SPF ID on all domains?

[surbjit]

Not sure if you've heard of a SPF ID but its basicly something to put in a domain that makes sure e.g. validation emails go into INBOX and not JUNK this is mainly for hotmail, but many people use hotmail and when they want to activate their account most of the time they dont check the junk folder. SO this would be very helpful !

here is how it can be done:
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safe...nderid/wizard/

What do you guys think?

Also i was thinking if you could remove the bit where people have to complete the offer to complete the sign up process, this will make users not want to sign up as most of them would be lazy and not want to go through the process of completing an offer on sign up, i would think CAPTCHA and validating email would be enough to stop spam? Or have i missed somthing?

Feedback is appreciated guys!

Thanks,
surbjit.

[fazah]

Nice idea, for the SPF idea, and I know the telephone thing is a hassle, but not only is it to stop spammers, but also to stop multiple accounts. However, the "activation offer" is not the only system used to stop multiple accounts, so it could be done.

[surbjit]

I know that the activation offer isnt the only system used to stop multiple accounts, but i think, having the offer there makes the sign up process very long. I mean CAPTCHA and validating email is enough to stop spam in my opninion also the offer is quite long.

[starvinmarvin14]

I have to agree to a point. There should be at least something to make the sign-up process a bit shorter. It could turn away new members who think that the site is just full of spam. Maybe one page of the Yes/No is enough, because if someone answers all "No" on the first page, the chances are that they are going to do it for the rest of the pages. Or maybe CAPTCHA is the only way to go. Good Suggestion. I hope Tom sees this.

[surbjit]

CAPTCHA is already in place. The images of numbers is CAPTCHA which prevents botted sign ups, which prevents spam.

[starvinmarvin14]

Originally Posted by surbjit

CAPTCHA is already in place. The images of numbers is CAPTCHA which prevents botted sign ups, which prevents spam.

Yes, I know. I was saying maybe CAPTCHA is the only thing that we need, and we can remove the rest of the fraud prevention process during sign-up.

[LzzrdBoy]

I too was confused as to the requirement of the sign-up offer completion when I first saw it. When I signed up for GL 2+ years ago there was no such thing. I've received a few emails here and there from refs who said they didn't complete sign up due to the strange offer thing they saw. Not many...but a few...I'd say less than 30 so far. I would agree that the removal of the sign up offer, if possible, would definitely result in more successful sign ups. But even still...would those sign ups ever actually complete an offer from the available offers page? Not sure on that one.

[thehelpfulguy]

Yes, I, myself have pondered this question as well...

The problems I see is that nobody's solution seems to have been accepted enough across the board to be influential enough (yes, I've read much on this subject) to be worth the effort of getting "approved" (or whatever they call it) - yet.

...and, unfortunately, in our "mutual business" (gpt sites) then those who have become disillusioned with and fall away from the concept of the "gpt site" are all to quick to report ANY mailings from our sites as unsolicited spam (instead of what they truly are, membership notices.) They report too often instead of following the simple unsubscription instructions located at the bottom of our member emails (because of reasonable concerns due to past industry "unsubscription" abuse (get off one list - get sold to another) that I won't go into now...)

So, I would venture to say that IF we were to get "approved" then we would undoubtedly face the peril of eventually getting unceremoniously un-approved and possibly blacklisted (now firmly on their radar screen) due to the backlash of former members thinking we (ourselves and our sites) are still sending them spam instead of the sponsors sending them the email that they themselves signed on to by completing an offer.

Many people still seem to think that the best way of stopping the barrage of unexpected bulk email sent to them from our sponsors would be to cancel their membership to our GPT sites and complain about US for the spam they themselves plainly signed up for by entering their own information on our sponsor's sites.

Make sense?

In my opinion... the best and simplest way to make sure that our important member notification email gets through is to make sure that it IS JUST THAT - "important member notification email".

Not shooting from the hip type "check out the new few sentences I added to my site", or "I changed the colors on my site from green to blue - check it out", or "here are yesterdays contest stats, stay tuned for todays stats" type piddly little BS email (piss me off) SPAM emails.

I rarely send mass member emails and then ONLY if I have something groundbreaking and earth shattering to announce. Yes, it's good to maintain contact with your valuable member base and let them know you and your site is still there IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING VERY INTERESTING TO REPORT, but , NOT at the expense of "crying wolf" with crap emails (this works to the detriment of all of our sites, it adds the email servers (same for all sites) to a spam grading system on the major providers (GMail, MSN, AOL, etc.) that eventually blocks us all if we rack up enough of a negative spam score.)

[mygetpaidto]

We have SPF on most of the domains DNS entries already, however some may not have it.

The SPF entry specifies only our servers IPS as valid senders.


If you need it changed let me know,
Tom