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Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

please-unsubscribe.com

161–170 of 256 posts

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#161
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also a longtime Fastmail user, and I do tend to notice Way More spam and more serious phishing emails.

There are benefits to centralisation, one of which is Google's access to all Gmail spam reports I still prefer to keep my stuff away from Google's grubby hands though. Fastmail's spam filter does get better the longer you train it

Which can be massaged.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#162
Looks interesting.

I've been using https://33mail.com/ to solve this problem for a few years, seems like this service might be complimentary. 33mail was created by my brother and currently handles about 3.2 million emails per month.

Instead of signing up with your real email address, you just create an alias like foo@s4n1ty.33mail.com and use that (where "foo" may be the name of the website, or anything else you make up).

33Mail forwards any emails directly to your normal email account, but if you start getting spammed then you can block the alias. It has the added benefit that if your email alias finds its way on to an email spammers' list then you know who gave it to them.

The basic service is free but if you want additional features like a custom email domain you can sign up for a premium account for $1/month.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#163
post #112

I created a similar service earlier this year which runs on exactly the same idea (forwarding emails to unsubscribe to them). It's nice to see some validation for the idea on HN. I've attacked the problem from a different angle though - I've tried to automate the service a lot more. Automatically looking for the unsubscribe button and filling out any HTML forms that appear etc. It doesn't always work but it's been fu…

Hi @pyepye,

I tried signing up on your website but I have the following error :

An uncaught exception happened while servicing this request

link to a screenshot : https://imgur.com/a/ph8RrO1

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#164

Btw, how specific is the American CAN-SPAM act in terms of how the unsubscribe link should work? In my country I sometimes get emails with unsubscribe links that require you to log in first, which can be a pain to pull out the credentials when you don't really remember signing up for it in the first place. Does CAN-SPAM specify, say, that an unsubscribe link 1)must not require a login? 2)must lead to completion of th…

Yes, what they're doing is illegal. [1] § 316.5 Prohibition on charging a fee or imposing other requirements on recipients who wish to opt out. Neither a sender nor any person acting on behalf of a sender may require that any recipient pay any fee, provide any information other than the recipient's electronic mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any other steps except sending a reply electronic mail message…

I recently opted out of one where they gave me a list of opt-out choices, with the default being "I still wish to receive this information". If I was on autopilot I would have submitted it. It seems to follow the letter of the law but feels pretty sleazy.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#165
post #112

I created a similar service earlier this year which runs on exactly the same idea (forwarding emails to unsubscribe to them). It's nice to see some validation for the idea on HN. I've attacked the problem from a different angle though - I've tried to automate the service a lot more. Automatically looking for the unsubscribe button and filling out any HTML forms that appear etc. It doesn't always work but it's been fu…

Yours is much better/cheaper

Cheaper sure, but definitely not better.

An automated system can't compare to an actual human, a human won't fail because the markup changed.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#166
post #112

I created a similar service earlier this year which runs on exactly the same idea (forwarding emails to unsubscribe to them). It's nice to see some validation for the idea on HN. I've attacked the problem from a different angle though - I've tried to automate the service a lot more. Automatically looking for the unsubscribe button and filling out any HTML forms that appear etc. It doesn't always work but it's been fu…

Thank you for sharing! I plan to try both services.

Wondering if the HN Hug Of Death strikes again... can’t sign up due to an uncaught exception. Will try again later.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#167
post #112

I created a similar service earlier this year which runs on exactly the same idea (forwarding emails to unsubscribe to them). It's nice to see some validation for the idea on HN. I've attacked the problem from a different angle though - I've tried to automate the service a lot more. Automatically looking for the unsubscribe button and filling out any HTML forms that appear etc. It doesn't always work but it's been fu…

Looks like service has gotten the HN kiss of death!

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#169

Btw, how specific is the American CAN-SPAM act in terms of how the unsubscribe link should work? In my country I sometimes get emails with unsubscribe links that require you to log in first, which can be a pain to pull out the credentials when you don't really remember signing up for it in the first place. Does CAN-SPAM specify, say, that an unsubscribe link 1)must not require a login? 2)must lead to completion of th…

Yes, what they're doing is illegal. [1] § 316.5 Prohibition on charging a fee or imposing other requirements on recipients who wish to opt out. Neither a sender nor any person acting on behalf of a sender may require that any recipient pay any fee, provide any information other than the recipient's electronic mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any other steps except sending a reply electronic mail message…

Interesting. That means that Twitter's implementation is one that is against the law, as it required me to log in before I could unsubscribe. It also only unsubscribed me from "that type of email", so lo and behold, more spam arrived a few days later.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#170
post #157

If you disable "load remote content" in your email client, all spam eventually stops.

As someone with this disabled for 15+ years on lots of different accounts/domains/services: this is definitely not the case.

It's possible there's less than there would otherwise be (impossible to know), and it's a really good idea to disable either way. Same with read receipts - I'm not sure if they're used for spam, but their mere existence is just obnoxious and rude.

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