Alessandro Vesely <vesely(_at_)tana(_dot_)it> wrote:
On 23/Sep/11 12:58, Richard Kulawiec wrote:
Opt-out is spamming. (Or conversely, any mailing list operated
without a proper opt-in procedure is a vehicle for spam.)
As factual as that assertion is,
Whether it is "factual" depends on how you define "opt-in".
There are those (like at least one US Senator I know) who define
"opt-out" as "I can subscribe you to any list I invent; and it's your
problem to figure out how to unsubscribe _and_ what risks that may
involve."
I think we all agree _that_ is spamming. (Well, perhaps not all US
senators: but I don't think there are any on this list.)
I consider that definition entirely too extreme. I think of
opt-out more along the lines of a "do-not-call" list, where you get
one listing defining that you don't want to be auto-subscribed to
_any_ mailing-list.
(Of course, that opens a grey area; since typically folks opt-in
by clicking a web link -- and that results in one email: and there's
really nothing to prevent spammers from anonymously generating those
clicks for a large number of target addresses...)
it must be said that opt-in lacks a required feature: any A who just
happened to invent B, want to notify the news to X, Y, and Z. Even if
A were able to sharply select prospects, they'd need an initial set
to select them from.
Actually, RSS _should_ be good for that...
Consider this (is it spam?)
Dear Xyz,
you receive this because you subscribed to the
Acme Customers Group. Now, we just happened to invent B!
Certainly, for probably the majority of recipients it _is_
unsolicited commercial email. But, of course, if they think kindly
of A -- and this is the only email notification concerning B, they
will probably forgive A.
IOW, opt-out implies the existence of some "fuzzy opt-in" set, which
can be built in widely different ways, e.g. interest lists/groups,
public directories, harvested addresses, million-address CDs, swiped
personal address books, et cetera.
Exactly!
Clearly, some interest groups are focused enough for some
"near-topic" announcements to be appropriate; while most lists of
harvested addresses are not.
But it's hard to convince amateur spammers that their pet project
isn't actually of interest to more than 50% of the general population.
(I tried once and failed, and had to fire that customer.)
It may be that most readers of this list prefer the extreme
definition that started this email. If so, I think any thread under
an "opt-out" title needs to die. If not, we might try discussing
"opt-out" to mean "each user can register, with some assurance of
privacy, the desire to not receive certain kinds of unsolicited email".
(Or perhaps it would be better to invent another name for that...)
--
John Leslie <john(_at_)jlc(_dot_)net>
_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
Asrg(_at_)irtf(_dot_)org
http://www.irtf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg
_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
Asrg(_at_)irtf(_dot_)org
http://www.irtf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg