[thelist] Newsletter as HTML Email

[Barney Carroll]

Hassan Schroeder wrote:
> ... ... ... ... ... ...
> 
> :::::::::
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> So tell me again, exactly how this is "simplifying" life for this user? :-)

OK, I take your point - it's unfamiliar, they haven't been taught how to 
deal with these in school, etc. And, as you point out, all you have to 
do is open your email client to subscribe to an HTML newsletter (never 
worked for me, hehehe)!

I'm not so sure about the orange icon (you do know what I'm talking 
about, right? - 
http://www.somerandomdude.net/images/articles/rss_vs_rss.gif) being that 
complicated, but I admit that if you haven't configured behaviours 
yourself, or don't know what to do with the feed once they've got it, 
you can get stuck without at least some new information.

I suggest guiding the user, much in the same way as 'Enter your email 
below to subscribe to our newsletter' ... 'You will shortly receive a 
notice of confirmation. Reply to this message to start receiving our 
newsletter'...

Honestly don't believe they'd be that averse to it. Call it 'online 
newsletter' if you think they're really afraid of change, and give a 
nice little paragraph preceded by the word 'Simply' on how to get the 
feed into their reader. I don't think you give non-techie humans enough 
credit. They learnt how to turn on their PC and open IE, didn't they?

Besides, the alternative of not doing anything and basking in the status 
quo is getting worse all the time. Can you give us an example of on of 
your HTML newsletters? List users could send you back screenshots of 
what the product looks like on their various interfaces. Why not?


Regards,
Barney