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.

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.

We are responsible for taking, or not taking, action.

No outside force is capable of this.

Now, that said, if you’re hanging by your fingertips over a boiling lava pit, you will be motivated to hang on.

But, it’s not the pit motivating you. It is your own fear of the consequences and your desire to avoid them that is the true mechanism for hanging on.

Sure, that heat rising up off the pit affects you, but the motivation is strictly yours.

If you choose to act, and especially if you choose to act as though your life depends on it, you will find that you achieve more. Much more.