Thread: Belly dance spam

Yesterday, I received an email from a dancer asking how to update her entry in the directory of my web site. I sent her a prompt reply with instructions on where to find the form to request the update.

In just 24 hours, I have received THREE, count 'em, THREE spam email messages from her trumpeting her activities a thousand miles away from me.

I believe that she probably has her email address set up to automatically add to her spamming list anybody who sends her email for any reason, with no review to determine whether it makes sense to add that person or not.

I was so annoyed by this unwanted spam that I felt very tempted to discard her request to modify her directory entry. I didn't do it, but I was tempted.

So, the purpose of this message is offer advice to everyone reading this who may be thinking of creating a mass mailing email list:

1. Do NOT, please, DO NOT set up your email address to automatically put everyone who sends you an email on your mass mailing list. Please, exercise some thought before adding someone to it. If you don't think the person's feelings are important enough to pause and think about whether it's appropriate to add her to your mass mailing list, then why should she give a damn about what you have to say?
2. Be careful not to overuse your email list. If you send an excessive number of messages to it, your recipients will become annoyed and demand to be removed. My suggestion: try to send stuff to it no more often than once per month unless there is a VERY compelling reason to make an occasional exception.

I get a ton of these, from the same three or four people mostly. I need to just ask to be removed from their lists instead of putting up with the nuisance because I don't want them to feel rejected.

I'll never win that brass cymbals award at this rate!

Ive accidently put people in my address book but they ended up in the wrong category, insead of the Pro/other dancers list they ended up in my Student list, BOTH times totaly on accident, (sorry oz and michelle) Totaly my bad, maybe she just made a mistake? or hit the wrong button? I have those fake nail things which makes typing very hard, and on a laptop at that, so mistakes do happen. I would just e mail her, if you still get them them im wrong.....

Originally Posted by annwyn

Ive accidently put people in my address book but they ended up in the wrong category, insead of the Pro/other dancers list they ended up in my Student list, BOTH times totaly on accident, (sorry oz and michelle) Totaly my bad, maybe she just made a mistake? or hit the wrong button? I have those fake nail things which makes typing very hard, and on a laptop at that, so mistakes do happen. I would just e mail her, if you still get them them im wrong.....

Annwyn, I can see why you say that, but at the bottom of her propaganda I noticed that the way to "unsubscribe" uses one of the mailing list software products - ie, one of the products that can be configured to automatically add everyone who sends you email to your list whether they're likely to appreciate it or not.

you can block her email address from your account too, right?

Oh I didnt think about that, yeah then Id be annoyed too....

i get a few of these per week. emails about bellydance classes somehwere in the US. i just ignore 'em...

Originally Posted by *Shira*

Annwyn, I can see why you say that, but at the bottom of her propaganda I noticed that the way to "unsubscribe" uses one of the mailing list software products - ie, one of the products that can be configured to automatically add everyone who sends you email to your list whether they're likely to appreciate it or not.

I didn't even know there were such programs. How annoying. Why would anyone want to add any who emails them to their mailing list. Wouldn't that just result in more spam for them as well? I mean, if spam is sent to their inbox, and that email is added to their email list, then their sending spam to the spammer... who now know they have an active account and and will use the email addy more often. It also results in clogging up the web (all this spam flying around between spammers) -- so the software producers are, imo, completely irresponsible for putting this option into their product!

There is a certain dancer in Ann Arbor Michigan to whom I have sent at least 8 requests since 2005 to be removed from her mailing list. I know she got them because I got a couple of "oops sorry" replies from her. Am I finally off her list? Don't know. As of a couple of months ago I was still on it.

Apparently I keep getting recruited to the list because Illinois is one of her surrounding states, nevermind that IL is 500 miles long and I'm at the opposite end as she, making Ann Arbor at least 8 hours away.

Sedonia

Originally Posted by aazura

the software producers are, imo, completely irresponsible for putting this option into their product!

The producers of software like this don't care.
Spam is, flat out, the dark side of having a cheap and easy means of communication. The means of generating it are so cheap and easy that even one response can make a spam campaign worth the money for such a package, over time. Heck, I can sit here at my computer and write you such a package in about an hour! And the changes in infrastructure to make it harder to pass spam around would basically change the 'net as we know it.

The basic solution, if any, is the same as for many things. We must openly reject dance vendors or "professionals" who use such tactics. Only by hitting their wallets will they know to avoid spamming and other ethically challenged activities. Sometimes they know better, but sometimes they're just new to the 'Net, and don't know any better...

And folks, you can do more than just block 'em in your email client. Worse comes to worse, you can report someone to what's called a Blacklist. These are organizations that keep lists of spammers, lists that are used by vendors of spam-protecting programs to stop spam in the mail servers, well before it ever reaches your Inbox. SpamCop is one such service.

Nowadays, I use the dual layer of my ISP's native spam protection, and then point my email to GMail, which has a kick-butt spam protection. I get a lot of bellydance spam, and some I try to reason with, but the ones that I drop into my GMail spam folder manually rarely pop back up. :)

I put out a signup sheet for my monthly newsletter at me classes, and because of stuff like this, I always feel compelled to say, "I promise not to spam you, I only send one email a month!". Sometimes I wish the students would pay me the same courtesy, though - I get a ton of glurgy crap and other email forwards from the people who have signed up for my newsletter.

Originally Posted by Lauren_

I get a ton of these, from the same three or four people mostly. I need to just ask to be removed from their lists instead of putting up with the nuisance because I don't want them to feel rejected.

I'll never win that brass cymbals award at this rate!

Lauren, we have to get you a posse - (a group of bhuzzers to support you and spur you on to brass cymbal greatness)

I know you can do it!
- Paula

Yeah, spam from overseas really sucks. You want me to come to your bellydance event in New York (yet again)? Sure, I will be only too happy to if you pay for a return ticket from Australia. I reckon I could do with that! Make it first class and I'll promise to turn up.

Honestly, what are these people thinking? It seems that a lot of event promoters get their email lists from Bhuz. Grrrr.

When I get spam from across the country, or globe, I usually reply, asking to be removed from the mailing list and explaining that I never really find myself in their area.

One time I had a dancer get really snippy with me about this (I think she was in NJ or somewhere else out East and far from me). She claims that getting everyone else's spam is how she's discovered some wonderful up-and-coming talent and I should be grateful that she's chosen to include me on her list. She removed me from her list, but as of last month, I'm back on.

My troupe's newsletter (service through godaddy) has an opt-in. If we add an address to our list, the potential listee gets an email that they have to respond to if they want to be on the list. If we inadvertently put someone on the list who doesn't want to get our newsletter, it's as simple as that person doing absolutely nothing and they never get our mail. If they sign up for the newsletter on our website, they still get a confirmation email before getting onto the list.

I may not reach as many people this way, but I sure do annoy a lot less of them!!