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does not offer unsolicited bulk email campaigns – commonly known
as "spam" – as one of our services, for all kinds of reasons.
For the same reasons, our hosting clients are strictly prohibited
from sending unsolicited email from the Enchanted Websites server;
violation of this policy will result in discontinuation of services.
Here are some of the reasons for our anti-spam policy:
- Spam
is an abuse of the Internet and a violation of the Internet community.
We view it as an abuse of the Internet's capabilities and potential,
and only wish to support activities that benefit both marketers
and consumers.
- E-mail
spam is unique in that the receiver pays much more for it
than the sender does.
- Many
spam messages say "please send a REMOVE message to get
off our list.'' Even
disregarding the question of why you should have to do anything
to get off a list you never asked to join, this becomes completely
unworkable if the volume of spam grows.
- The
potential for negative backlash is great.
It includes such unmitigated disasters as:
-
The shutting down of your website or your ISP service.
While the party that spams you might choose to ignore your
replies, the owner of the domain from which it originated
or the administrative or billing contacts who sponsored the
domain will be much less likely to do so.
- Getting
your website address or domain name on Web "blacklists".
How would you like to receive this message back from someone
you had hoped would be a customer, in response to your bulk
email:
"Our
private e-mail facilities are not your advertising medium.
People who use them as such abuse our resources and waste
our time, which are extremely valuable. We have entered your
e-mail address and company name in our corporate blacklist
database. We will not do business with you now, nor will we
consider other requests from you in the future. Remove this
e-mail address from your junk mail list immediately and do
not contact us again in the future."
- Poor
first impression.
Furthermore, because the vast majority of spam messages advertise
stuff that's worthless, deceptive, and partly or entirely
fraudulent – and this has become common knowledge among email
users – it therefore is not the most desirable kind of first
impression to make on your prospective customers.
- The
legality of spam is in question.
Some kinds of spam are already illegal in some countries on the
Internet. Also, it is likely to be much more widely regulated
if not prohibited in the near future – click here
for a comprehensive status report on anti-spam laws. Quite apart
from valid concerns about civil liberties, it is just not savvy
marketing-wise to be associated with something that is "on
trial". At least wait till the trial is over before linking
your good name to it! But even from the standpoint of civil liberties:
Legislation grows best in a vacuum. If the problem of e-mail abuse
gets to be large enough, and if we, the good citizens of the Internet
community, do not effectively self-regulate it (which includes
not being spammers ourselves), various levels of government will
feel the need to step in and try to legislate a stop to it.
Here are some
useful links for more information regarding spam:
Click
here
for the marketing services that we do endorse and are happy
to offer!
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