> recipient list ... with their subscribe/unsubscribe status
> ...API lets us interrogate and twiddle a contact's subscribe/unsubscribe status. It can remain the master database.
I have assumed that when I unsubscribe from a mailing list my entry is deleted from the subscriber database. Apparently not.
If this is really the case this makes me want give up on trying to unsubscribe and instead just mark things as spam. Fuck these people.
When I get unsolicited mail I definitely send it straight to trash, I don't even try to be nice.
Keeping your address around prevents you from getting spammed. It's not some nefarious plot.
But I cannot imagine a case where it is legit to send an automatic message to someone who did not explicitly give permission to receive it.
Charitable interpretation 2: list of consenting subscribers from a one-time campaign, but due to human error, someone ends up importing the same list again 3 months down the line.
Not only do I enjoy bein gthe victim of such people I wouldn't want to be their customer either, if that's their level of care.
BTW I have carried a bag myself (lived on commission) from cold-calling up to closing large deals. So this isn't some "commerce is crap" / "I hate salespeople" knee-jerk bullshit. Shoveling turds into my inbox is gets you on, well, my shit list.
To me, sending me automatic mail I didn't ask for is being an outsider and adding to my todo list.* This is a hostile act, basically saying you do not value my time.
So when you tell me that you get a list of names and just add them to your spray-n-pray list, I can only consider that spammy activity. And when I think of it that way, maintaining a "don't harass these people again" list doesn't sound like a kindness, it sounds like you did it to avoid getting sued, i.e. for your benefit, not mine.
As I said, I'd be interested to learn if there is a more charitable way to look at it. Because the way it looks to me, it's all about you and you don't give a shit about the people who receive your messages.
* there is legit unsolicited mail, for example if my pal Alice tells Bob, "hey, you should ask gumby your question, here's his address". That's by definition personal and low volume.
Though as a middle ground it does seem like writing is on the wall for an additional checkbox like “unsubscribe and delete my mailing list record and mail preferences (your email may be retrieved again and get added back to the mailing list.)”
How would you build such a machine? How would you make sure the machine doesn't do the wrong thing and send emails to people that have clicked the unsubscribe button? There are many humans swirling around, of varying technical competency and kindness and sanity levels. All it would take is for one of them, half drunk, to upload Dreamforce_emails_FINAL_1_(1).csv instead of Dreamforce_emails_FINAL_1_MINUS_GUMBY.csv into the machine for your email to reappear after you'd unsubscribed.
Arguably this information should be stored encrypted, but I suspect that’s very rare.
If you add people who aren't asking to subscribe that's the definition of spam (the "unsolicited" part of "UCE")
Sorry if this little bit of sausage-making bothers you, but it's pretty much how every mailing list works everywhere.