that send a text based email to the friend. I would like to be able to send a HTML based email. Bearing in mind that I know next-to-nothing about Perl at the moment (but I'm learning fast), is there anyone who could recommend a script that will do this.

[rogerd]

I looked at a bunch of "send this page to a friend" scripts recently, and installed one from a company with the unlikely name of BigNoseBird. Pretty simple to install, allows multiple recipients... It is text based, but it might be possible to edit the script to make it HTML based. There are quite a few posters here who really hate HTML email, but I think that graphic e-mail clients are becoming common enough to make it a good bet. If you find a suitable script, let us know!

[txbakers]

BigNoseBird is a good site for scripts - and their affiliates are good also. Highly recommended.

[mivox]

I'm using a script called BlueSend... I think I found it at hotscripts.com. Between hotscripts and cgi.resourceindex.com, you should be able to find one that meets your needs.

The two things I looked at were: 1. Is the form configurable and reasonably attractive? 2. Does the output email "read" in such a way that recipients won't feel like they've just been spammed?

A lot of the scripts have an on-page form for your email and that of the recipient. I chose Bluesend partly because it uses a pop-up form instead of taking up so much space on my site's pages. That also allowed my to design the "recommend this site" button to match the look and feel of the rest of the site.

[nuclei]

take a look at the one on perlcoders.com

[Brett_Tabke]

Welcome to the board Denis. Ever consider using one of the greeting card programs that can send "cards"? It's an html email file.

[rogerd]

To second mivox, avoid scripts that could sound like spam. One script I looked at used an email subject something like, "Important Information for You!" - just about guaranteed to get deleted without reading...

[Denise]

Many thanks to you all.

We are already using a slightly modified script from the BigNoseBIrd site, but the text based email looks a bit plain. However, as Rogerd points out many people dislike HTML based emails so I think I should bear this in mind.