In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Sharon Tucci <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>{... list transfer story snipped...}
>The number of bounces was what we expected - about 8-9%...
Actually, that sounds rather high to me.
If the old list hosting company _was_ actually cleaning out bouncing
addresses, why would you expect more than (say) 3-4%, tops?
>Here's where the fun starts. Of the 20,000, again, the
>number of bounces was normal - what we had expected. However,
>we've received three spam complaints in less than 24 hours.
>So, in total, we've received more spam complaints from about
>24,000 recipients than we normally do in 6 months across
>hundreds of new lists.
Observation #1:
Three is not a big number.
Observation #2:
Personally, I am not moved to yell ``spam'' *unless* I receive a
an unsolicited message that contains one (or more) of the following:
1) An assertion that I am already ON the list in question,
and that I am required/expected/asked to do something
in order to get OFF the list.
2) Some blatant advertising.
If the `reconfirm' messages that you sent out contained neither of these
elements, then if I were you I would write off the three complaints you
received as just being the e-mail equivalent of crank calls.
Just don't do as I have seen many spammers do and send out messages that
contain about three lines of text, asking the recipient to confirm his/her
subscription, followed by 35 megabytes of HTML chock full of hyperlinks
to all sorts of pages where you (or your customer or your affiliates) are
hawking your products and/or services.
(Many spammers are trying to fly under the radar this way nowadays. They
say ``Hey! We are responsibly trying to do opt-in only!'', but in reality,
they are just sending out a lot of advertising under the cover of an alleged
confirmation request.)
>I am going to advise the client we cannot complete the
>opt-in process based on what has happened. But I know
>that I am going to be asked what they should do. This is
>where I am stuck.
I don't see any reason why you shouldn't go head and complete the opt-in
confirmations... as long as you avoid the problems mentioned above.
DO NOT use your (re)confirmation request messages as an advertising medium.
Doing so will just convince people that you are spamming.
