6 ms·

Hilton hotels, can't unsubscribe because of account login forced. This is my new fix!

chubot 11y ago
It's amazing how many unsubscribe links, which are mandated by law, are broken or flaky. I just "report spam" now when that happens, and it totally works. No regrets.
- thomasahle 11y ago
  Exactly, "report spam" already serves well as "block" as well as "unsubscribe".
  - kevincox 11y ago
    I try to unsub first, because if I opted in they don't deserve to be marked as spam. But if your unsub method doesn't work. You are 100% going to get on every spam list I can put you on.
    - mahyarm 11y ago
      The spam button in gmail was the auto-unsubscribe button too.
- meesles 11y ago
  I can see how people get annoyed (I do), but I think this strategy is harmful to some companies. For example, I work for a web company that sends out a LOT of emails as reminders for events. ISPs (or some other web intermediary, I'm not sure) have rankings based on your likelihood to spam. A lot of spammy emails are already caught in the filter, and either don't go through or go to your spam folder. We work pretty hard to clear up misunderstandings that could harm our email rating so that users don't miss important events. That all being said, reporting spam instead of unsubscribe could hurt their email rankings in the future. Obviously I'm not talking about VIAGRA6969.NZ, but avoid the spam button if the company is respectable at all.
  - awakeasleep 11y ago
    If your company forces me to sign in before I can unsubscribe, it's not a respectable company and I want to hurt it- desperately.
  - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
    I see how that advice benefits your company. But it doesn't benefit me, much. I'd prefer to err on the side of pushing that button too much.
    - linkregister 11y ago
      On the other hand, a false positive does harm you if it makes it more difficult for your email provider to weed out the genuine spam. (But I think you are only clicking "spam" on the unsolicited or hard-to-unsubscribe stuff, which I support)
      - DanBC 11y ago
        As soon as a company sends me email other than hat I signed up for I report as spam. Companies need to learn that merely being in possession of my email address doesn't mean they can send me anything they like. I'd pay money for a modern day SPEWS-like art project.
        linkregister 11y ago
        There are a number of modern-day services that perform a similar function. Spamhaus is probably the most famous. Looking at the wikipedia entry, it looks like SPEWS failed because their whitelist process was not good (and the DoS attacks).
  - Ueland 11y ago
    If the company does not let me unsubscribe in a single click, then i don`t care, easy as that. If i receive unwanted email that i can not easily get rid of, then it is enough for me to consider it spam.
  - 11y ago
- linkregister 11y ago
  Several people have responded to this recommending restraint with the "Spam" button. I disagree. I work for an email service provider; if our customers have a bad unsubscribe method, sometimes the only way to communicate that is to give them a higher complaint rate by clicking "Spam". The customer then comes to us to ask what's wrong, then we analyze their setup and tell them. In the short term, spam complaints hurt reputation and reduce deliverability, but if a sender is failing to employ email best practices, can they be surprised if they don't have the best results?
  - timr 11y ago
    The problem is that people make up all sorts of ridiculous "laws" in their heads, and get extremely self-righteous when those invented, nonsensical rules are violated. Email service providers are exceedingly conservative, and will nearly always side with these people, even if they're lunatics. For example: sending someone an unsolicited email is not spam. If it were, then nearly every person with an email account would be guilty of bulk spamming. Yet many people have no hesitation about clicking the spam button when they get a message from someone they don't know. Email providers are so scared of this that many officially require double-opt-in procedures in order to open an account. That's insane. I don't mind it when someone emails me, personally, one time with an unsolicited business offer that is specific to me. It's unambiguously legal, and it's a good thing that we can send each other messages without having to pre-authorize the message. But when people send me the "follow up" on their last unsolicited message? Then they get the spam button and a block.
    - e40 11y ago
      I don't mind it when someone emails me, personally, one time with an unsolicited business offer that is specific to me. That's like .01% of the email I get. Maybe you are different. The ones that seem to be tailored to me are really just a template with my name substituted. I think we can all recognize those and agree they are spam.
      - timr 11y ago
        You're making a distinction that doesn't work. At what point does an email become "tailored"? Five words? Ten? If someone sends you an unsolicited sales pitch that is mostly identical to the one they're sending to five hundred other people, but uses your name and adds a sentence saying that they "admire the work you've done with $X", is it no longer spam? You can't define a standard for illegal behavior that encompasses most of what the medium is designed to do.
- bduerst 11y ago
  The problem is the law doesn't specify how well the unsubscribe (opt-outs) have to work. You could literally leave unsubscribe instructions to snail mail your email address to some location, and as long as you stopped emailing them 10 days after getting the mail you're okay.
  - smnrchrds 11y ago
    IANAL but that doesn't sound true. "You can’t ... make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request." [1] [1] https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can...
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - bduerst 11y ago
      You're right - I stand corrected.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
antr 11y ago
Bye bye Web Summit... after unsubscribing from your email list several times I get sent your emails time and time again, and your affiliate events, and your newsless announcements, etc. Thank you Google.
mayneack 11y ago
bestbuy: accepts <username>+bestbuy@gmail.com for account signup, unsubscribe form rejects as invalid email, but they still send things (to spam)
bduerst 11y ago
Or the Americorps. They get around the FTC can-spam rules by saying the emails are "relevant" to you, so they don't include the unsubscribe.
jrs235 11y ago
Why not report them by filing a complaint[1]? They are violating requirement #6 [2]. [1] https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/203332190-Spam-Unwanted-Email-and-Text-Messages https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/2033321... [2] https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can...

