For years, people have been told 'don't click on "Unsubscribe" in spam, it just tells people that your e-mail address really exists'. Except that people can't

For years, people have been told 'don't click on "Unsubscribe" in spam, it just tells people that your e-mail address really exists'. Except that people can't tell the difference between 'e-mail I don't want and never asked for' and 'e-mail I signed up for but don't remember', so they click the 'spam' button automatically. For a lot of people, the 'spam' button is actually the 'I don't want to get these e-mails anymore' button. This is why companies like AOL, etc. have feedback loops. You register yourself with them, and you set your system up to handle spam complaints. When a user complains about a legitimate message, you just remove them from your list. If you don't have those feedback loops set up, then AOL assumes you're being a dick (and/or the spam complaints go to the IP address owners, who've registered themselves already).