[thelist] RE: checked boxes or unchecked boxes

[ANDREA STREIGHT]

head lemur and Chris Kavanaugh:

thanks for substantiating further how "pre-selection" is indeed an 
abomination, and a lack of marketing imagination.

Good old Jakob Nielsen, I forgot how he spoke of this lunacy.

Pre-selection of user preferences based on previous profile: this is an 
entirely different matter. Of course, this is clearly not "pre-selection" 
but "post-selection" reminder. This is entirely altruistic and to be 
encouraged for convenience to users. Not a problem.

But this con artist type "pre-checked boxes" is similar to spam. Imposing 
things on users that they did not give you permission to impose. Ever heard 
of Permission Marketing?

Why did someone have to bring up my pet peeve again: HTML newsletters. I 
hate HTML email, for security reasons. So I don't care if 99% of subscribers 
choose HTML newsletters. Are they too lazy to check that option box?

We must never assume we know what a specific customer wants, unless they 
tell us. This preselected options junk is another symtom of corporate 
arrogance and old fashioned "push" marketing, when the modern philosophy is 
"pull" marketing. Seduce, don't bully! (Ladies out there will agree here, I 
think).

I still have not heard one legit use of "pre-selected" outside of the 
entirely different matter of "post-selection" verification for profile 
updates and so forth.


Steven Streight
STREIGHT SITE SYSTEMS
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