Live data from Hacker News

Block and Unsubscribe

gmailblog.blogspot.com

81–90 of 131 posts

Re: Block and Unsubscribe

#81
post #50

Hilton hotels, can't unsubscribe because of account login forced. This is my new fix!

It's amazing how many unsubscribe links, which are mandated by law, are broken or flaky. I just "report spam" now when that happens, and it totally works. No regrets.

Several people have responded to this recommending restraint with the "Spam" button. I disagree. I work for an email service provider; if our customers have a bad unsubscribe method, sometimes the only way to communicate that is to give them a higher complaint rate by clicking "Spam". The customer then comes to us to ask what's wrong, then we analyze their setup and tell them.

In the short term, spam complaints hurt reputation and reduce deliverability, but if a sender is failing to employ email best practices, can they be surprised if they don't have the best results?

Re: Block and Unsubscribe

#82
post #72
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how many unsubscribe links, which are mandated by law, are broken or flaky. I just "report spam" now when that happens, and it totally works. No regrets.

I can see how people get annoyed (I do), but I think this strategy is harmful to some companies. For example, I work for a web company that sends out a LOT of emails as reminders for events. ISPs (or some other web intermediary, I'm not sure) have rankings based on your likelihood to spam. A lot of spammy emails are already caught in the filter, and either don't go through or go to your spam folder. We work pretty ha…

If the company does not let me unsubscribe in a single click, then i don`t care, easy as that.

If i receive unwanted email that i can not easily get rid of, then it is enough for me to consider it spam.

Re: Block and Unsubscribe

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People use the Report Spam button on things that they explicitly signed up for all the time, and Gmail has adjusted its behavior to match how users use it rather than try to persuade them to instead do the right thing.

Opt-out lists are a big issue. A checkbox hidden somewhere that's enabled by default doesn't mean that "I have subscribed" to the mailing list, both in the common sense and also is prohibited in many legal jurisdictions (not USA, AFAIK), leaving a default checkbox simply doesn't count as obtaining consent, it is a well known 'dark UI pattern' that even the consumer protection laws have understood and explicitly imple…

I'm the author of a product and in some situation I have subscribed former users to a one-off email. It's gray area since it was to notify them about a major release/change, it was written in my T&C and sign up form, but honestly it would feel legitimate if they marked my email as undesired/spam.

Out of 900 recipients, 1 marked it as spam, 18 unsubscribed. I believe people are very tolerant and they could use "spam & blame" a lot more.

Re: Block and Unsubscribe

#84
post #72
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how many unsubscribe links, which are mandated by law, are broken or flaky. I just "report spam" now when that happens, and it totally works. No regrets.

I can see how people get annoyed (I do), but I think this strategy is harmful to some companies. For example, I work for a web company that sends out a LOT of emails as reminders for events. ISPs (or some other web intermediary, I'm not sure) have rankings based on your likelihood to spam. A lot of spammy emails are already caught in the filter, and either don't go through or go to your spam folder. We work pretty ha…

Consider it a message from your customers that you're doing email incorrectly. If your service is indistinguishable to customers from an unsolicited bulk commercial email sender, you've doubtless got some tweaks to make to improve that distinction.

Re: Block and Unsubscribe

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People use the Report Spam button on things that they explicitly signed up for all the time, and Gmail has adjusted its behavior to match how users use it rather than try to persuade them to instead do the right thing.

"The right thing". The right thing is to not register me to these spam mailing lists in the first place. I did not register, ergo they are spam, and should be blocked from spamming other people. "Report spam" is exactly the correct behavior I intended when I clicked on it.

The point is people click spam even on things they did register for.

Re: Block and Unsubscribe

#86
post #3

Does anyone know how the unsubscribe feature works? Does it follow the unsubscribe link in the email, or does it use some other mechanism?

The post says the Unsubscribe feature is coming to Android, but will it be also available in regular Gmail?

That's where it started. Open a marketing message, look at the from line. If they're implementing it, you'll see "Marketer name" Unsubscribe

Re: Block and Unsubscribe

#87
I've been getting 2-3 emails per year from a recruiting company. Each time I respond telling them to "REMOVE ME", but never hear back.

This feature will help, but does leave me feeling like no justice has been done.

Re: Block and Unsubscribe

#88
post #87

I've been getting 2-3 emails per year from a recruiting company. Each time I respond telling them to "REMOVE ME", but never hear back. This feature will help, but does leave me feeling like no justice has been done.

One would imagine that when google receives enough block and/or unsubscribe clicks from their users that they would eventually ban that sender from contacting any gmail addresses in the future.

Re: Block and Unsubscribe

#89
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opt-out lists are a big issue. A checkbox hidden somewhere that's enabled by default doesn't mean that "I have subscribed" to the mailing list, both in the common sense and also is prohibited in many legal jurisdictions (not USA, AFAIK), leaving a default checkbox simply doesn't count as obtaining consent, it is a well known 'dark UI pattern' that even the consumer protection laws have understood and explicitly imple…

I'm the author of a product and in some situation I have subscribed former users to a one-off email. It's gray area since it was to notify them about a major release/change, it was written in my T&C and sign up form, but honestly it would feel legitimate if they marked my email as undesired/spam. Out of 900 recipients, 1 marked it as spam, 18 unsubscribed. I believe people are very tolerant and they could use "spam &…

I think your situation is different; you're not subscribing them to a newsletter. Your communication is reasonable for a typical business relationship. (and is protected under CAN-SPAM)

Re: Block and Unsubscribe

#90
Speaking of spam, the wedding industry is the worst offender I've ever seen; worse than porn websites. I've had my email address web spider-able for many years, but never seen as much spam as I have while planning a wedding. These venues and vendors take your information and sell it 2 seconds later to anyone and everyone. One venue, for example, I emailed to set up a visit and meeting. This wasn't some web form, it was me emailing them directly. Suddenly I'm subscribed to their newsletter. That was quite novel; they now rot in my spam folder.

Beyond that, after all this contact with venues, vendors, and bridal shows I'm now being bombarded with email spam, text spam, and worst of all phone calls from scam artists. The last one in particular is disturbing and makes it clear that these wedding related companies are selling information like there's no tomorrow. Disgusting.

Post reply on HN