RE: [IMail Forum] Blaming the RBL instead of the ISP

[John Tolmachoff \(Lists\)]

Sunbelt is even worse than that.   On another list I am a member of, one of their head honchos came on in response to some one asking about spam software for Exchange. He basically came out and said his software was the end all be all best there was and that was all there was too it. Believe me, I got into him with it, and was fully backup by other experts on that list.   Then, check this out. They came out on a open public list without prompt or reason and lambasted a ISA server Guru for advertising his book on the web site that he helped start. (So what, like we are not supposed to promote the products we sell in our e-mail signature and so forth?) However, that ISA server guru has voluntarily written articles that they publish, and they clearly state on their own website and magazine that they will freely advertise their products and promote them.   Talk about a two-faced hypocrite!   John Tolmachoff Engineer/Consultant/Owner eServices For You   -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Matt Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2004 12:15 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] Blaming the RBL instead of the ISP   ...and from the horse's mouth: How Sunbelt wound up on the MAPS real-time blackhole list and why we decided to stay on it http://www.sunbelt-software.com/rbl_story.htm So how did Sunbelt wind up on the RBL? Sunbelt has been working hard to service the Windows NT/2000 community since 1996 and write a e-zine for our customers and prospects since that time. We created a database of email addresses, in the first years in opt-out fashion. June 2000, after our run-in with MAPS we changed that to double opt-in. There are no federal laws yet against opt-out though. We have never spammed anyone (using the spam definition that describes it as either using a subject line that is deceiving, forged headers, or illegal use of some one else's mail server). Yes, we freely admit in our early years we have sent the newsletter partially in opt-out fashion, as was common in the early Internet years, but we always honored unsubscribes, and even have a full time employee to handle list related requests. Last, sometimes we get lists of email addresses from our vendors (almost always the people we sell software for). They confirm us these addresses are interested in our products and are willing (opted in) to receive email from relevant companies. Well, here is where the screwup occurred. We got a relatively large list from a vendor and added that list to our email database and sent them our newsletter. Turns out there were a good bunch of harvested addresses from the WHOIS database in there. Ouch. Our bad. We got flak from all sides. ...