On Thu, 19 Feb 2009, Ian Eiloart wrote: > Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:15:06 +0000 > From: Ian Eiloart <i...@sussex.ac.uk> > Reply-To: ClamAV users ML <clamav-users@lists.clamav.net> > To: ClamAV users ML <clamav-users@lists.clamav.net> > Subject: Re: [Clamav-users] please remove > > > >>> >>> Can we not have the list unsubscribe link in the footer, too? It's a >>> legal requirement in the UK to have an easy to use mechanism to >>> unsubscribe to marketing emails. The definition of marketing would >>> definitely extend to promotion of free open source software. Whether it >>> also extends to a support list like this might be debatable, >> >> That's not even remotely logical. One needs to subscribe and approve a >> subscription to this list. It is, in no way, a marketing email. > > The fact that you've subscribed is irrelevant to whether it's marketing. > It's marketing if it promotes use of a service or a product. The UK > legislation is absolutely explicit about that. > >>> but surely the developers of >>> software developed mainly in response to the spamming industry ought to >>> be following best practice. >> >> Best practice is to have a challenge system set up for subscribing. That's >> been done. > > But this is not about preventing people from getting subscribed, it's about > making it easy for them to unsubscribe when they change their mind. > >>> As long as most MTAs don't expose the List-Unsubscribe: header (none do >>> by default, as far as I'm aware), it can't be described as "easy to use". >> >> If you can figure out how to subscribe, you can figure out how to >> unsubscribe. It's a standard mailing list, not a one way advertisement. > > I can figure it out. I can also figure out the volume of space > circumscribed by the earth in three months of its orbit. The question is > not whether I can figure it out, but whether its easy. > >>> Some MTAs even make it really hard to find the full message headers. >> >> MTA's? HUH? Maybe you mean mail clients, mot MTA? > > Yes. > >> Either way, it'd be NICE to put something in the footer, but nothing >> demands it, it's not a best practices issue and it's certainly not >> illegal for it not to be there. > > Well, as I say it's debatable, but the more I think about it, the more I'm > convinced that a support mailing list for a product probably does qualify > as marketing in UK law. Anyway, I don't want to convince anyone of the > fact, but if we want to avoid reading unsubscribe requests, then we > definitely need to make the unsubscribe URL more discoverable. > >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Help us build a comprehensive ClamAV guide: visit http://wiki.clamav.net >> http://www.clamav.net/support/ml > > > > -- > Ian Eiloart > IT Services, University of Sussex > x3148 > _______________________________________________ > Help us build a comprehensive ClamAV guide: visit http://wiki.clamav.net > http://www.clamav.net/support/ml >
<rant> The ONLY way to prevent reading unsubscribe messages (which annoy me too), is to remove all users from the mailing list now. You will ALWAYS see some, no matter what you do to prevent them. People are too busy to be bothered to look for even the most simple to find instructions and don't care who they inconvenience or bother. They need to be unsubscribed now and they can't be troubled with doing it themselves until they find out, they're the only ones who can remove themselves (generally). </rant> I am confident that the majority of the frequent posters to this list and a portion of the others wouldn't fall into the above category, but the few that always seem to fall into the above, get magnified by they annoyance they cause. Eric _______________________________________________ Help us build a comprehensive ClamAV guide: visit http://wiki.clamav.net http://www.clamav.net/support/ml
