J.D. Falk's Comments

SendGrid : Changes to DomainKeys and new DKIM app

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 18:57:03 +0000

Recently? DomainKeys was deprecated in favor of DKIM in 2007.

OnlyOnce : Juxtaposition

Tue, 3 May 2011 19:14:27 +0000

I think this shows (once again) that human beings set their own context when reading email — and no amount of market research can override the real world.

Feld Thoughts : The Magic of Email Conversations

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:40:07 +0000

The author's email client inserts the headers, and the recipient's email client (be it desktop or web-based) interprets them. Smarter clients can also correctly thread messages which don't include the headers, though not quite as easily. That's one of the things gmail missed.

Feld Thoughts : The Magic of Email Conversations

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:57:13 +0000

Jamie Zawinsky wrote this in 1997, and the algorithm he describes still sounds better than most of the threading we see in products these days: http://www.jwz.org/doc/threading.html I think the real shift gmail caused is that it finally broke the idea that if a mail client doesn't look and feel exactly like Outlook, nobody will ever use it -- something we unix command line folks have known all along.

OnlyOnce : Yiddish for Business

Mon, 10 May 2010 19:18:31 +0000

Turns out, people from Michigan aren't called Meshugenah. Who knew?

Spamtacular : Which "experts" do you listen to?

Fri, 2 Apr 2010 19:11:42 +0000

If you're trying to understand deliverability, don't confine yourself to email marketing blogs. Anti-spam resources are relevant, too, because new spam threats result in new anti-spam techniques -- and those might affect your deliverability far more immediately.

Feld Thoughts : Beers with Brad in Boulder

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:28:08 +0000

thanks for supporting KGNU!

OnlyOnce : What Gets Said vs. What Gets Heard

Tue, 5 Jan 2010 22:26:43 +0000

So, Matt, you're saying we need a banana tree in the office?

Spamtacular : The hard truth about email

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 20:15:11 +0000

Tom, you're right that email marketers and deliverabilty wonks aren't doing anything about botnets, but they're far from the only players. There's a long list of "primary sources" links along the left side of boxofmeat.net which may provide some helpful information on what the rest of the industry is doing.

Feld Thoughts : Pretending You Are Luggage

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 18:22:08 +0000

I think I fall somewhere in between, most of the time. I do enter a mindset of "okay, I'm in their hands now, nothing I can do" -- but in return for my being passive, I still expect them to do their part. Having flown through quite a few airports (though probably not as many as Brad), I'm convinced that we're very, very lucky to live near DIA. The TSA staff is actually friendly, even as they yell out stupid rules over and over. So are most of the gate staff (with a few glaring exceptions, like Midwest Airlines.) I don't know what makes DIA different, but other airports could learn a lot.

Box of Meat : Tumblr Quote

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:14:17 +0000

Stephanie works for Return Path: http://www.returnpath.net/ -- she may have a lot of suggestions for your webinar.

OnlyOnce : Scaling Frustrations

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 16:30:59 +0000

Okay! Matt said to ignore the things he said. Got it. *grin*

Spamtacular : Yahoo! running (some of) Verizon's Email Services

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:39:51 +0000

Here's the press release about this from 2005:

http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2005/page.jsp?itemID=29708038

and the fact sheet, also from 2005:

http://newscenter.verizon.com/kit/consumer-dsl/dslfactsheet.html

OnlyOnce : On the Other Hand...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:07:31 +0000

I got the same recently; must be a new program. I particularly appreciated the brevity of the message: instead of spitting multiple paragraphs at me to explain how impressed I should be, they just gave me the numbers and a minimal-but-sufficient explanation, and let me draw my own conclusions.

OnlyOnce : A Network of Teams, Not an Integrated System

Mon, 18 May 2009 15:11:06 +0000

It strikes me that we at Return Path also have the opportunity to share this idea with our customers who send email, encouraging them to always consider their recipients' point of view -- not only in aggregate via complaint rates, or consumer research, but as individual human beings.

Feld Thoughts : Branded iPhone Apps

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:54:41 +0000

How is this different from branded screen savers & similarly pointless logo glorification of the past? What do the users get out of it that they can't get anywhere else?

OnlyOnce : Less is More

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:23:40 +0000

And, the thing that's probably going to be most frustrating for email marketers is that even if they're following best practices themselves, all those other email marketers -- the ones who think don't respect their subscribers -- are out there ruining email for everyone. People don't get inbox overload one sender at a time; once they hit that point of overload, all email garners complaints. The answer, I think, is that the smart & respectful people in the email marketing industry absolutely must start taking their peers & competitors to task. Point out when they're being dumb. Report them when they violate CAN-SPAM or other laws. And most of all, don't ever think that just because one marketer is doing something their recipients hate, then suddenly everyone else can get away with it too.

DMNews : Tackling deliverability when ISPs fail - DMNews

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:16:27 +0000

It's interesting that you start out calling it the ISP's failure, but all of the remedies you mention address failings that are entirely the fault of the sender.

Box of Meat : Tumblr Link

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:22:51 +0000

Yeah, forwarding is a difficult problem in the modern, spam-filled world of email. MAAWG recently published a set of recommendations for both forwarders and receivers of forwarded mail, which may help somewhat -- but there's no easy answer. http://www.maawg.org/about/publishedDocuments/MAA...

OnlyOnce : Book Short: The Anti-Level-5 Leader

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:11:44 +0000

Heh, from the headline I hoped this might be about one of my favorite quotes from the Simpsons: "I'm a level five vegan. I don't eat anything that casts a shadow."