5 ms·

What's wrong with email newsletters? I actually like them quite a bit.

ChrisLTD 6y ago
For me, they get lost amidst the mountains of other email I get. I also don't like reading longer form content in my mail app. Having them sent to an RSS reader where I'm already reading news is a nice way to avoid those clashes of context.
tutuca 6y ago
And the format is in a some kind of revival. Some of the best content I get is from newsletters these days.
t0astbread 6y ago
For non-personalized newsletters it's pretty useless for you to give out an email address. No one's ever gonna address you individually so all it creates are potential privacy issues if you give out your real email address. The only benefit I can see even for non-personalized newsletters is that you have it in your mailbox and can use your normal email filtering tools to deal with newsletter messages.
- VWWHFSfQ 6y ago
  I guess I've just never really considered my email address as some kind of secret thing that warrants a privacy concern.
  - t0astbread 6y ago
    Neither do I, really, but I would be concerned about newsletter hosts being able to build a profile of my interests based on what I'm subscribed to. If I can just use Atom/RSS over HTTP instead I can avoid that easily.
    - Fogest 6y ago
      This is why I like this site. Some sites I want to keep up to date on don't have an RSS feed, but they have a newsletter. I'm happy this site was shared and I am definitely going to make use of it!
- bmj 6y ago
  it creates are potential privacy issues if you give out your real email address Is this the same class of privacy issue as, say, subscribing to a print journal that is delivered directly to your place of residence (as opposed to a post office box)? I think you could even argue that using anonymized email addresses for your newsletter subscriptions could be the digital equivalent of a PO box, right?
  - t0astbread 6y ago
    I think we mean the same thing, yes. (See my response to a sibling about newsletter hosts building interest profiles[1].) The PO box analogy kinda falls apart unless you use a separate PO box per subscription but you're right, email aliases protect you from any kind of advertiser profiling. Feeds are just nice because they're simple HTTP requests so they don't have that problem in the first place (unless you're worried about IP-based tracking and don't use any kind of proxy). [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26169411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26169411
  - betwixthewires 6y ago
    I'd say, imagine that for material you want, you have to ask for it rather than someone just deciding to send you whatever they want to send you. RSS and Atom are basically ways to organize and automate requesting desired data on a schedule. This means that using these formats, nobody can send you junk that you don't want.
jasonv 6y ago
You have to view and manage and then delete them. 99% of my inboxes are emails from non-humans. I'm ready to stream them like RSS or Twitter.. and catch the ones I care about.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- iamacyborg 6y ago
  You don’t have to do those things. The earth will not stop if there are unread emails in your inbox.
  - betwixthewires 6y ago
    Some people, such as myself, try to reduce the noise around us as much as possible. Every person and their grandmother flooding your inbox is a lot of noise.
  - jasonv 6y ago
    That's true. And I unsubscribe from a lot. And I filter the rest. But I scan and review and like just enough content to stay engaged. But I'm moving closer and closer to unsubscribing from all of them.
enonevets 6y ago
Not OP but for me I prefer subscribing via RSS as it helps organize what I follow rather than add to more clutter in my inbox.
taejo 6y ago
For me, I check email every day and read or delete every new email before I consider it done. I open my RSS reader when I feel like it (2-3 times a week) and have some free time to read and enjoy.
asdff 6y ago
It's all personal preference. Some prefer to keep their email inbox strictly for personal communication, and the regularly scheduled third party content in one place in their feed reader.
betwixthewires 6y ago
To me, email is a two way communication tool, and while getting one way communication is perfectly fine in email, just getting updates from an org or on some topic or from a journalist makes way more sense using syndication than subscription. Particularly, the client/recipient handles getting the messages as opposed to the publisher.

For me, they get lost amidst the mountains of other email I get. I also don't like reading longer form content in my mail app. Having them sent to an RSS reader where I'm already reading news is a nice way to avoid those clashes of context.

tutuca 6y ago

And the format is in a some kind of revival. Some of the best content I get is from newsletters these days.

t0astbread 6y ago

For non-personalized newsletters it's pretty useless for you to give out an email address. No one's ever gonna address you individually so all it creates are potential privacy issues if you give out your real email address. The only benefit I can see even for non-personalized newsletters is that you have it in your mailbox and can use your normal email filtering tools to deal with newsletter messages.

VWWHFSfQ 6y ago
I guess I've just never really considered my email address as some kind of secret thing that warrants a privacy concern.
- t0astbread 6y ago
  Neither do I, really, but I would be concerned about newsletter hosts being able to build a profile of my interests based on what I'm subscribed to. If I can just use Atom/RSS over HTTP instead I can avoid that easily.
  - Fogest 6y ago
    This is why I like this site. Some sites I want to keep up to date on don't have an RSS feed, but they have a newsletter. I'm happy this site was shared and I am definitely going to make use of it!
bmj 6y ago
it creates are potential privacy issues if you give out your real email address Is this the same class of privacy issue as, say, subscribing to a print journal that is delivered directly to your place of residence (as opposed to a post office box)? I think you could even argue that using anonymized email addresses for your newsletter subscriptions could be the digital equivalent of a PO box, right?
- t0astbread 6y ago
  I think we mean the same thing, yes. (See my response to a sibling about newsletter hosts building interest profiles[1].) The PO box analogy kinda falls apart unless you use a separate PO box per subscription but you're right, email aliases protect you from any kind of advertiser profiling. Feeds are just nice because they're simple HTTP requests so they don't have that problem in the first place (unless you're worried about IP-based tracking and don't use any kind of proxy). [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26169411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26169411
- betwixthewires 6y ago
  I'd say, imagine that for material you want, you have to ask for it rather than someone just deciding to send you whatever they want to send you. RSS and Atom are basically ways to organize and automate requesting desired data on a schedule. This means that using these formats, nobody can send you junk that you don't want.

jasonv 6y ago

You have to view and manage and then delete them. 99% of my inboxes are emails from non-humans. I'm ready to stream them like RSS or Twitter.. and catch the ones I care about.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
iamacyborg 6y ago
You don’t have to do those things. The earth will not stop if there are unread emails in your inbox.
- betwixthewires 6y ago
  Some people, such as myself, try to reduce the noise around us as much as possible. Every person and their grandmother flooding your inbox is a lot of noise.
- jasonv 6y ago
  That's true. And I unsubscribe from a lot. And I filter the rest. But I scan and review and like just enough content to stay engaged. But I'm moving closer and closer to unsubscribing from all of them.

enonevets 6y ago

Not OP but for me I prefer subscribing via RSS as it helps organize what I follow rather than add to more clutter in my inbox.

taejo 6y ago

For me, I check email every day and read or delete every new email before I consider it done. I open my RSS reader when I feel like it (2-3 times a week) and have some free time to read and enjoy.

asdff 6y ago

It's all personal preference. Some prefer to keep their email inbox strictly for personal communication, and the regularly scheduled third party content in one place in their feed reader.

betwixthewires 6y ago

To me, email is a two way communication tool, and while getting one way communication is perfectly fine in email, just getting updates from an org or on some topic or from a journalist makes way more sense using syndication than subscription. Particularly, the client/recipient handles getting the messages as opposed to the publisher.