Hi everyone, this is Matt Holland, head of online stuff here at Avaaz. I would have replied sooner, but just returned from a week away. I've been a member of the list for a while, because I learn a ton from all of you. I haven't had anything valuable to contribute before now, but glad to have the opportunity to switch from "lurker" to "poster". So, some replies:
Moritz: I'd be thrilled if everyone could use an email account from Riseup or similar, but as others have said it's pretty hard to convince people to change their email service, and convenience often trumps other concerns. Our judgement is that we accomplish more overall by meeting people where they are, even though that involves these sorts of Gmail hassles sometimes. Tom O: It's true that some people sign a petition and then disappear, but actually a high percentage of Avaaz members stay engaged over time. This isn't an advertisement for Avaaz, but you might not know that the petitions are just the tip of the iceberg -- we have scores of organizers around the world who use that citizen pressure as a tool to lobby decisionmakers, get stories into the media, affect administrative policy decisions, shame corporations into changing their behavior, etc. Rich: We actually do run our email lists in-house, sent from our own MTA's, with appropriate SPF records, DKIM signature, list-precedence headers, etc. etc. Our message to members was focused on getting into a particular "tab" at Gmail though; I think if we were having problems with those basic list-management issues we'd be more likely to see our messages being marked spam or just dropped outright. Jillian: I think Ricken's response was more about the Executive Director engaging in a lengthy debate about that particular issue back in 2012. As an organization we work closely with all sorts of allies all over the world, and I have personal relationships with several people on this list. I gain a huge amount from this community and the work many of you do individually, and I hope I can return the favor some day. -- Matt Holland Chief Online Officer Avaaz www.avaaz.org Email: [email protected] Skype: tm_matt PGP key<http://keyserver1.pgp.com/vkd/DownloadKey.event?keyid=0xE2A4F7982BE302CB> (at keyserver.pgp.com) Fingerprint: 3150 3B69 3B8A 9786 C951 EDE0 E2A4 F798 2BE3 02CB
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