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Another one that seems increasingly prominent in the tech/web space is cold email newsletter subscriptions. I occasionally receive emails from lists specific t

Another one that seems increasingly prominent in the tech/web space is cold email newsletter subscriptions. I occasionally receive emails from lists specific to trendy-looking SaaS/PaaS products that I've never even heard of. Just the same the emails will start rolling in telling me that my wait was up and their launch is just beginning and "come grab a promo-price for one month" if I sign on for a year, etc. When I first received anything like that, I thought maybe I'd just forgotten that I'd seen it and asked for updates— but no. After seeing more upon more, I realized that I was just getting spammed. Except none of it gets filtered out, because they don't carry the markings of what I'll lazily classify as 'traditional' spam.

gnicholas 9y ago
What's the most effective response in this situation? Officially opting out and then marking the "I never signed up for this list" button? I've wondered what threshold an emailer has to hit before MailChimp or whomever will give them the boot. Perhaps it's just better to mark as spam in Gmail or in your mail client so that their future email will be more likely to be marked as spam (for you and for everyone else). I've also wondered if there was a way to connect email spammers to each other. Like send an email to two spammers who had both emailed me and try to engage them with each other. I haven't figured out an elegant/useful way to do this yet.
- 52-6F-62 9y ago
  You're probably right about marking them spam. Often I'm just trying to be quick so I unsubscribe, check this "never signed up" option if it exists, and carry on. It would be fun to toy with them, but really I just wonder how they think others will look favourably upon their business when they try to make a sale that way. Maybe not everybody feels the same way, but it just seems cheap. Then again, my cell provider just initiated texting me advertisements randomly so I guess if it can be done, it will be done...

gnicholas 9y ago

What's the most effective response in this situation? Officially opting out and then marking the "I never signed up for this list" button? I've wondered what threshold an emailer has to hit before MailChimp or whomever will give them the boot. Perhaps it's just better to mark as spam in Gmail or in your mail client so that their future email will be more likely to be marked as spam (for you and for everyone else). I've also wondered if there was a way to connect email spammers to each other. Like send an email to two spammers who had both emailed me and try to engage them with each other. I haven't figured out an elegant/useful way to do this yet.

52-6F-62 9y ago
You're probably right about marking them spam. Often I'm just trying to be quick so I unsubscribe, check this "never signed up" option if it exists, and carry on. It would be fun to toy with them, but really I just wonder how they think others will look favourably upon their business when they try to make a sale that way. Maybe not everybody feels the same way, but it just seems cheap. Then again, my cell provider just initiated texting me advertisements randomly so I guess if it can be done, it will be done...