Wednesday 17 March 2010

Anyone ever tell you your emails suck? I felt like this today and so here's a brief rant on companies that 'capture' your email address (opt-in) and spam you with tripe for the next few years. Or as long as they can get away with it.

Until, of course, you get sick of your 'refresh' yielding up simply another collection of self-interested rubbish promoting seaside vacation rentals or home PC help. Once too many times and you eventually take the step of unsubscribing.

To you, it's only a click. I wonder how those companies feel when someone - YOU! - drops their mindlessly dull and venal feed into the trashcan of their existence.

On Twitter, an unfollow can seem like a kick in the guts, as Dee at tremendousnews.com tells us in delicious detail. But we rarely spare a thought for the guys and gals behind corporate email spam.

But we shouldn't, anyway, because if it weren't so bloody irrelevant we might still be receiving their boring and misplacedly-earnest emails. I hate to see any animal suffer, and so I'm taking pity on myself. I unsubscribed to four email feeds today and will feel no remorse if more of the lamentable stuff falls into my inbox tomorrow.

Corporates: you've been warned.

Postscript - The moment I published this post an email arrived from LinkedIn advertising a dinner with an eminent person at my alma mater. This is a sign of the times. Seeing how email spam is shunned, the corporates are infiltrating other spaces. It's happening in Facebook but this is the first time LinkedIn has been used this way to contact me.

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