5 ms·

I received a similar email a few months ago. I was rather annoyed to receive it, to be honest, because I had been reading the emails. Just with images disabled.

by chris_j 14y ago

bthomas 14y ago
Is there a way to detect whether user has read an email with the standard Gmail image filter enabled?
- okamiueru 14y ago
  Facebook does a "trick" by playing an empty sound file. http://pandodaily.com/2012/03/06/facebook-knows-when-you-open-their-emails-how-creepy-silent-sounds/ http://pandodaily.com/2012/03/06/facebook-knows-when-you-ope...
  - jcampbell1 14y ago
    Interesting, but that is a hack for IE / Outlook, not the GMail image filters.
  - cma 14y ago
    That should be a violation of the CFAA... charge Zuckerberg with ~300 billion counts
- encoderer 14y ago
  Where I work we run a batch job that looks for inbound clicks from an email without a corresponding "email opened" tracking pixel being fired. Gives us an idea of how many people are engaging with images turned off or some other form of tracking pixel blocking. Our analytics wizards then use that and other data to come up with some estimates on how many users are opening our emails with images disabled.
  - nwh 14y ago
    Could you share any rough statistics?
    - encoderer 14y ago
      No, sorry.
    - WillyF 14y ago
      On my list of about 11,500, just under 400 people have "opened never" but have clicked at least one link. So it's a pretty small number. I'd be you can just about double it to get the total number of opens that haven't been tracked.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- grinich 14y ago
  Not unless they click a link.
- mcpherrinm 14y ago
  The reason the image filter exists is to prevent this. I would consider it a bug if there was.
- WillyF 14y ago
  Click tracking on links. Obviously, it only works if your users click.
espadagroup 14y ago
Hey, I'm on the marketing team at Fab. We figured for us this would be an edge case since our emails are made up almost entirely of images.
- mcpherrinm 14y ago
  Are there samples of the emails mentioned here I can view, without signing up? It would be easier to make informed statements on this thread that way. In general, marketing emails that are mostly images get binned by me. It's especially great when the only text is "unsubscribe" -- easy to find! If the images really are important, and not easily replaced with text then I could understand your position easily.
  - espadagroup 14y ago
    Here is an example of our emails, http://cdn.splatf.com/w/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fab-email.jpg http://cdn.splatf.com/w/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fab-email..., it is from a while ago but the layout is the same. As you can see we are a very visual company. The emails mirror the site so you can use that as a reference too. Again very visual and "not easily replaced".
  - LogicX 14y ago
    Soon - Just added to metascribe.com (just hit MVP - designed to cover exactly this scenario: To preview a list before deciding to signup)
- dredmorbius 14y ago
  Well, that's a great way to get me not to read your mail ;-)
  - tvladeck 14y ago
    I thought that was a good joke.
- onemorepassword 14y ago
  You're being almost too polite. Fab's mails utterly pointless without the images. I normally hate email with lots of images and prefer plain text over HTML, but in this particular case anyone claiming to read your emails with the images off is just trolling.
darkchasma 14y ago
You're annoyed that a company wanted to try to not spam you? I am reminded of xkcd... http://xkcd.com/1172/ http://xkcd.com/1172/
- raylu 14y ago
  No. He's annoyed that a company tried to automatically detect whether or not he was reading the e-mail and got it wrong. The only thing worse than having to manually do something is to have it automatically done wrong for you.
  - zizee 14y ago
    Perhaps the solution here is to include an "opt back in" link to that email. Actually, it would be better to change the frequency (slow them down) of your mailouts to that person with the option to request a return to the old frequency.
    - mcpherrinm 14y ago
      The last line of the email does appear to be "click HERE to opt back in"
tehwebguy 14y ago
It seems likely that clicks would be factored into the logic as well, I wonder if they ever stop emailing people that never click / buy / other action.

I received a similar email a few months ago. I was rather annoyed to receive it, to be honest, because I had been reading the emails. Just with images disabled.

by chris_j 14y ago

I received a similar email a few months ago. I was rather annoyed to receive it, to be honest, because I had been reading the emails. Just with images disabled.

bthomas 14y ago

Is there a way to detect whether user has read an email with the standard Gmail image filter enabled?

okamiueru 14y ago
Facebook does a "trick" by playing an empty sound file. http://pandodaily.com/2012/03/06/facebook-knows-when-you-open-their-emails-how-creepy-silent-sounds/ http://pandodaily.com/2012/03/06/facebook-knows-when-you-ope...
- jcampbell1 14y ago
  Interesting, but that is a hack for IE / Outlook, not the GMail image filters.
- cma 14y ago
  That should be a violation of the CFAA... charge Zuckerberg with ~300 billion counts
encoderer 14y ago
Where I work we run a batch job that looks for inbound clicks from an email without a corresponding "email opened" tracking pixel being fired. Gives us an idea of how many people are engaging with images turned off or some other form of tracking pixel blocking. Our analytics wizards then use that and other data to come up with some estimates on how many users are opening our emails with images disabled.
- nwh 14y ago
  Could you share any rough statistics?
  - encoderer 14y ago
    No, sorry.
  - WillyF 14y ago
    On my list of about 11,500, just under 400 people have "opened never" but have clicked at least one link. So it's a pretty small number. I'd be you can just about double it to get the total number of opens that haven't been tracked.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
grinich 14y ago
Not unless they click a link.
mcpherrinm 14y ago
The reason the image filter exists is to prevent this. I would consider it a bug if there was.
WillyF 14y ago
Click tracking on links. Obviously, it only works if your users click.

espadagroup 14y ago

Hey, I'm on the marketing team at Fab. We figured for us this would be an edge case since our emails are made up almost entirely of images.

mcpherrinm 14y ago
Are there samples of the emails mentioned here I can view, without signing up? It would be easier to make informed statements on this thread that way. In general, marketing emails that are mostly images get binned by me. It's especially great when the only text is "unsubscribe" -- easy to find! If the images really are important, and not easily replaced with text then I could understand your position easily.
- espadagroup 14y ago
  Here is an example of our emails, http://cdn.splatf.com/w/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fab-email.jpg http://cdn.splatf.com/w/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fab-email..., it is from a while ago but the layout is the same. As you can see we are a very visual company. The emails mirror the site so you can use that as a reference too. Again very visual and "not easily replaced".
- LogicX 14y ago
  Soon - Just added to metascribe.com (just hit MVP - designed to cover exactly this scenario: To preview a list before deciding to signup)
dredmorbius 14y ago
Well, that's a great way to get me not to read your mail ;-)
- tvladeck 14y ago
  I thought that was a good joke.
onemorepassword 14y ago
You're being almost too polite. Fab's mails utterly pointless without the images. I normally hate email with lots of images and prefer plain text over HTML, but in this particular case anyone claiming to read your emails with the images off is just trolling.

darkchasma 14y ago

You're annoyed that a company wanted to try to not spam you? I am reminded of xkcd... http://xkcd.com/1172/ http://xkcd.com/1172/

raylu 14y ago
No. He's annoyed that a company tried to automatically detect whether or not he was reading the e-mail and got it wrong. The only thing worse than having to manually do something is to have it automatically done wrong for you.
- zizee 14y ago
  Perhaps the solution here is to include an "opt back in" link to that email. Actually, it would be better to change the frequency (slow them down) of your mailouts to that person with the option to request a return to the old frequency.
  - mcpherrinm 14y ago
    The last line of the email does appear to be "click HERE to opt back in"

tehwebguy 14y ago

It seems likely that clicks would be factored into the logic as well, I wonder if they ever stop emailing people that never click / buy / other action.