Skip to content
SpamtacularWhere spam and policy collide
  • Home
  • About Mickey
  • Comment Policy
  • Privacy Policy

Why Is Policy Important?

6 January 2020

Policies are important documents, but not everyone understands why they exist. Policies exist in order to delineate what is allowable and what is not. They also exist in order to inform people as to what rules will be followed in certain situations.

This blog has both kinds of policies. We have a Privacy Policy that exists to inform people about what we are doing with data that is collected from the site. We also have a brand new Comment Policy that exists to tell people about what is allowable and what is not when making comments on our posts.

Messaging service providers also have policies with exist for these reasons. Most often, those reasons are centered around the policies of yet other providers: the gatekeepers of the recipient services. An anti-spam policy, in particular, exists as a reflection of what a service provider knows that users need to do in order to successfully send messages to others. Policies which state how incoming messages will be treated have a very definite impact upon the policies that govern which messages will be allowed to leave.

Read moreThe Spock Trap

By and large, this only makes sense. If I take a generalized survey of providers and see that the majority of them state that they only want to receive and process messages for which their users have previously extended permission, then it is in my company’s own best interest to see that my service has a reputation for playing by those rules. If the rules change, then the policy can change to reflect that new reality.

Unfortunately, many people look at policy as an obstacle or as if it were somehow something optional. Mostly, this seems to happen because “policy” is mistaken for “best practice.” There are lots of people out there who advocate for disregarding best practices when it is convenient to do so. To some degree, those people have a point. It is not always advantageous to follow best practices and, if you know what you are doing and why you are doing it, certain best practices can be safely disregarded without penalty. However, policies are not best practices. They exist in a different realm.

It is pretty common for me to hear from people who want to disregard policy because it conflicts with “the way that we have always done things.” These people would like to use new tools to service old methods, when those things may not be compatible.

Read moreBad Advice

A number of years ago, I had a policy conflict with the CMO of a very large non-profit. This CMO had a very long and probably storied history in the direct mail space. He wanted to use purchased data because that is what he had always done. Eventually, I needed to have an onsite meeting with him and his team. We had to show this CMO that things had changed and those old methods would not work in this “new” space. So, I gathered all of the spam complaints that had come in over the course of the previous month and showed them what people were saying about his brand. Many of the examples featured profanity. I knew that the point had been made when the CMO turned to the team and asked: “Are people really saying that about us?”

Today, people tend not to send direct spam complaints. Instead, they will click the “this is spam” button at their mailbox provider. This creates feedback which the provider uses (along with other factors) to generate a reputation that determines how the provider will handle any new mail that comes in from the same sender. Certain parts of that feedback also apply to the sender’s service provider. Given enough feedback about enough of a service provider’s customers and the mailbox provider will start to apply a penalty to all of those incoming messages. The effort to avoid that broad of a penalty involves the creation and even application of policies governing what kinds of messages may be sent.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Email
Tags: policy

Calendar

January 2020
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  
« Nov   Feb »

Archives

  • November 2021
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • November 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • January 2017
  • August 2016
  • June 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • November 2014
  • June 2014
  • April 2014
  • February 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • September 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2012
  • April 2012
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • March 2011
  • January 2011
  • November 2010
  • July 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • March 2009
  • January 2009
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • April 2008

Categories

  • Administrivia
  • Industry
  • Law
  • Policy
  • Spam
  • Uncategorized

Copyright Spamtacular 2023 | Theme by ThemeinProgress | Proudly powered by WordPress