Hi, On Mon, 3 May 2004, Dan Wilder wrote:
> On Sat, May 01, 2004 at 04:07:45PM -0400, Theo Van Dinter wrote: > > On Sat, May 01, 2004 at 01:31:37PM -0600, Bob Proulx wrote: > > > "Double" is clearly wrong. If "confirmed" is also taken to such > > > alternate and incorrect meanings then how should it be described > > > unambiguously? > > > > I usually use "Verified Opt-In". It avoids using terminology that > > either "side" already uses, and generally gets the point across that > > the opt-in request has had some work done to "verify" the opt-in request > > was authentic. > > If "verified opt-in" gains currency, there's nothing to prevent > spammers from abusing it. Yup, which is why you always need to spell everything out up front. Blame the marketers for twisting the words at every opportunity. But given that they're predisposed to doing so, if you want to carry on a meaningful dialogue, you need to explicitly define each term at the outset or people will walk away from the table with the wrong impressions. [...] > As others have pointed out, "Double opt-in" has an honorable > lineage as applied to a process involving two opt-in steps, one > an initial opt-in via web or email, the second, a reply to a confirming > email sent to the address which allegedly attempted to sign up for a > mailing list, according to the first opt-in. Otherwise called closed-loop opt-in. The word "double" is irksome because it implies that one is superfluously opting in twice. And I keep conjuring up images of John Warner as Dean Wormer, putting my address on "Double Secret Opt-In"... Opt-in originally meant that recipient (not the address) had requested mail; marketers redefined this to mean that they had an address that was opted-in by an unverified someone. Then the mail admins changed the term to 'confirmed opt-in' to specifically denote that the *recipient* needed to confirm they had opted-in the address. The was redefined by the marketers to mean that an unverified someone had opted-in an address and that the *sender* sent a confirmation note that they were about to send to that address. Now 'double opt-in' is often taken as a synonym for 'opt-in with closed-loop confirmation.' I won't be surprised if this gets redefined to mean something awful so it's best not to trust any term without it being strictly defined at the outset. Not all marketers are evil weasels but enough are to not trust any of their terminology, ever. > I'm unaware of any other use of the phrase. Perhaps Bob or somebody > else could help me there ... are there spammers or anybody else > claiming some other definition seriously at variance with its > accustomed usage? See above. 'Spamming' is what the other guy does... :/ -- Bob
