Adding opt-in for mailing purposes

It's generally considered the Right Thing for people who register on a web site to specifically opt-in to receiving mail. I bring this up because a number of people have asked how they can send mail to all of their users. In the case of an intranet site, opt-in is meaningless, but it's important for public sites.

What is opt-in? It means that an individual has actively given permission to receive the emails in question. Merely registering on a web site does not actively give permission. It's also considered a good practice to have the default be "don't send me mail", so that the user has to check the box, thus making it intentional. Too many sites, including reputable ones, have the checkboxes checked, in the hopes that the user won't notice or won't take the time to uncheck the boxes.

I'm not sure how this would be implemented or what the UI should be, but it really should be part of the standard installation.

-- Contributors: MeredithLesly

Discussion

In the Netherlands it is obligatory to have the checkbox "I want to receive..." unchecked. Furthermore we have the legislation of double opt-in, so other people cannot subscribe you to a newsletter.

This is a flow diagram I have developed for double opt-in subscription to newsletter (and unsubscription):

-- ArthurClemens - 22 Jun 2006

Actually, "Double Opt-In" is a misnomer engendered by marketers. The correct term is "Confirmed Opt-in". See http://www.euro.cauce.org/en/optinvsoptout.html for more details about all of this.

-- MeredithLesly - 22 Jun 2006