blockchain is a legit technology what's with the hate?
Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails
101–110 of 143 posts
Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
With such a high rate of ICO fraud, how can you blame them? They don’t want to be held liable in the numerous lawsuits that are to come. They also shouldn’t be burdened with doing due diligence for every ICO to dertermine if they might be aiding and abetting fraud. It’s probably temporary until there is some regulatory guidance in place.
IANAL, is this a real risk? This sounds like suing a paper company for a ransom note written on it's paper. You can bring a suit for nearly anything but it feels like there would be a lot of precedent to immediately dismiss it.
Nah, I don't think they're in any legal risk. I'm sure their ToS says they can shut down anyone who uses their service for any reason. In addition, it's not like this is an overnight move or they're deleting people's information -- they're giving them weeks which should be more than enough time for affected customers to migrate to a different service.
Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree with this, not from the moral arguments that you are making, but from the importance you're seemingly placing on this vertical. E-mail delivery and marketing services are by far the most open market of those that you've listed. For example, - Google has locked in publishers, so by banning blockchain ads, an advertiser knows their ad will never appear on a given set publishers. No way around that other than…
Mailchimp's business is specifically to get around spam filters. An ICO only email company would be almost useless without being able to leverage all the 'legitimate' traffic to lower their profile.
But they are not just banning ICO-related businesses. They are banning all businesses involved with cryptocurrencies. That seems pretty heavy-handed.
Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The most likely reason the spam filters go crazy because there is a huge amount of bona-fide ICO and blockchain related spam, and they can't tell the difference between that and emails that users actually want.
Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails
#105When 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…
> they are directly censoring what companies can share with their customers and what they cannot. This feels incredibly intrusive whether you are a fan of blockchain tech or not.
Good!
They can censor/ban whatever they want. I like it when a company takes a stand and doesn't hide behind "free speech" as their reason for not maintaining any standards.
Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> Not if you don't want to deal with antispam bullshit, you don't.
The entire point of this move is part of their "dealing with antispam bullshit" service. What Mailchimp offers is not mail delivery. Anyone could provide that cheaply at near-unlimited scale. What they offer is the opportunity to piggyback on their good reputation as senders. Maintaining that reputation is necessary for the operation of the business.
> just deal with the fact that many of your messages will never arrive
This isn't quite right. It's more that your messages will be rejected at the destination.
I go through my mail once every couple of days, and I've learned to recognize "refinance with us" or "sell your house" mail by sight and throw it away unopened. Now, if I see an envelope that says (for instance) "Internal Revenue Service", I'm going to open it up. That's because of the good reputation (in a certain sense) of the sender.
The mortgage people could slap "IRS" on their mail and have a lot more people open it and read it. They would also have a number of stern, suited people come by to discuss federal law with them. But that wouldn't be censorship. It's not censorship to withhold your endorsement of someone else's communications.
Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> Not if you don't want to deal with antispam bullshit, you don't.
So, in a way, Mailchimp is actually in the business of getting around censorship in the form of spam filters?
That's where people should be directing their ire, those anti-free speech spam filters that prevent an honest businessperson from filling up their inbox with a multitude of "great offers".
Oppression in the first degree, that's what I call it...
Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails
#108Well, guess I am shutting down my mailchimp account for this reason. I planned on using it for my marketing purposes but I guess I will go with leadpages or DIY. Anyone have any ideas for alternatives?
Drip
Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Yes, if you want to send bulk email you'll need to play by the rules of the receiving servers. It's not easy but it's doable, as evidenced by the multitude of Mailchimp competitors and self-hosted systems like Sendy.
Just because it's not as easy as using `` doesn't mean Mailchimp has some kind of monopoly that makes their acceptable use policy the same thing as censorship.
Re: Mailchimp Is Shutting Down ICO and Blockchain-Related Emails
#110It makes more sense if you consider that accounts relating more directly to cryptocurrencies and ICOs are juicier targets for spear-phishers, which makes Mailchimp a target for social engineering and direct intrusion.
If there is an account that announces a sale on semigloss paint at Brick'N'Mortar's this Saturday, that's not much for Mr. Blackhat to work with. If there's an account that announces that phase 2 of their ICO is going live this Saturday, Mr. Blackhat might want to hack in and send out an "update" just as that is happening, to trick people into sending Bitcoin into his own account, while also preventing legit e-mails from going out.
It's not just that ICOs and cryptocurrency mailings are more likely to be spam. Information-based money transfer systems allow manipulation of information to be more easily monetized, which puts an information-dissemination hub at greater risk.