It's amazing how many unsubscribe links, which are mandated by law, are broken or flaky. I just "report spam" now when that happens, and it totally works. No regrets.

thomasahle 11y ago
Exactly, "report spam" already serves well as "block" as well as "unsubscribe".
- kevincox 11y ago
  I try to unsub first, because if I opted in they don't deserve to be marked as spam. But if your unsub method doesn't work. You are 100% going to get on every spam list I can put you on.
  - mahyarm 11y ago
    The spam button in gmail was the auto-unsubscribe button too.
meesles 11y ago
I can see how people get annoyed (I do), but I think this strategy is harmful to some companies. For example, I work for a web company that sends out a LOT of emails as reminders for events. ISPs (or some other web intermediary, I'm not sure) have rankings based on your likelihood to spam. A lot of spammy emails are already caught in the filter, and either don't go through or go to your spam folder. We work pretty hard to clear up misunderstandings that could harm our email rating so that users don't miss important events. That all being said, reporting spam instead of unsubscribe could hurt their email rankings in the future. Obviously I'm not talking about VIAGRA6969.NZ, but avoid the spam button if the company is respectable at all.
- awakeasleep 11y ago
  If your company forces me to sign in before I can unsubscribe, it's not a respectable company and I want to hurt it- desperately.
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  I see how that advice benefits your company. But it doesn't benefit me, much. I'd prefer to err on the side of pushing that button too much.
  - linkregister 11y ago
    On the other hand, a false positive does harm you if it makes it more difficult for your email provider to weed out the genuine spam. (But I think you are only clicking "spam" on the unsolicited or hard-to-unsubscribe stuff, which I support)
    - DanBC 11y ago
      As soon as a company sends me email other than hat I signed up for I report as spam. Companies need to learn that merely being in possession of my email address doesn't mean they can send me anything they like. I'd pay money for a modern day SPEWS-like art project.
      - linkregister 11y ago
        There are a number of modern-day services that perform a similar function. Spamhaus is probably the most famous. Looking at the wikipedia entry, it looks like SPEWS failed because their whitelist process was not good (and the DoS attacks).
- Ueland 11y ago
  If the company does not let me unsubscribe in a single click, then i don`t care, easy as that. If i receive unwanted email that i can not easily get rid of, then it is enough for me to consider it spam.
- 11y ago
linkregister 11y ago
Several people have responded to this recommending restraint with the "Spam" button. I disagree. I work for an email service provider; if our customers have a bad unsubscribe method, sometimes the only way to communicate that is to give them a higher complaint rate by clicking "Spam". The customer then comes to us to ask what's wrong, then we analyze their setup and tell them. In the short term, spam complaints hurt reputation and reduce deliverability, but if a sender is failing to employ email best practices, can they be surprised if they don't have the best results?
- timr 11y ago
  The problem is that people make up all sorts of ridiculous "laws" in their heads, and get extremely self-righteous when those invented, nonsensical rules are violated. Email service providers are exceedingly conservative, and will nearly always side with these people, even if they're lunatics. For example: sending someone an unsolicited email is not spam. If it were, then nearly every person with an email account would be guilty of bulk spamming. Yet many people have no hesitation about clicking the spam button when they get a message from someone they don't know. Email providers are so scared of this that many officially require double-opt-in procedures in order to open an account. That's insane. I don't mind it when someone emails me, personally, one time with an unsolicited business offer that is specific to me. It's unambiguously legal, and it's a good thing that we can send each other messages without having to pre-authorize the message. But when people send me the "follow up" on their last unsolicited message? Then they get the spam button and a block.
  - e40 11y ago
    I don't mind it when someone emails me, personally, one time with an unsolicited business offer that is specific to me. That's like .01% of the email I get. Maybe you are different. The ones that seem to be tailored to me are really just a template with my name substituted. I think we can all recognize those and agree they are spam.
    - timr 11y ago
      You're making a distinction that doesn't work. At what point does an email become "tailored"? Five words? Ten? If someone sends you an unsolicited sales pitch that is mostly identical to the one they're sending to five hundred other people, but uses your name and adds a sentence saying that they "admire the work you've done with $X", is it no longer spam? You can't define a standard for illegal behavior that encompasses most of what the medium is designed to do.
bduerst 11y ago
The problem is the law doesn't specify how well the unsubscribe (opt-outs) have to work. You could literally leave unsubscribe instructions to snail mail your email address to some location, and as long as you stopped emailing them 10 days after getting the mail you're okay.
- smnrchrds 11y ago
  IANAL but that doesn't sound true. "You can’t ... make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request." [1] [1] https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can...
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - bduerst 11y ago
    You're right - I stand corrected.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

antr 11y ago

Bye bye Web Summit... after unsubscribing from your email list several times I get sent your emails time and time again, and your affiliate events, and your newsless announcements, etc. Thank you Google.

mayneack 11y ago

bestbuy: accepts <username>+bestbuy@gmail.com for account signup, unsubscribe form rejects as invalid email, but they still send things (to spam)

bduerst 11y ago

Or the Americorps. They get around the FTC can-spam rules by saying the emails are "relevant" to you, so they don't include the unsubscribe.

jrs235 11y ago

Why not report them by filing a complaint[1]? They are violating requirement #6 [2]. [1] https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/203332190-Spam-Unwanted-Email-and-Text-Messages https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/2033321... [2] https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can...