Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 386 posts

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#151

Post by ryukoposting »

danny_taco wrote: post #9

In my experience it doesn't do much. For example, I made the mistake of contributing to the campaign of a politician. Now I get texts from candidates all over the country. If I reply STOP to one, I just get sent more texts from another number, for another candidate in another state. I just got tired of replying with STOP after the 20th time. This just guarantees I'm never giving any money to any candidate ever again.

One of the blessings of having a loved one in politics is that I know who is/isn't selling their lists. There's only a small handful of organizations who adhere to a firm "no list buying, no list selling" policy. Whoever you donated to apparently has dreadful data ethics. Once your number is in a major political/nonprofit consultancy's database, they'll happily hand it out to all of their other clients. You have to trust that the campaign you support isn't going to give them that data... which is, of course, impossible to know from the outside.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#152

Post by jbaber »

solardev wrote: post #56
danny_taco wrote: post #9

In my experience it doesn't do much. For example, I made the mistake of contributing to the campaign of a politician. Now I get texts from candidates all over the country. If I reply STOP to one, I just get sent more texts from another number, for another candidate in another state. I just got tired of replying with STOP after the 20th time. This just guarantees I'm never giving any money to any candidate ever again.

In a previous election cycle, I made the mistake of donating a few thousand dollars to several candidates. Since then, I get spammed through the year, and close to a major election, it's dozens of emails and phone calls and text messages every week. Thankfully, Gmail catches 99% of the spam emails and my Pixel phone filters out spam texts and calls. It has a built-in Google Assistant mode that screens unknown callers…

This last idea is good. If the machine can somehow be convinced it's actually financially detrimental to contact me, it could do some good.

It takes advantage of a difference from regular spam where there's nothing the spammer would dislike you to do.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#153

Post by falcor84 »

MaxMatti wrote: post #142
buildbuildbuild wrote: post #135

Beware the edge case: I responded STOP to a message years ago, then was unable to receive SMS from a popular money transmission app during the signup flow to claim funds that a friend sent me. After over a month of troubleshooting, it turns out that I had sent "STOP" to that number years ago on a different device (no longer visible in chat history) and now had to send "UNSTOP" in order to receive the phone verificati…

Wouldn't that also apply if you blocked the number?

Unblocking might be faster, as it's something you only need to do on your end

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#154

Post by rascul »

jbaber wrote: post #148
jeremyjh wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its true in the US; its mandated by law that they comply.

Wait. Really? I had no idea this is true. You're saying there's a US law that means replying STOP is intercepted by verizon/T-mobile/etc. and the sender never has to see it?

I don't know if it's true either. I often get confirmations from the same number that I want to stop.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#155

Post by pixelatedindex »

buildbuildbuild wrote: post #135

Beware the edge case: I responded STOP to a message years ago, then was unable to receive SMS from a popular money transmission app during the signup flow to claim funds that a friend sent me. After over a month of troubleshooting, it turns out that I had sent "STOP" to that number years ago on a different device (no longer visible in chat history) and now had to send "UNSTOP" in order to receive the phone verificati…

Just wanted to say that I find it curious that you have to text “UNSTOP” and not something like “START”, lol

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#156

Post by brookst »

adastra22 wrote: post #121
addicted wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately political messages have an exception in the laws involved here. Also, my understanding is that this isn’t even a case of the politicians making an exception for themselves but for this being protected speech, so there are legal issues with blocking it without the kind of majorities American congress is not capable of anymore.

I don't see how there could be an argument for protected speech here. The constitution protects your ability to petition the government, not the government's ability to petition you.

I don’t know if the claim is true, but if it is, it’s likely an intentional loophole because the people writing the laws would want to exempt themselves.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#157

Post by lvkv »

pixelatedindex wrote: post #155
buildbuildbuild wrote: post #135

Beware the edge case: I responded STOP to a message years ago, then was unable to receive SMS from a popular money transmission app during the signup flow to claim funds that a friend sent me. After over a month of troubleshooting, it turns out that I had sent "STOP" to that number years ago on a different device (no longer visible in chat history) and now had to send "UNSTOP" in order to receive the phone verificati…

Just wanted to say that I find it curious that you have to text “UNSTOP” and not something like “START”, lol

Unfortunately, the world is opt-out, not opt-in.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#158

Post by trollbridge »

sharpshadow wrote: post #85
danny_taco wrote: post #9

In my experience it doesn't do much. For example, I made the mistake of contributing to the campaign of a politician. Now I get texts from candidates all over the country. If I reply STOP to one, I just get sent more texts from another number, for another candidate in another state. I just got tired of replying with STOP after the 20th time. This just guarantees I'm never giving any money to any candidate ever again.

Why is it necessary to give them your number if you do a donation? It seems many here have the same negative experiences. Is it an optional field? If not one could practically enter any digits or can one get punished for that?

Your phone number and e-mail address are more valuable to ActBlue than that $20 was.

The credit card input screen was just there to make you feel comfortable consenting to endless SMS texts for life.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#159

Post by dspillett »

pixelatedindex wrote: post #155
buildbuildbuild wrote: post #135

Beware the edge case: I responded STOP to a message years ago, then was unable to receive SMS from a popular money transmission app during the signup flow to claim funds that a friend sent me. After over a month of troubleshooting, it turns out that I had sent "STOP" to that number years ago on a different device (no longer visible in chat history) and now had to send "UNSTOP" in order to receive the phone verificati…

Just wanted to say that I find it curious that you have to text “UNSTOP” and not something like “START”, lol

There probably is a START instruction internally, but it won't take action against a number for which there has been a previous STOP. So UNSTOP acts like FORCE START.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#160

Post by sim7c00 »

pixelatedindex wrote: post #155
buildbuildbuild wrote: post #135

Beware the edge case: I responded STOP to a message years ago, then was unable to receive SMS from a popular money transmission app during the signup flow to claim funds that a friend sent me. After over a month of troubleshooting, it turns out that I had sent "STOP" to that number years ago on a different device (no longer visible in chat history) and now had to send "UNSTOP" in order to receive the phone verificati…

Just wanted to say that I find it curious that you have to text “UNSTOP” and not something like “START”, lol

it's because of ungood design
Post reply on HN