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| | The Ezine Publishing Cafe Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | re: why email command subscriptions don't work | Views: 670 | | Jan 28, 2005 8:18 am | | re: why email command subscriptions don't work | # | 
Linda Bohrnerud | | I'm a bit baffled about this. I guess I'm mostly subscribed to ezines that do it right. I have to agree with Kurt Schweitzer that there are advantages to web unsubscription, but I prefer when both are available. (I use multiple email addies, myself).
How would I get a virus from another subscriber unless it's a list, not an ezine? The lists I'm on scan for viruses before sending on the emails. Just about everything I get, whether ezine, or list, is from double opt-in.
Some ezines are good enough, that I want to read them, if I have the time. Others, I would definitely hop through a hoop or two to keep getting. The browser that's giving me grief at the moment is Firefox, so I'm using Mozilla until I have time to fix things. I have IE, because some sites only work with IE and some of my other software requires it. Colour me annoyed. Thanks for the tip anyways.
Ciao,
Linda B
> lisa micklin wrote:
> Hi Linda-
>
>Ahhhhh the ol' email command option..... thanks for bringing this up, well worth exploring.....
>
>Here's my experience with this and why I'm not a fan:
>
>1) I personally wouldn't trust the security/privacy of my email address in a list that would allow me to be added simply by sending an email. Sniffers and robots can grab an email address very easily and often prey on sub/unsub addresses to harvest email addresses.
>2) Email viruses are your worst enemy with email subscriptions.
>
>Scenario:........
>3) a subscriber gets a virus
>4) that virus begins sending emails to every address in their book including subscribe@xyz.com.
>5) every email address in that address book is now being subscribed to some ezine they didn't want to sub to.
>6) same thing happens with unsub addresses.
>7) if this is a double optin, granted the unknowing address won't get added, they'll just get a request for confirmation, but that too is virally started. they'll be getting requests to confirm subscriptions that they didn't ask for.
>8) if you're gonna do double opt-in, the 2nd part should be web-based no matter what, to prevent folks from being added by viruses, robots and sniffers.
>9) if the 2nd phase is web-based, why bother with the email command in the first place?
>
>
>Often, the list owner won't even know this is happening. As an admin however, I've seen thousands of virally started opt-ins over the last several years. Thousands and thousands.
>
>We've been offering email sub/unsub commands in V1.0 of EZezine, but will be discontinuing them when we release the new version in a few months due to the atrocity of the above situation. It only takes one infected subscriber to instigate an avalanche of phony ezine opt-ins (or opt-in attempts for double opt-in), ouch!
>
>You said: "If I had to reply to an email, saying, "Yes, I still want to be on the list." that would be fine by me. I might not feel like signing up again through a web page."
>
>This takes me back to my question of "how much do you value the ezines you are subscribing to?" Are you, and this is a rhetorical question, really reading the ezines that aren't worth the 10-15 seconds it takes to re-opt-in to? Are you more likely to read the ezines that have email subscription commands?
>
>If your browser is misbehaving, is the ezine valuable enough to you to go to a web based form when it starts behaving again? When you get a busy signal, do you try the phone call again? (btw - This can likely be remedied by switching to Firefox or Mozilla browser, http://mozilla.org which has never mis-behaved for me in my years of using it.)
>
>Hope this is helpful,
>lisa
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>> Linda Bohrnerud wrote:
>> Hmm, I am a member of several mailing lists that let you subscribe by email - no web based form. I personally prefer this, because it allows me to keep a record of what I sent. If I had to reply to an email, saying, "Yes, I still want to be on the list." that would be fine by me. I might not feel like signing up again through a web page. Hey, maybe I'm fighting with my browser that day.
>>Private Reply to Linda Bohrnerud | | |
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