4 ms·

I kinda wonder if a significant portion of the issue is people who sign up for stuff, then rather then unsub, just tell gmail it's spam?

by Vendan 12y ago

davidw 12y ago
I could see that being a problem for some people, but I know better than to do that. I'm very careful about what I put in spam myself, and careful to mark as 'not spam' all the things that aren't. What's really amazing is all of the emails I've fished out of there that are pretty much exactly like tons of other emails I've been receiving for years, often from the same address. I mean, an Erlang-related email from erlang-questions (which I've been subscribed to with Gmail for 6 years) with "gen_server" in it... that's just not spam.
Goronmon 12y ago
Due to the simplicity of my email address, I get emails almost everyday from stuff other people have signed up for and mistakenly put in my email address thinking it was theirs. Sometimes if it's in a foreign language I can't tell if it's spam or just normal stuff that came to the wrong address. I have had moments of frustration where I've selected a whole group of these emails and marked them as spam in the hopes that they would stop showing up in my inbox.
- coliveira 12y ago
  It turns out this is a serious problem with using a gmail account. I receive all the time email that was sent to some other unrelated person with similar name. This happens with lots of people that I know. I decided it is better to stop making gmail my main email, and treat it just as a junk mail destination.
stephengillie 12y ago
As someone who maintains email campaign servers and mailing lists, most people who report as spam do so as a last resort. Many have tried to unsubscribe, and often their email isn't in our system; usually they have a mail list forward it to them, and they don't know which mail list.
1_player 12y ago
If I receive a newsletter and there is no way to unsubscribe without logging in and/or going through hoops, I mark it as spam. If I sign up on some service with email+service@gmail.com and I get a newsletter from some other unrelated company, I mark it as spam.

I kinda wonder if a significant portion of the issue is people who sign up for stuff, then rather then unsub, just tell gmail it's spam?

by Vendan 12y ago

I kinda wonder if a significant portion of the issue is people who sign up for stuff, then rather then unsub, just tell gmail it's spam?

davidw 12y ago

I could see that being a problem for some people, but I know better than to do that. I'm very careful about what I put in spam myself, and careful to mark as 'not spam' all the things that aren't. What's really amazing is all of the emails I've fished out of there that are pretty much exactly like tons of other emails I've been receiving for years, often from the same address. I mean, an Erlang-related email from erlang-questions (which I've been subscribed to with Gmail for 6 years) with "gen_server" in it... that's just not spam.

Goronmon 12y ago

Due to the simplicity of my email address, I get emails almost everyday from stuff other people have signed up for and mistakenly put in my email address thinking it was theirs. Sometimes if it's in a foreign language I can't tell if it's spam or just normal stuff that came to the wrong address. I have had moments of frustration where I've selected a whole group of these emails and marked them as spam in the hopes that they would stop showing up in my inbox.

coliveira 12y ago
It turns out this is a serious problem with using a gmail account. I receive all the time email that was sent to some other unrelated person with similar name. This happens with lots of people that I know. I decided it is better to stop making gmail my main email, and treat it just as a junk mail destination.

stephengillie 12y ago

As someone who maintains email campaign servers and mailing lists, most people who report as spam do so as a last resort. Many have tried to unsubscribe, and often their email isn't in our system; usually they have a mail list forward it to them, and they don't know which mail list.

1_player 12y ago

If I receive a newsletter and there is no way to unsubscribe without logging in and/or going through hoops, I mark it as spam. If I sign up on some service with email+service@gmail.com and I get a newsletter from some other unrelated company, I mark it as spam.