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Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails

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Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails

#91

Post by kristianc »

joshribakoff wrote: post #83
kristianc wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that the cost of Blockchain / ICO spam does not just fall on Mailchimp as a company, it falls on MailChimp's customers, who have to suffer through reduced email deliverability (for the same cost they are already paying). Other than that, MailChimp is a private company, not the government, and can damn well serve who they want.

They could use a dedicated shard of their IP addresses for sending high risk emails.

But why should they? Doing that brings very little upside for MailChimp and a lot of potential downside if Google decides to blacklist MailChimp's entire IP range.

And then they have to devote engineering / moderation resource to routing emails to the correct IP shard.

Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails

#92

Post by rocqua »

spamizbad wrote: post #36
stoev wrote: post #3

When Facebook banned blockchain-related ads it was understandable - they are a closed platform and can chose to accept whatever content they decide to. When Google banned blockchain-related ads it was a much more serious issue - millions of websites are supported by Google ads through AdSense and AdX. Google is the main revenue source of the vast majority of publishers on the open internet. It seems incredibly unfair…

Strongly disagree. A cornerstone of Mailchimp's value proposition is its email deliverability, and its one of the best in the industry at landing emails in people's inboxes. Anything that could compromise that reputation would be a huge blow to their business. ICO and blockchain emails can make spam filters go crazy, I've seen this first-hand. Mailchimp can't control how spam filters work, but it can control, in a br…

I'd guess that the spam filters probably go crazy because users actually mark this kind of email as spam. If so, this is the system working. People say something is spam, and less of that kind of email gets sent.

Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails

#93

Post by Karunamon »

simias wrote: post #60
stoev wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think those are two separate issues: Google has positioned itself to be the lifeline of the open internet and have profited tremendously from it. With that comes a responsibility to not censor content. Otherwise it stops being the "open" internet and becomes another walled garden with dubious rules that can change at any moment (e.g. Facebook). Mailchimp can do whatever they want, I agree, but as their customer I w…

I genuinely can't fathom this argument at all and it seems rather widespread in these parts. For one thing I'll keep strongly objecting to the use of "censorship" for something as mundane as this. It's a strong word, a private company saying that you can't do X or Y on its own turf is not censorship. If you tag the walls of a McDonalds and you get thrown out it's not censorship. If you're using Mailchimp and they say…

It's a strong word, a private company saying that you can't do X or Y on its own turf is not censorship

It absolutely is censorship. They may have every legal right to do it, but at the end of the day, they are restricting broad categories of speech, it's censorship, end of story.

Furthermore, "your own turf" never is and never has been a carte blanche to do anything you want - certain regulations and obligations, both moral and legal, kick in when you open a business to the public.

Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails

#94

Post by Karunamon »

simias wrote: post #55
tclancy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And we keep having these discussions where we all agree "It's not censorship when it's a private company" but that's starting to feel like a truism we need to push back on, because if every private company that handles mass emailing decides to stop accepting a certain type of content (let's all agree we aren't talking about child pornography as the content), that is censorship. If this story were, "T-Mobile stops all…

Email is an open infrastructure, if an consensus emerges among the existing players not to allow emails about X then you're free to start your own email service what will feel the gap. If you can't make it stick then the holy free market has spoken. Wikipedia is currently blocked in Turkey. That's censorship. Mailchimp won't let you use them to send emails about Bitcoin. That's a minor inconvenience.

Email is nominally an open infrastructure. In reality, antispam measures and companies can render you unable to send messages in general if you annoy them enough.

Spamhaus in particular seems to have a reputation for unreasonable practices and rather unpleasant-to-deal-with people.

Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails

#95

Post by chaz »

notahacker wrote: post #42
Veen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that no one is prohibited from creating a marketing automation (spam) organization to deliver ICO and blockchain information over email. In fact, anyone with an email server can do it. If there is a market for ICO and blockchain related email then MailChimp has just created a business opportunity for someone. What would be totalitarian is forcing a company like MailChimp to expose itself unwillingly…

I'd be surprised if someone, somewhere isn't marketing a "marketing automation delivered via blockchain" startup. :)

https://retainly.co/ico/

Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails

#96

Post by tehwebguy »

Karunamon wrote: post #93
simias wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I genuinely can't fathom this argument at all and it seems rather widespread in these parts. For one thing I'll keep strongly objecting to the use of "censorship" for something as mundane as this. It's a strong word, a private company saying that you can't do X or Y on its own turf is not censorship. If you tag the walls of a McDonalds and you get thrown out it's not censorship. If you're using Mailchimp and they say…

It's a strong word, a private company saying that you can't do X or Y on its own turf is not censorship It absolutely is censorship. They may have every legal right to do it, but at the end of the day, they are restricting broad categories of speech, it's censorship, end of story. Furthermore, "your own turf" never is and never has been a carte blanche to do anything you want - certain regulations and obligations, bo…

Again, if this is considered censorship then 100% of their acceptable use policy is also censorship.

Which, obviously, it's not.

Not only are there infinite other mailing list companies out there, you don't even need one. You can just send emails yourself if you want.

Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails

#97

Post by eco »

I filed two abuse reports with Mailchimp just in the last week over unsolicited ICO mailings. One was for an AIDS vaccine ICO (I don't even know what that means and I don't want to know).

I hear they also shut down some legit blockchain newsletters in this sweep though so that's unfortunate.

Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails

#98

Post by Karunamon »

tehwebguy wrote: post #96
Karunamon wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a strong word, a private company saying that you can't do X or Y on its own turf is not censorship It absolutely is censorship. They may have every legal right to do it, but at the end of the day, they are restricting broad categories of speech, it's censorship, end of story. Furthermore, "your own turf" never is and never has been a carte blanche to do anything you want - certain regulations and obligations, bo…

Again, if this is considered censorship then 100% of their acceptable use policy is also censorship. Which, obviously, it's not. Not only are there infinite other mailing list companies out there, you don't even need one. You can just send emails yourself if you want.

Not if you don't want to deal with antispam bullshit, you don't. Try spinning up a new server, do the usual PTR/DMARC/SPF dance, and send any large quantity of messages in an automated fashion - like a regular mailing list that people have affirmatively indicated they want. Many of them simply will not get there.

If this were not a problem, Mailchimp and friends wouldn't have a reason to exist. The reason I call this censorship is because your options for large-quantity emailing are to sign up with a company like this (and subject yourself to their terms), or just deal with the fact that many of your messages will never arrive.

Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails

#100

Post by wuliwong »

stoev wrote: post #3

When Facebook banned blockchain-related ads it was understandable - they are a closed platform and can chose to accept whatever content they decide to. When Google banned blockchain-related ads it was a much more serious issue - millions of websites are supported by Google ads through AdSense and AdX. Google is the main revenue source of the vast majority of publishers on the open internet. It seems incredibly unfair…

I agree and further promote alternative companies that do not censor cryptocurrency-related information.
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