On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 18:43:34 -0500, Seth Goodman wrote
It does seem silly, even laughable, at first thought, for a company
to have to send off a confirmation message requesting the right to
send the party an email. A recipient with a good sense of humor
might say, "I gave you permission to send me one email and you just
did, so bye now". There is a practical reason why the company may
wish to do exactly that, even though it seems wasteful. How many of
those who signed up will forget, two months later, that they made
the request? Some of those folks will get upset and report the
product announcement as spam. The company will be in a far better
position to defend itself if it has a confirmation message in hand
for every complaint, as compared to a web log that lists a bunch of
dynamic IP address.
Not to mention that mailing lists that are initially compiled for "one time
mailshots" often end up being used for other purposes, too.