Re: [Asrg] Teaching my boss to email politely

["Chris Lewis" <[e-mail]>]

Erik Hollensbe wrote:

> I don't know where most of you come from culture-wise in this industry; 
> but in my world it's still very much about teaching people how to fish 
> instead of handing them the finished product. It would be beneficial to 
> both him and us (as mail administrators) to have this information 
> centrally available.

This may be the wrong place, but, some of the information below becomes 
useful upon occasion:

There's a couple of different levels to this, season to suit.  Level 3 
and above gets you into progressively more severe damage to the 
bottom-line.  That tends to get attention paid.

Level 1: for those who are "instructable" and non-tech:

http://www.mail-abuse.com/an_listmgntgdlines.html is a recent version of 
a highly regarded document of best practices (and why) at a 
general/conceptual level.  Been around for a very long time.  Many 
people quote it in situations like this.

Level 2: for those who are instructable and want tech details: see the 
MAAWG Sender Best Practices document at http://www.maawg.org.

Level 3: for those who need a stick: you'll get blocked by the sites 
that you care most about, if not a significant chunk of the Internet. 
Big sites are good at it.  If a big site notices you, you always lose.
So don't go there.

Level 4: bigger stick: It is becoming illegal in increasing numbers of 
jurisdictions (eg: EU or AU) to send unsolicited email.

Level 5: for those who need a very large stick: If Bill C-27 passes 
(it's damn close), every time he sends unsolicited email to a Canadian 
(and how can you tell whether a .com is a American or Canadian?), he 
could be on the hook for a fine of up to $250K _apiece_.  And no, he 
can't assume that the three branches of the Canadian government 
responsible for C-27 will be too busy to go after him.  Bill C-27 means 
he can get PRA/class action suits on his head _too_.

To paraphrase Clint:  "Does he feel lucky?"

I never have to go no further than "don't do that, or spamhaus will 
block us" (level 3).   That always ends it.  Not that I have to do that 
often.  Our marketers don't need me to tell them that spam is bad. They 
just occasionally need me to point out who the fraudsters are.