

Rant on Email Notifications - inmygarage
http://amandapeyton.com/blog/2012/03/rant-on-email-notifications/

======
abraxasz
I'm usually a nice guy, but I'm an absolute jerk when it comes to my inbox:

\- If a service's registration has the "send notification" button checked by
default, and I don't see it when I register.. well each time I get an email
from the service, I flag it as spam. Damn, these things really should be opt-
in, not opt-out.

\- If the unsubscribing takes more than exactly one step. I flag.

It's a bit harsh, but I don't like feeling trapped. The OP's right:
unsubscribing should be as simple as clicking on a button.

~~~
stickfigure
I find the multi-step unsubscribe frustrating too. But how do you address the
issue of email forwards, where recipients who don't delete the footer (ie,
everyone) are unwittingly forwarding everyone the ability to unsubscribe them
from the list?

~~~
dangson
Realistically, how often does this happen though? Even my worst enemies
wouldn't unsubscribe me from a mailing list just to piss me off. Plus, anyone
I forward an email to is probably an acquaintance who wouldn't do that.

The benefits of 1-click unsubscribe and not receiving additional unwanted
emails outweigh this small chance of being unsubscribe from a list I want to
be on.

~~~
stickfigure
Right. The benefits outweigh the disadvantages for you... until they don't.

Nearly a decade ago I worked on MMORPGs for EA. An astounding amount of game
design, engineering, and customer support effort went into addressing a tiny
portion of the userbase we called "griefers". Griefers may be 0.1% of the
population but one griefer can create an enormous number of unhappy players.
You come up with a feature and think "there's only a tiny chance that someone
could use this to harass or annoy another player"... and guess what, the
actual chance is near 100%. Maybe this is what bored kids do today instead of
TPing houses.

The problem with simple one-click unsubscribe links is that there isn't a way
to stop the griefing. One kid gets the link and never tires of clicking it.
The owner has no idea who is doing it and can't stop it and gets incredibly
frustrated and angry. One incredibly angry user is far more hazardous to your
business than 10,000 slightly inconvenienced users.

Is this a realistic problem? I don't really know, it probably depends on your
app. The stakes are a lot lower here than in an MMORPG somebody is paying
$20/mo for. But when I look at the incentives, I genuinely wonder if one-click
unsubscribe (or any other kind of auto-login from an email) is a good business
decision. It would certainly make sense to build in some protection, like
expiring after 24 hours or whatnot.

I'm very curious to know what other people on the _sending_ side of this
business think. Obviously as an email recipient you want the system to
securely and anonymously read your mind and act according to your specific
intention automatically all the time.

------
dools
For services that don't allow you to have your emails delivered as a "digest"
I created <http://emaildigest.me/> that allows you to create a digest by
setting up gmail filters.

------
markbao
Also, don't make your unsubscribe link egg-shell white, 6-point font at the
bottom among other legalese. If I'm unsubscribing, my aggravation finding that
is only going to make me angrier.

------
greenyoda
After years of being annoyed by these kinds of unfriendly unsubscribe
policies, I now use disposable e-mail addresses to sign up for most web-based
services. These have two advantages: (1) If they refuse to unsubscribe you,
you can disable the address and never hear from them again; (2) If your e-mail
address gets leaked to spammers, you know who did it, since you provide a
unique address to every service. (I still use my real e-mail address with
critical services such as on-line banking.)

I've been very happy with the disposable e-mail provided by
<http://spamgourmet.com>; it's free, reliable, and you can create a new
disposable address without visiting their web site. (It's not a pretty-looking
web site, but it does the job.)

~~~
gwright
I generally try to utilize address "tags" for this sort of tracking, for
example username+tag@example.com
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_address#Address_tags>).

Unfortunately many websites seem to think that '+' is not a valid character in
an email address. Very annoying.

------
derefr
Something I've seen happen far too many times:

1\. Your service's email notifications are divided into dozens of little
categories, including one particular "core/important/essential" one that I
don't actually want to uncheck (for example, payment-received notifications on
Paypal.)

2\. I uncheck all the other categories, but am forced to leave the core
notification setting checked (otherwise I'd basically be rendering the service
useless.)

3\. You add a new category of useless notification... and default it to
checked. And you have a _justification_ for this: I never asked to unsubscribe
from _all_ notifications; I only asked to subscribe from _some_ notifications.

Of course, this would be useless to put on the list, because the types of
companies who do this know exactly what they're doing.

------
mindslight
I never understood why people use the same exact email address to sign up for
multiple sites. Any decent MTA will give you a wildcard extension on your
username, so signing up for service Foo means telling them something like
user-foo@example.com. An unsubscribe is as simple as forwarding that specific
address to bounce, /dev/null, or their whois contact information (although I
generally reserve that last one for articles that pop up a subscribe box when
viewing). This also gives you the advantage of seeing _who_ has sold your
email address.

~~~
dennisgorelik
That's a good strategy for advanced email users. But only small minority of
email users belong to that camp.

What would you do with the information about who sold your email address?

The best defense against spam is spam flag button. It can be successfully used
on your single gmail account.

~~~
mindslight
Seeing which email addresses leak is just an interesting reflection on the
company. For example, the supposedly non-visible address I gave to facebook
gets spam.

------
iamdave
_People read their email on their phones.

This should not be news._

This is such a poignant and direct statement because it applies to so many
other things than just unsubscribing from services.

------
robinjfisher
Can we also add to the list, "The removal of your email address may take up to
7 days".

Unless you store your marketing lists on paper in your bank's vault, there is
no reason it should take this long to remove me.

I don't care if you're using an external agency who has an old copy of the
list. Fix your process. You don't need 7 days to delete my email address from
your database.

------
sushantsharma
I usually use "my_gmail_username"+service_name@gmail.com to subscribe. If they
start spamming me then I redirect all the email coming to
"my_gmail_username"+service_name@gmail.com to my trash.

Email sent to "my_gmail_username"+service_name@gmail.com is delivered to
"my_gmail_username"@gmail.com, Anything after + is ignored by gmail for email
delivery.

------
georgieporgie
These complaints are the result of a self-centered attitude on the part of
those creating the website/service. Instead of considering all users' wants
and needs, they're only thinking of their own interests.

It's analogous to a friend that only calls when he needs something, and only
talks about himself when he does. Basically, it's "How to Win Friends and
Influence People" stuff, applied to technology services.

"How to Win Users and Influence People" ;-)

~~~
bdunbar
_Instead of considering all users' wants and needs, they're only thinking of
their own interests._

There is a reason for that: it's hard enough to know your own domain's wants
and needs, let alone all of your user's wants and needs.

Users are legion and diverse and unique.

------
drivebyacct2
I like the emails because they keep me engaged when the service is just
fledgling. I also like them because they're a permanent record for when
friends delete their posts or what not. Also, in _two clicks_ they can be
auto-relegated a labeled folder that I never have to see and can be easily
purged.

