[thelist] blacklists and hotmail or comcast

[Joel D Canfield]

On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 11:17 AM, Bob Meetin <bobm at dottedi.biz> wrote:

> The elder 38,000 never got the opportunity to opt-in as the newsletter
> checkbox didn't exist for them. In the db they are "NULL".  They never got
> the opportunity to sign up, so I feel that this is technically SPAM to
> contact them.


My definition of 'not spam' is whether the communique is personal,
anticipated, and relevant. They're all somewhat subjective. Most folks know
that a mass mailing isn't eminently personal, but if the intent is to make a
connection, not a sale, it can feel more personal. If they've ever done
business with these folks, legally, communication is 'anticipated', and
practically, it is, to some extent. If it is really believed that this
information would also be relevant, it meets my personal definition.

Of course, the criterion is really, will the recipient think it's spam?
Educated guess time. Risk/reward analysis. Allow ethics and professionalism
to outweigh profit, and someone will make the right choice.

Good communication with whoever is delivering these emails is probably
vital. If the ISP or whoever is on board with this, or at least aware of it,
nobody's likely to lose their services over it.

joel