CUNY Academic Commons

- What's the name of the plugin/theme?
MailPoet – aka "wysija" http://wordpress.org/plugins/wysija-newsletters/
- In a few words, what does it do?
Lets admins of a site design and distribute newsletters listing upcoming events, features, announcements, ...
- How is the plugin/theme different from what's already provided on the Commons?
We currently don't have newsletter functionality.
- What's the potential impact? Who will use it?
The Commons Dev team is planning several email blasts –(to CAC members and to CUNY-wide audience) and is looking for alternatives to MailChimp. This seems like it would be also used by other groups as well to reach non-logged in members. Impact = the Commons mail server. Will this negatively impact performance??
- Who initially made the request?
Scott Voth discussed with Community team and the team is looking for feedback from Dev team. The plugin is getting good press, and seems like it would be a good addition to the Commons list of plugins. Also would help in designing new email blasts planned for later this month.

- Who is the plugin author?
http://profiles.wordpress.org/benheu/
http://profiles.wordpress.org/mamaduka/

- Say a little bit about the release history and popularity of the plugin. How many times has it been downloaded? When was it last updated?
The plugin is now in Version 2.58 and receives 5 stars on the WordPress repository. It is actively being supported and has recently changed its name from wysija to MailPoet.