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Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe
91–100 of 137 posts
Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe
#92Hear, hear. If you're worried about legit customers getting unsubscribed against their will (because that is TOTALLY a significant occurrence...), you can have a dual approach. Unsubscribing without authentication sends one final message which has an undo link; unsubscribing while authenticated shows a confirmation on the site instead of the inbox. I know, the "Here's an email to confirm that you hate our emails" mes…
If your unsubscribe links are something impossible to guess (e.g., "https://example.com/spam/unsubscribe?d=, randomly generated string, which is a key into your DB>"), how could someone possibly get unsubscribed against their will?
Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been doing this for years and don't feel the least bit bad about it, and I think everyone should adopt this practice. If marking as spam or unsubscribing are approximately equal effort, I will unsubscribe; if unsubscribing is even slightly more difficult than marking as spam, I mark as spam with no regrets. Even if you don't force me to login but make me do some monkey trick like type "CANCEL" into a box => spam…
It's not because you have no regrets that it's ethical. Even if it's a company like LinkedIn that makes it hard to unsubscribe, your input pollutes the anti-spamming algorythms with semi-legit emails. There are clearly millions of people who are fine with getting LinkedIn messages, and you're just being an ass, like putting your half-eaten burger into the recycling bin because the garbage bin was further out. Someone…
That is a problem for the anti-spam algorithms that need to figure out who will consider what to be spam.
Spam is in the eye of the recipient. If you send me marketing emails that I do not want, it is spam. Even if someone else would want it.
If people didn't mark stuff as spam, then there would be absolutely no reason for marketing people not to send spam to everyone. Even if only one person in 10,000 wants to read it, why not? But the option of marking stuff as spam is a way of making my attention as not free for you.
Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe
#94Companies like LinkedIn are training users (at least me) to report as spam instead of unsubscribing because it's an exercise in futility to try to opt-out of their spam.
Also Amazon. There are certain emails for certain account types (eg Student Prime, Affiliates) they do not let you opt out of, period. The only way to stop the email is to close your account. Gmail has done a great job of filtering them as spam though and letting non-spam (eg order confirmation) through.
Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not because you have no regrets that it's ethical. Even if it's a company like LinkedIn that makes it hard to unsubscribe, your input pollutes the anti-spamming algorythms with semi-legit emails. There are clearly millions of people who are fine with getting LinkedIn messages, and you're just being an ass, like putting your half-eaten burger into the recycling bin because the garbage bin was further out. Someone…
That is a problem for the anti-spam algorithms that need to figure out who will consider what to be spam. Spam is in the eye of the recipient. If you send me marketing emails that I do not want, it is spam. Even if someone else would want it. If people didn't mark stuff as spam, then there would be absolutely no reason for marketing people not to send spam to everyone. Even if only one person in 10,000 wants to read…
Seems to me that it's helping the anti-spam algorithms by marking spam as spam
Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe
#96This is really annoying. What I find more annoying is response like "We will process your request within 30 business days." (and after that period receive another spam). What could possibly take 30 business days to unsubscribe email? This is evil. I would also like to see some sort of standard - like email header with link, that would unsubscribe you. Outlook/thunderbird/etc could just show button (probably next to "…
I assume you're over-exaggerating unsubs that say "up to 10 days". That's because the CAN-SPAM act requires that they be processed within 10 days.
Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe
#97It's also a violation of the CAN-SPAM act: http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-complia... If I try to unsubscribe from an email list and am presented with a login prompt, I report the sender as spam without an instant of hesitation or regret.
No it's not. There is nothing in the CAN-SPAM act that requires you to allow unsubscribing without logging in.
Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
The good guys don't send me mail I didn't ask for.
No, but they send you mail that you inadvertently asked for, and mail that you initially asked for but have since decided that you no longer want.
"mail that you inadvertently asked for" IS spam.
Personally I give them the benefit of the doubt and try to unsubscribe with ONE click.
There is no good reason to make people click more than once.
Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe
#99I share a name with dozens of people who all seem to have a common issue - they can't spell their own email address, so they use mine.
This means it's impossible for me to unsubscribe from all sorts of things, since 'forgot my password' with a lot of places requires a birthday, access to the phone that's on the account, answers to security questions, etc. etc.
If I click 'unsubscribe' and get asked to log in? I just go back and click 'Report Spam'.
Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
What constitutional right is being violated here?
No right is being violated. It is a breach of duty: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press". Even ignoring the first amendment, there is no enabling clause that grants the general power to regulate communication.
Regulating commercial speech is constitutional under the Commerce Clause.
CAN-SPAM doesn't apply to political or non-profit organizations.