
I want a "plonk" button in Gmail - kolinko
http://workin-progress.posterous.com/37049855
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zalew
_I am surprised that there are people that actually unsubscribe from
newsletters. I never to that. Instead I filter out the sender from my Gmail_

ummm, why surprised? why have your email in a database you don't want to use,
or why have it send emails you won't read anyway? I think unsubscribing is
fair for both sides.

~~~
kolinko
it takes time to unsubscribe, sometimes it's not that easy and sometimes
"unsubscribe" is not respected (or mysterious "server error prevents me from
unsubscribing) - of course that's not the case of yahoo groups or google
groups, but there are quite a few companies that do that.

~~~
grantheaslip
The vast majority of the time it's a one or two click process. A few sites
require you to log in to change your email preferences, but they're few and
far between.

The one exception I can think of off the top of my head is MTV Networks, who
got a hold of my email somehow and won't stop spamming me, even after I've
unsubscribed at least a dozen times.

~~~
kolinko
That's what I'm talking about. We are hackers. Why should we settle for a
mediocre solution (like fighting with MTV from time to time) when there is a
better around the corner?

~~~
mcav
A better solution isn't to just block all unwanted messages... a better
solution would attempt to unsubscribe, and only if that doesn't work, block
the sender.

~~~
yummyfajitas
A better solution is one button which both attempts to automatically
unsubscribe, and blocks further emails if the list does not respect the user's
choice.

Why should I have to do extra work just because MTV is hostile to users? Or
because Hallmark's database takes 10 days to update, gamespot's unsubscribe
servers are permanently broken, or because some crappy website demands your
login info?

<http://imgur.com/mzqKk> <http://imgur.com/Yn5eD>
<http://i.imgur.com/yoky5.jpg>

~~~
idive
Google's Report Spam button is actually pretty close to that. If the message
has a List-Unsubscribe header, it offers to use that after hitting the Spam
button.

And usually they don't really take 10 days, but that's the limit the law
permits so they give themselves as much wiggle room as possible.

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idive
That seems like a good idea, until you plonk your US Airways newsletter and
realize that you've plonked future flight confirmations as well.

~~~
msluyter
Yes, this is precisely what I thought. I have a gmail label, "bacon," for such
cases. I filter bacon by applying the label and then skipping the inbox
(archiving). So, for example, my Priceline junk mail doesn't appear in my
inbox, but it's not lost if I ever do make a priceline request.

~~~
lukeschlather
I call it marketing, but it would be nice if there were a way to add an
address to the filter with a single click.

~~~
TheAmazingIdiot
There already is. Its built into emails already.

If your username for gmail is user@gmail.com ...

Now if you want to use ebay with that address, use user+ebay@mail.com Now all
mails will come in, pre-tagged for bins. They've done your work, for you.

Edit: its also good for finding out who's sharing addresses without your
consent.

~~~
mitcheme
That works OK until you hit a site that has a weird method of processing
payments, and now you can't pay for your order from email+weirdsite@mail.com
because your paypal address is email+paypal@mail.com and they have to "match"
(and ofc you had no way of knowing this before signing up). Or the sites that
don't think "+" is a valid email address character. Or the sites that strip
out the "+blabla" because they've decided they're too special for filtering.

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JoachimSchipper
Obviously, unsubscribing is more polite.

That said, maybe GMail and friends could add a button based on a List-
unsubscribe header?

~~~
judofyr
If you mark a message as spam and there's a Unsubscribe header, Gmail asks you
if you want to unsubscribe from the mailing list itself.

~~~
larrik
Marking a newsletter you signed up for as "spam" seems pretty harsh.

~~~
fps
I've never signed up for an email newsletter in 15 years online and I get 100
messages a day into my Gmail junk folder, and 10 into my inbox, masquerading
as newsletters. They're spam. Pretending that people sign up for these things
is a tactic the spammers are using to discourage constructive discussion.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
>Pretending that people sign up for these things is a tactic the spammers are
using to discourage constructive discussion.

It was quite common back before RSS feeds and always on internet. One would
have newsletters delivered to a MUA and then go offline to save precious
minutes from your heady 14.4kbps connection costs.

People still do sign up for newsletters. But there is also a lot of spam
masquerading as requested mail.

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nhangen
I think that if I'm taking the time to sign up for a newsletter and add to the
costs of hosting that email account, then unsubscribing when I no longer need
it is the right thing to do. I also find it to be the easiest thing to do.

In the few cases where I unsub and still get emails, I'd prefer the "Report as
Spam" button would just block that sender's address in the future.

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PedroCandeias
Don't see the point. Unsubscribing is generally faster than going through the
motions of setting up a filter. It's also much more polite. I reserve filters
or "mark as spam" for only the stuff with a missing or malfunctioning
unsubscription option.

~~~
kolinko
Well - that is the point! The filter should be faster than the "Unsubscribe"!
:)

~~~
grantheaslip
I'm not convinced this is a real problem though. I don't think I've ever
thought to myself "man, hitting this unsubscribe link is so annoying, I wish
there was a better way!". Plus, why keep all of these emails in a label when
you can just opt-out of them at the source?

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ditojim
gmail actually will attempt to unsubscribe you automatically when you mark a
newsletter as spam, sometimes.

screenshot: <http://imgur.com/HqbVm>

so it seems they are trying to solve this problem in a more complete way then
filtering the mail thru personal mail filters.

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narag
A couple of companies regularly sent me spam disguised as a newsletter. I'm
completely sure I didn't subscribe to anything from them. Their unsubscribe
systems and polite requests didn't work. The worst was that GMail didn't learn
to mark them as spam.

I found a nice GMail feature: I could create a filter that killed their spam
from my inbox and then sent a copy of the message to the addresses that I
chose, that were the abuse, postmaster, etc. that previously had ignored me. I
also added addresses from DNS database and the staff of the spammers.

Unfortunately this feature seems to be disabled for some time now. The filters
I created are still there, but I can't create more of their kind.

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bkhl
Windows Live Hotmail already does a similar thing with its new Sweep feature.

~~~
kolinko
cool! :)

