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drhyde (1683)

drhyde
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http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

Journal of drhyde (1683)

Wednesday January 28, 2004
04:58 AM

Stupid marketeers

[ #17055 ]
For a few years now I've enjoyed electronic books on my Palm. Back when Palm Digital Media was independent and known as Peanut Press, I signed up for their mailing lists so they could offer me cheap books. Yes, I solicit some commercial mail.

When Palm bought Peanut Press, everything continued as before. Then at some point, they switched to sending me mail in broken HTML-only format.

Because HTML-only mail is a damned good indicator that the sender is an idiot with nothing of any interest to say, I have set it to score 4.9 in spamassassin. My spam threshold is 5.0, so it takes only the slightest bit of other spamminess to trip that and into the spam folder it goes. So for some months I've not seen their mailings and forgotten about them and not been spending any money with them.

In fact I only noticed that they still existed because I broke my .procmailrc and wasn't running spamassassin at all - and boy did that hurt. But at least it meant that Palm Digital Media's mailing list went into my inbox.

I have to wonder why they took the stupid decision to unilaterally switch my subscription from proper email to broken HTML mail. And I have to wonder how many other customers have just been silently ignoring them since they started trying to look like idiot spammers.


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  • Me Too (Score:3, Insightful)

    by 2shortplanks (968) on 2004.01.28 5:09 (#27825) Homepage Journal
    I wouldn't have worried about tweaking your settings. Their latest offering went straight into my spam folder with zero tweaking.
    pts rule name              description
    ---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
    0.1 HTML_LINK_CLICK_HERE   BODY: HTML link text says "click here"
    0.1 HTML_MESSAGE           BODY: HTML included in message
    0.2 MIME_HTML_ONLY         BODY: Message only has text/html MIME parts
    0.5 HTML_50_60             BODY: Message is 50% to 60% HTML
    1.4 DATE_IN_PAST_06_12     Date: is 6 to 12 hours before Received: date
    3.2 MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT   Message-Id was added by a relay
    0.0 CLICK_BELOW            Asks you to click below
    I tend to download books from audiable these days anyway - not that you can listen to those on the palm you have.
  • Did you email them and tell them why you're ignoring them? I don't know if it would help, but if your email reaches a non-moron, he might be swayed. I think marketing people don't understand why HTML-only is bad, and get swayed by stupid consultants. I see those consultants here, all the time, and chase them off with sticks. Presumably Peanut Press's business unit has no one with a stick...
    --
    rjbs
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