Comments on: The New Spam: Broken Unsubscribe Methods http://foohack.com/2007/08/the-new-spam-broken-unsubscribe-methods/ Isaac Schlueter on Web Development Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:33:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Scott http://foohack.com/2007/08/the-new-spam-broken-unsubscribe-methods/#comment-725 Scott Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:48:44 +0000 http://foohack.com/2007/08/the-new-spam-broken-unsubscribe-methods/#comment-725 The greatest one I've had was an email to confirm my unsubscription. ("Thanks, you've been unsubscribed from our system and will not receive further emails", etc.) You eeediots, kill me now! After having migrated from a windows box earlier this year, I now have a special "reject" filter for companies that spam me; I figure a tersely-worded 550 response might at least get read by a human one day, in addition to making me feel somewhat smug. ;) The greatest one I’ve had was an email to confirm my unsubscription. (”Thanks, you’ve been unsubscribed from our system and will not receive further emails”, etc.) You eeediots, kill me now!

After having migrated from a windows box earlier this year, I now have a special “reject” filter for companies that spam me; I figure a tersely-worded 550 response might at least get read by a human one day, in addition to making me feel somewhat smug. ;)

]]> By: jdsharp.us http://foohack.com/2007/08/the-new-spam-broken-unsubscribe-methods/#comment-49 jdsharp.us Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:16:47 +0000 http://foohack.com/2007/08/the-new-spam-broken-unsubscribe-methods/#comment-49 Yes yes yes yes yes! I too am stuck in the Borders bookmailspecialforever! The last rant I have is once you click unsubscribe (not border's specific) is when they display "please allow 5-7 days for these changes to take effect". Please allow? No I don't allow, just fix it! Yes yes yes yes yes! I too am stuck in the Borders bookmailspecialforever! The last rant I have is once you click unsubscribe (not border’s specific) is when they display “please allow 5-7 days for these changes to take effect”. Please allow? No I don’t allow, just fix it!

]]> By: Isaac http://foohack.com/2007/08/the-new-spam-broken-unsubscribe-methods/#comment-44 Isaac Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:27:20 +0000 http://foohack.com/2007/08/the-new-spam-broken-unsubscribe-methods/#comment-44 @Peter Well, look on the bright side: if their server is down, then that might prevent them from sending you any more crap. And another one - Make it easy and simple to opt *in*, not tricky to opt *out*. <p><input type="checkbox"/> Don't not fail to leave this box unchecked unless you want to not stop not missing out on our special offers!</p> Please don't make me perform complex boolean algebra to make my decision. That's just going to convince me to shop elsewhere. @Peter Well, look on the bright side: if their server is down, then that might prevent them from sending you any more crap.

And another one - Make it easy and simple to opt *in*, not tricky to opt *out*.

Don’t not fail to leave this box unchecked unless you want to not stop not missing out on our special offers!

Please don’t make me perform complex boolean algebra to make my decision. That’s just going to convince me to shop elsewhere.

]]> By: Peter http://foohack.com/2007/08/the-new-spam-broken-unsubscribe-methods/#comment-42 Peter Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:47:58 +0000 http://foohack.com/2007/08/the-new-spam-broken-unsubscribe-methods/#comment-42 Yes, yes and yes. All good and true. As if to make the point, I got an email from a certain youth soccer organization this morning, clickced the link at the bottom that was supposed to allow me to get off their mailing list and got this response: Service Unavailable This server is temporarily unable toservice requests.(Internal-Reason: 3) Brilliant! This is from the cmpgnr.com service, whose home page is completely blank when JavaScript is disabled in my browser. Again - brilliant! :( Yes, yes and yes. All good and true.

As if to make the point, I got an email from a certain youth soccer organization this morning, clickced the link at the bottom that was supposed to allow me to get off their mailing list and got this response:

Service Unavailable
This server is temporarily unable toservice requests.(Internal-Reason: 3)

Brilliant! This is from the cmpgnr.com service, whose home page is completely blank when JavaScript is disabled in my browser. Again - brilliant!

:(

]]> By: Isaac http://foohack.com/2007/08/the-new-spam-broken-unsubscribe-methods/#comment-41 Isaac Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:54:11 +0000 http://foohack.com/2007/08/the-new-spam-broken-unsubscribe-methods/#comment-41 Yep, I've run into exactly the same thing before. I resorted to writing a PHP script that used the <a href="http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php" rel="nofollow">mail function</a> to unsubscribe. My solution is to have lots of forwarding addresses, and then when one of them starts getting abused, I just blackhole it. But that's kind of like having lots of hostages so that you don't mind killing a few. If it's the email address that friends and relatives use, then it's trickier. Yep, I’ve run into exactly the same thing before. I resorted to writing a PHP script that used the mail function to unsubscribe.

My solution is to have lots of forwarding addresses, and then when one of them starts getting abused, I just blackhole it. But that’s kind of like having lots of hostages so that you don’t mind killing a few. If it’s the email address that friends and relatives use, then it’s trickier.

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