A few posts ago I talked about how a single spam message got ExactTarget (temporarily) blocked at a rather large and well-known university.
A commenter replied with the following: "Great example of how positively bankrupt the anti-spam community is and how dramatically administrators fail their constituents. The admin should be fired."
I can understand that somebody might be upset that a single email administrator has so much control over a sender's ability to reach the inbox. However, it's not a productive response.
The fact of the matter is, this is how the world works. And the law is on the side of the receiver. Under US law, both the CDA (Communications Decency Act) and CAN-SPAM effectively allow receivers to block anything they want in their best efforts to try and stop the deluge of spam they receive.
And how exactly do you plan to get that administrator fired? You don't have much leverage. How far do you expect to get by sending an angry, blustery letter to the university? I suspect there is approximately a zero percent chance that you have enough persuasive power to get that email administrator removed.
So, I was never angry at the email administrator. Why would I be? I used to be an email administrator myself, and I've been in his shoes on many occasions.
Instead, I handled it the same way any reasonable and considerate person would: I sent a polite and reasonable message to the site's administrator, asking for his assistance in resolving the issue. I didn't bluster. I didn't accuse. I just explained what and who we are, how we work, asked him if he would be willing to work with me, and inviting him to respond. Which he did, in kind. It was a polite and reasonable discussion all around.
See, this is what the deliverability team does. We run interference for our clients. We know how to speak the same language as an ISP (or university). We've dealt with this before with many clients, and with many ISPs. That's why you should work with an ESP with a strong deliverability team. If they know what they're doing, they've been down this road before and know what to do.
A commenter replied with the following: "Great example of how positively bankrupt the anti-spam community is and how dramatically administrators fail their constituents. The admin should be fired."
I can understand that somebody might be upset that a single email administrator has so much control over a sender's ability to reach the inbox. However, it's not a productive response.
The fact of the matter is, this is how the world works. And the law is on the side of the receiver. Under US law, both the CDA (Communications Decency Act) and CAN-SPAM effectively allow receivers to block anything they want in their best efforts to try and stop the deluge of spam they receive.
And how exactly do you plan to get that administrator fired? You don't have much leverage. How far do you expect to get by sending an angry, blustery letter to the university? I suspect there is approximately a zero percent chance that you have enough persuasive power to get that email administrator removed.
So, I was never angry at the email administrator. Why would I be? I used to be an email administrator myself, and I've been in his shoes on many occasions.
Instead, I handled it the same way any reasonable and considerate person would: I sent a polite and reasonable message to the site's administrator, asking for his assistance in resolving the issue. I didn't bluster. I didn't accuse. I just explained what and who we are, how we work, asked him if he would be willing to work with me, and inviting him to respond. Which he did, in kind. It was a polite and reasonable discussion all around.
See, this is what the deliverability team does. We run interference for our clients. We know how to speak the same language as an ISP (or university). We've dealt with this before with many clients, and with many ISPs. That's why you should work with an ESP with a strong deliverability team. If they know what they're doing, they've been down this road before and know what to do.
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