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Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe

news.ycombinator.com

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

#51

Post by flippyhead »

ryanbrunner wrote: post #42
koudi wrote: post #28

This 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 "…

The typical reason is that there's a whole host of systems that might be sending e-mail on behalf of the company, so there might be some delay (generally far less than 30 days) for it to flow through whatever integrations are set up, and hey - since there's going to be a delay anyway, why potentially shoot yourself in the foot by giving yourself less than what you're entitled to by law?

That's possible. But if DNS changes can propagate throughout the entire world in 24 hours, seems like removing my email from a bunch of Internet databases could too.

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

#52

Post by delroth »

vidarh wrote: post #35
koudi wrote: post #28

This 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 "…

> What could possibly take 30 business days to unsubscribe email? This is evil. Companies can, and do, take out lists of subscribers and pass them to agencies to run campaigns for them, with potentially long lead times. Still stupid, but that's usually the reason. Regarding standard, the List-Unsubscribe: header is sort-of that. It's not used much because there's little reason to - most clients don't do anything with…

Gmail does use List-Unsubscribe: when you mark as spam a mail which has a valid List-Unsubscribe header, it will ask you if you want to unsubscribe instead, and will handle the unsubscribe request automatically.

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

#53

Post by scosman »

Reminder: some updates are needed regardless of unsubscribe state (such as change of TOS and changes to pricing). These are allowed under CAN-SPAM.

If you are still a user (you unsubscribed but didn't delete your account), expect much less mail, but not quite zero.

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

#55

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Daniel_Newby wrote: post #47
fibbery wrote: post #36

Earlier 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.

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.

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

#56

Post by chrismcb »

Daniel_Newby wrote: post #47
fibbery wrote: post #36

Earlier 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.

What speech or press is being abridged?

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

#57

Post by stuartd »

dmak wrote: post #54

I usually just resort to the report spam button if I have to login.

I've been experimenting with using the Report Spam button to avoid Reverse Identity Theft - http://xkcd.com/1279/ - for fuckwits who sign up for stuff using my email address. It's a lot easier than doing a reset password and then unsubscribing or changing the registered email address to fuckwit@example.com

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

#59

Post by Satoshietal »

Especially when your email address has been signed up to dozens of mailing lists as some sort of perverted revenge via spam. I can't log in because I didn't create the account. The developer is doubly at fault for allowing an account to be created without confirming the email address.

My revenge is training Gmail that email from such senders is Junk and Spam. Eventually Gmail dumps them automatically, hopefully for everyone.

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