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Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe

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121–130 of 137 posts

Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe

#123
post #119
post #21

Companies 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.

Why not just write an email filter to send all emails from them to the trash?

Alternatively, email filter to forward said mail to their CEO. This was my last resort for: from:(@ashampoo.com), as I got tired of sending my 10th unsubscribe request to their technical staff, support, ubsubscribing from their "official unsubscribe website", and marking every mail from them as spam.

Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand is that many big companies have been forcing you to login to unsubscribe for years, without penalty. Ex: American Airlines. Also FBO.GOV forces you to login, which is mildly amusing because it's the government itself.

Fox News and related entities are serious transgressors here. I've clicked unsubscribe links only to be taken to signup pages full of ads, which had nothing to do with the mailing list.

Can't you sue then in the small claims court for that?

Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe

#125
post #118

Not that I'm supporting login-to-unsubscribe system, but wouldn't requring just an email to unsubscribe allow anyone to unsubscribe you?

Not if there is a unique key encoded into the unsub mail. E.g.: unsub-73A6F7S-you=at=example.com@mydomain.com

Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe

#126

Earlier 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…

The nice thing about Bayesian algorithms is that they are probailistic. If only a couple people flag as spam, it will have little effect on everyone's filtering algorithms. If, on the other hand, enough people have trouble unsubscribing to make this a serious "problem" then the email is arguably spam.

Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fox News and related entities are serious transgressors here. I've clicked unsubscribe links only to be taken to signup pages full of ads, which had nothing to do with the mailing list.

Can't you sue then in the small claims court for that?

If I can, then a class action could probably be substantiated. They deserve it - this mailing list shenanigan was among the most egregious I've ever seen.

Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe

#128
post #21

Companies 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.

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…

You should generally do Report Spam,at least I do that. If the email was sent from something you didn't actually subscribe, hitting unsubscribe tells the spammer that the email id is in fact genuine which will ultimately get you more spam.

Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe

#129
If you're using gmail, just use the "filter messages like this" feature to make messages from the given address skip the inbox or be deleted on arrival.

So there's no reason to ever have to deal with the unsubscribe links in emails. It puzzles me that people that people who use gmail still complain about this stuff. Do people not know about this feature?

Re: Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are you saying that the CAN-SPAM act is abridging someone's freedom of speech? Whose? You may have the right to speak but you don't have a right to force the populous to listen. Communication is two way, spam is one-way.

The person sending the spam.

You have the right to expose people to communications with no Congressional control whatever. Congress shall make no law. You may shout on a street corner, you may set up a PA system until your neighbors are driven to madness, you may place pornography on a billboard, etc. Congress can do nothing to stop it.

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