decide how to handle unsubscribe requests

[chadwhitacre]

We recently sent two email blasts to all of our users, one for the Gratipocalypse and another for Gratipay 2.0/Year Three. We didn't include unsubscribe links in these emails, for at least technical reasons: our unsubscribe infrastructure depends on notification types, and we don't have an appropriate notification type for these messages. We've received some unsubscribe requests:

https://gratipay.freshdesk.com/helpdesk/tickets/2264
https://gratipay.freshdesk.com/helpdesk/tickets/2271
https://gratipay.freshdesk.com/helpdesk/tickets/2275
https://gratipay.freshdesk.com/helpdesk/tickets/2269

How should we handle these requests?

[chadwhitacre]

I say "for at least technical reasons" because it's not clear to me whether the two messages we sent out count as "transactional and relationship messages" according to CAN-SPAM, which is the law we're under here, enforced by the FTC.

15 U.S.C. § 7702(2)(B):

The term “commercial electronic mail message” does not include a transactional or relationship message.

15 U.S.C. § 7702(17):

(17) Transactional or relationship message
(A) In general
The term “transactional or relationship message” means an electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is—
(i) to facilitate, complete, or confirm a commercial transaction that the recipient has previously agreed to enter into with the sender;
(ii) to provide warranty information, product recall information, or safety or security information with respect to a commercial product or service used or purchased by the recipient;
(iii) to provide—
(I) notification concerning a change in the terms or features of;
(II) notification of a change in the recipient's standing or status with respect to; or
(III) at regular periodic intervals, account balance information or other type of account statement with respect to,

a subscription, membership, account, loan, or comparable ongoing commercial relationship involving the ongoing purchase or use by the recipient of products or services offered by the sender;
(iv) to provide information directly related to an employment relationship or related benefit plan in which the recipient is currently involved, participating, or enrolled; or
(v) to deliver goods or services, including product updates or upgrades, that the recipient is entitled to receive under the terms of a transaction that the recipient has previously agreed to enter into with the sender.

[chadwhitacre]

After reviewing FTC's FAQ, I think we blurred the lines with these two messages. They could have been framed in such a way that they were transactional messages, and probably should have been ("important change in terms of service"), but instead they were framed more as marketing messages. I propose that we:

• Apologize to the people who have asked to unsubscribe: "I'm sorry. We won't send you any more messages like that."
• Not send out any more marketing messages until we have a general-purpose mechanism that includes a proper unsubscribe link (Email updates to givers gratipay.com#2521).
• Consider removing the option to turn charge notifications off, since those are clearly transactional.
• Consider replacing the unsubscribe link with a notice for global terms notifications: "This is an important transactional or relationship message associated with your Gratipay account. To avoid receiving messages like this in the future, please close your Gratipay account." We should only use that option for major terms of service changes—hopefully not for a while!

[chadwhitacre]

We should only use that option for major terms of service changes—hopefully not for a while!

Though, actually: do we want to send out another notification for receivers under Gratipay 1.0 once we're ready to open up team registration generally (i.e., link it on the site)?

[clone1018]

One quick note, we could potentially lean on Mandrill to do the heavy
lifting now. Mandrill can automatically append the unsubscribe footer to
our emails and then manage that list for us. They also offer the ability to
export it for later.

On Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 10:10 AM Chad Whitacre [email protected]
wrote:

We should only use that option for major terms of service
changes—hopefully not for a while!

Though, actually: do we want to send out another notification for
receivers under Gratipay 1.0 once we're ready to open up team registration
generally (i.e., link it on the site)?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#235 (comment)
.

[chadwhitacre]

I've responded to the four users linked in the description.

@clone1018 I considered using Mandrill's blacklist here, but it seems like we want to keep one source of truth.

[chadwhitacre]

Consider removing the option to turn charge notifications off, since those are clearly transactional.

I guess it doesn't hurt to let people opt-out of charge notifications, does it?

[chadwhitacre]

CAN-SPAM doesn't mean we can't let people opt out of transactional messages if we want to.

[chadwhitacre]

Explaining in the message why there's no unsubscribe reticketed as gratipay/gratipay.com#3516.