Preventing Unsubscribes in Forwarded Emails • Hacker News Board

Re: Preventing Unsubscribes in Forwarded Emails

#41

Post by DanBC » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 12:42 AM UTC

> The Litmus team discovered these silent unsubscribers when they noticed a long-time fan removed himself from the Litmus newsletter after sharing an email with 85 of his coworkers.

What an idiot.

People here seem to think unsubs might be malicious; they don't seem to think that people getting email don't want it and just click any unsub link they see. Don't forget that the vast majority of people are hopeless with computers.

Anyone sending email to me along with 85 other people, especially if it's something like the Litmus product, is going to annoy the fuck out of me.

Re: Preventing Unsubscribes in Forwarded Emails

#42

Post by kintamanimatt » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 12:51 AM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #41

> The Litmus team discovered these silent unsubscribers when they noticed a long-time fan removed himself from the Litmus newsletter after sharing an email with 85 of his coworkers. What an idiot. People here seem to think unsubs might be malicious; they don't seem to think that people getting email don't want it and just click any unsub link they see. Don't forget that the vast majority of people are hopeless with c…

I'll admit I've clicked the unsubscribe link in a bid to stop the original sender from getting emails that they subsequently forwarded to me. Worked like a charm and prevented them from getting upset when their upset would have caused trouble.

Re: Preventing Unsubscribes in Forwarded Emails

#43

Post by signed0 » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 12:54 AM UTC

eru wrote: post #40

signed0 wrote: post #28

What if instead one just focused on lowering the amount of times someone forwards an email containing an unsubscribe link. Perhaps a "send to a friend" link in the email would help?

But I like my email client (say gmail), I don't want to use someone else's half-baked solution. And especially the highly engaged users would have to copy-and-paste the 85 email addresses they forward to.

Could the site just generate a really long mailto:// url?

Re: Preventing Unsubscribes in Forwarded Emails

#44

Post by lessnonymous » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 12:55 AM UTC

signed0 wrote: post #28

What if instead one just focused on lowering the amount of times someone forwards an email containing an unsubscribe link. Perhaps a "send to a friend" link in the email would help?

This link is common in these emails. But as a user it's annoying as all the people I'd forward it to are in my address book.

Plus I don't trust you with these email addresses. I'll send the email on thankyouverymuch.

Re: Preventing Unsubscribes in Forwarded Emails

#45

Post by kfury » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 12:59 AM UTC

Can you imagine the abuse? You forward a cat video and they see 'Help I'm trapped in a strange city and need money!'?

Re: Preventing Unsubscribes in Forwarded Emails

#46

Post by zeckalpha » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 1:07 AM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #10

It seems a bit scary that forwarded mails can be changed. As a spammer, send something interesting and make it an ad when forwarded?

Sending something interesting is a hard problem.

Re: Preventing Unsubscribes in Forwarded Emails

#47

Post by signed0 » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 1:17 AM UTC

lessnonymous wrote: post #44

signed0 wrote: post #28

What if instead one just focused on lowering the amount of times someone forwards an email containing an unsubscribe link. Perhaps a "send to a friend" link in the email would help?

This link is common in these emails. But as a user it's annoying as all the people I'd forward it to are in my address book. Plus I don't trust you with these email addresses. I'll send the email on thankyouverymuch.

I'd imagine people that mass forward an advert they receive are much more trusting.

Re: Preventing Unsubscribes in Forwarded Emails

#48

Post by nemetroid » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 1:38 AM UTC

I like this one (with a mailto link):

> To unsubscribe, send an empty message to unsubscribe@...

Though it might be difficult to understand for less technically minded users, and might be a problem if you don't know what address the mail was sent to.

Re: Preventing Unsubscribes in Forwarded Emails

#49

Post by jonknee » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 1:41 AM UTC

andrewreds wrote: post #23

jlgreco wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Particularly when the subscribed user has several email accounts that all forward to another. It is a pain in the ass to click back and figure out exactly which address something came from.

Would this really be a problem? If you have a look at the article, linked from the article, they are hiding the un-subscribe link when the link is inside quotes. For me, the emails that get forwarded to different accounts (due to email rules), don't have quotes, so the link will show. But pressing the forward button will put quotes around the entire email, so the link won't be shown. In saying that, there are probabl…

I have run into this several times. Always very annoying. I have many accounts in a desktop app and a unified inbox.

Re: Preventing Unsubscribes in Forwarded Emails

#50

Post by eru » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 1:49 AM UTC

signed0 wrote: post #43

eru wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I like my email client (say gmail), I don't want to use someone else's half-baked solution. And especially the highly engaged users would have to copy-and-paste the 85 email addresses they forward to.

Could the site just generate a really long mailto:// url?

You somehow have to tell the site which people to forward to. How do you get the information there?