Washblog

Spam in my inbox declined noticeably. A considerable portion of the remaining volume is generated by so-called progressive organizations who think I should care, who are still sending it after the election. You know what I think? I think they do it because it's easy, not because it works.

Although purportedly sent by various entities or people (notably presenting from different domains than those to which the servers belong), the number of domains is relatively manageable:

vshift.com
istandfor.com (which is really vshift.com)
bluestatedigital.com
upwardstech.net
nrdconline.org
constantcontact.com

ConstantContact is a judgement call. It is used by legitimate businesses, but almost everything I see from them is politically related... and so little of it is directly related to my duties as a PCO or boardmember that I choose to block them and make exceptions on a case by case basis.

Their policy says: "What constitutes consent? The recipient of your email has been clearly and fully notified of the collection and use of his email address and has consented prior to such collection and use. This is often called informed consent... Take the Spam Test 1. Are you importing a purchased list of ANY kind? ... 4. Are you mailing to anyone who has not explicitly agreed to join your mailing list? ... If you have answered YES to ANY of the above questions you will likely be labeled a SPAMMER."

I know my e-mail address is out there, I've certainly written to politicians, made it available as a PCO and (Party organization boardmember). I know and accept that my e-mail address is going to be abused: but does that constitute "informed consent"? If anyone asked me, I'd say: if it's not directly related to my duties as a PCO or boardmember (meeting notifications, issues which you have standing to ask me to address and are not spamming to "all PCOs" or "all boardmembers" indiscriminately) then don't put me on your list.

Considering the row in the 36th District during the election over e-mail address policy and use, I don't think there is a sliver of doubt that the people who are sending this stuff know and understand the issue... they just think theirs doesn't stink.