Opt-in, again

I have written about how to handle double opt-in so that your e-mail messages reach subscribers who really want them. But things on the 'Net haven't improved much.

I just got a series of weather bulletins for abecerra@gibbs.com and there is no such person in my domain. Obviously "abecerra" is confused about the domain he or she is in, or is possibly just a bad typist.

Whatever the truth is, here's the way you do double opt-in:

1. On your Web server or list server, you receive a message requesting that somebody@somewhere.com be subscribed to your e-mail list (first opt-in).
2. You send somebody@somewhere.com a message saying "You asked to be subscribed to 'somelist' - reply to this message to start your subscription." Put the user in the pending list.
3. If you get a positive response (second opt-in) from somebody@somewhere.com within x days, activate the user's subscription.
4. If no response in x days, purge the user record from the pending list.

That's it, folks! Follow that recipe, and you'll stay out of trouble. And when a user wants to unsubscribe, go through the same process to ensure that the user really wants to unsubscribe. Also, offer the user the choice of getting an unsubscribe confirmation because getting a "Thanks, we won't bother you again" message (pointless to say, as they just did!) can be very irritating.

Feel free to let me know what the most irritating companies in this area are, other than Microsoft. Perhaps we'll give a prize at Interop!

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist. He writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist. He writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World. Gibbs is also co-conspirator of the Vitally Important Information Web site.

Gibbs can be contacted at webapps@gibbs.com. Press releases to pr@gibbs.com.

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