ThisIsTrue.com loses 20,000 subscribers due to Yahoo!’s idiotic blocking.
Not that this is a new problem (major email service providers blocking access), but when it hits a publication as old, as reliable, and as stringent about promoting and proliferating proper email use, the little guys should take note.
I’ve certainly had my own issues with this, and even using gmail, and having Google filter it’s own Alerts, which I of course set up, confirmed, and send and receive through their very own system, end up where?
That’s right, in the trash or spam folder.
Randy Cassingham, of ThisIsTrue, just published this blog post
http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-yahoo_alert_trues_biggest_crisis_ever.html
about having 20,000+ subscribers through Yahoo! being blocked from them from receiving the email they asked for.
<sigh> Sad.
And also a wake up call, again, that we all need to be pushing subscribers to be educated about managing their subscriptions, and using (or preferably ‘not using’) free email service providers for subscribers.
If you read the post on his blog, you’ll see that the problem appears to stem from the lazy unsubscribers who just hit the “This is spam” button rather than using the unsub link provided in every issue.
What’s the recourse here? Complaining to the choir (other marketers, and those still getting their subscriptions) isn’t really going to do much.
Getting the word out through other newsletters and especially social media sites that your subscribers frequent though can help.
For now, you may be thinking, “Well, it’s not me, or my list isn’t that big yet, or there’s only a few Yahoo! subscribers” but even if they make up a small percentage, that’s still email not being delivered, email that puts you at risk of getting blocked by one of the major free email service providers and adding your name, website, url, and your business to a major black list.
Be responsible.
If you took the time to optin and subscribe, confirm that subscription, then have the decency to use the proper method for unsubscribing if that’s what you want to do. Or, be lazy, and fraudulent, and report every email you receive that you’re tired of getting as spam, and then see how long it take before all of your subscriptions disappear because you and others like you (oh yes, there are certainly enough idiots out there doing this, not just you) have taken the lazy, malicious way out… all the way out.
To me, that’s frightening.
To Yahoo!, wake up. Honestly, which do you think is worth more to you, the sludge of the earth subscribers who report legitimate email as spam, or quality content providers who give people a reason to use your service in the first place?
Doesn’t really take a genius or a calculator to do that math, now does it?
Be well, live well, die last.
Allen
Alexander:
“the sludge of the earth subscribers who report legitimate email as spam”
Nice. I like how you refer to your ex-readers. Who is to determine what is legitimate email and what is not. I’m not a subscriber to ThisIsTrue.com, but possibly the quality of the content has gone down to the level of spam? It seems that many users mark it as spam, and if the majority thinks its crap, then it must be true. I am not deriding ThisIsTrue itself, but this is how the current model works for any company, legitimate or not.
You don’t pin it on the email provider for listening to its users. You blame the idiotic subscribers for their lack of respect for the mailing list.
August 3, 2008, 6:50 pmAllen:
@Alexander,
So first, they are not my ‘ex-readers’ though my newsletters may be or may already be affected by this kind of reaction from ESPs. It was not a majority (120,000 or so readers, of which 20,000 were Yahoo! subscribers, from which the ‘report this as spam’ produced what Y! decided was an inordinate amount of reports and promptly blacklisted the site and blocked all email from it to all those using their service. Not a swipe at Y! users in general, just the idiots among them.
Secondly, spam, though wide in concept, is specific in nature: Unsolicited Commercial Email
With subscription email, regardless of quality of content, if you asked for it, then confirmed you asked for it, then it most definitely is not spam. If you no longer want to receive it, the quality isn’t to your liking, or for whatever reason, you use the unsubscribe button to leave the list, not the “report this as spam” button.
It is the responsibility of both, the users, and the provider. But though I’m sure the majority of Yahoo! users are great people, apparently some (frankly, I don’t know that Y! said how many reports, just it was over their threshold). I’m sure those users exist in every ESPs database, the ones who are just too lazy to bother with unsubscribing or maliciously and intentionally mis-report legitimate emails they’re receiving.
However in this case, the asylum directors should remain in charge, so yes, the blame is on the email provider. Provide the service, educate your users, and act responsibly.
And, oh, you should read a sample issue or two of ThisisTrue. I have the feeling you would enjoy it.
August 3, 2008, 8:03 pm