Still thinking about whether I want to add my lists to your database.
I can't remember ever asking ANYONE to add them ANYWHERE, so you might
need to re-think your assumption that all those other databases were
built by owners asking to be listed. See my last paragraph below...
You are probably right that most want to be there, but you should at
LEAST send email to each of them letting them know they've been added.
That would get to more of them than posting here, and it would make
your "opt-in" statement more demonstrably true. It would give list owners
a warm fuzzy, and that's got to be good for business.
All listserv lists are on lsoft's website unless the list owner takes
steps to remove them. That's a goldmine for people wanting to catalog
lists, but since they were put there without the list owner's knowledge
it can't really be said that approval was given. Another 'opt-out'
database where the list owner is not notified of the option.
At 08:12 PM 2/25/99 -0500, Vince Sabio wrote:
>Topica has made the presence of the database known to
>the list-owner community right from Day 1 (last Tuesday), and have
>provied a straightforward mechanism for removing your list from the
>database.
Right. I understand that, but that's an "opt-out" strategy, not "opt-in".
You also have to define "list-owner community", since I've been running
email lists for 5 years and only recently found out about THIS list.
At 08:12 PM 2/25/99 -0500, Vince Sabio wrote:
>But since it is not possible for Topica to
>know, short of clairvoyance, which list owners want to be listed
>and which ones do not...
Well, you could ask them. They're very easy to find!
At 08:12 PM 2/25/99 -0500, Vince Sabio wrote:
>...it becomes more sensible to go with the majority,
Hmmm. If a list owner wants to opt OUT, you make them confirm it to
be sure it's really the list owner. That doesn't require clairvoyance,
nor would making the list owner confirm before opting them IN.
At 08:12 PM 2/25/99 -0500, Vince Sabio wrote:
>inform the list owner community of the existence of the database (Topica
>is not trying to operate in "stealth mode" here), and provide a clear
>and simple mechanism for owners who do not wnt their lists listed to
>remove themselves.
Understood. I've only been on list-managers a short while, and I'm sure
none of the list owners at my site are here. I'm guessing that most of
the list owners in the topica database don't know they are there.
You could prove otherwise by adding a checkbox next to each list for whether
you have a list owner approval message ON FILE AT YOUR SITE, and provide
a link to that message. I'd love to know how many auth msgs you would
collect from the 100k lists you said you have in the database, and I'd
love to see a count of total lists and total auth msgs on the home page.
