2 posts tagged “ziff–davis”

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History repeats itself: get me off this list!

Feb 11, 2009
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Blogging got Ziff–Davis’s attention in 2007. Maybe it will again. Today, I wrote the following email to the company, quoting the bottom of one of their newsletters first.

At 09.00 AM 2009.2.11, you wrote:

If you have already registered for this eSeminar, please ignore this message. If you have problems with your registration, please e-mail: eSeminars@ziffdavisenterprise.com
You are receiving this eSeminars update because you provided your email address to Ziff Davis Enterprise.
If you no longer wish to receive updates from Ziff Davis Enterprise eSeminars, unsubscribe here.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

You are right, I once did provide my email address to Ziff–Davis. In the 1990s. At the time, Heather Locklear was hot, Chrysler was profitable, and no one had heard of Monica Lewinsky.
   This century, I removed my subscriptions to all Ziff–Davis newsletters, because I was sick of receiving some I had never subscribed to.
   ZD once had a page where all its newsletters were listed, with a check option beside each one. I unchecked them all.
   For a while, the emails stopped. They then began again without warning. I went to your removal page and noted that nothing was checked.
   CIO began spamming me in July 2005 with a ‘complimentary subscription’. Baseline spam started in December 2006. Eweek began in March 2007. Ziff–Davis event emails began in March 2007 as well.
   One of your staff, Mary Hart, went through a lengthy process with me to get my name off every ZD mailing list and those of your contractors after I publicized by unhappiness with your spamming in March 2007. Beginning around March 22 that year, she checked one list, and I was not on it. Then another spam came. She checked another list. Eventually, after going through this over a few months, she assured me that there was no way I would wind up on another mailing list from your company.
   I believe I was spam-free as far as ZD was concerned in 2008.
   I am disappointed that your spam has restarted in 2009. I cannot believe I have spent so many years with this problem—even though I removed myself in the first half of this decade.
   I must insist that you no longer spam me. I have followed your removal instructions—but long experience tells me that that is useless without human intervention.

Sincerely,

Jack Yan

Where I come from, this is called spamming

Mar 23, 2007
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I swear I never signed up to anything from Ziff–Davis’s Eweek, yet here I am, receiving their spam. And it’s not the first time I have had something from this firm, which I always took to be respectable. Hence, today, I had to write.

Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:55:42 +0000
To: wbg@enews.webbuyersguide.com
From: Jack Yan
Subject: Re: Running a managed services business: The fundamentals
In-Reply-To: <20070322124922.3DEC4D53026E7@smtp.enews.webbuyersguide.com>
Hi guys:
For the last few weeks, each time I unsubscribe from a Ziff–Davis mailing, I find I am automatically put on to another one. I unsub from that, and then find myself on another one. What's happening?! Can you please just stop sending me these, and not subscribe me to anything else?! Remove means remove!
Sincerely,
Jack Yan

   The only Ziff–Davis newsletter I ever subbed to was for Publish magazine, and that’s it. I’m sick of having to go to the company’s site to unsubscribe myself from newsletters I have not even heard of. In fact, I’m removing myself from anything from their company, effective today.
   These weird ones began when CIO began spamming me in July 2005 with a ‘complimentary subscription’. Baseline spam started in December 2006. Eweek began in March 2007. Ziff–Davis event emails began in March 2007 as well.
   If anyone from Ziff–Davis is reading: remove means remove. Don’t keep spreading my email address all over your corporation.

PS.: Well, that was amazing. Mary Hart from Ziff–Davis read this, and instantly responded. Now, that’s someone who cares about the company. I have to say I am impressed by their taking responsibility. It’s very easy for those of us outside the US to presume the worst in corporate behaviour, and this really helps restore a little bit of that old reputation.

We received a Google notification about your blog on March 22nd regarding spam from the Ziff Davis Web Buyer’s Guide. I checked our system and noted that the same day you posted that blog, you successfully unsubscribed from the Channel Update (which you were on as a former member of Publish); Publish, CIO Insight and Web Professional s. I’ll go one step further and completely remove your information from the newsletter system so that you don’t ever receive any unwanted mailings from us again.