Feedback Loop (email) - Criticism

Criticism

  • The feedback loops fail to meet the generic anti-spam criterion of not generating more email messages. Even if the amount of feedback is just a fraction of the amount of messages that an ESP sends out, most ESPs are not yet organized for handling it. This is mitigated by the fact that feedback loops are voluntary (opt in e-mail) for both the sender and receiver of the feedback.
  • Using the same button for both abuse reports and list unsubscribe implies guesswork by the (automated) help desk. For example, it does not ease reporting to a list owner that a specific post in the (non moderated) list is actually spam.
  • Setting up FBLs requires filling out web forms. This can be inconsistent from one FBL to another.
  • Some FBLs provide no option for communicating feedback automatically to multiple parties: the sender, the ESP (if one is involved), or the upstream datacenter/network address provider—as currently construed by the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) "Follow the Money" strategy.
  • There is no convenient way for a sender to automatically and repeatedly verify that a FBL is operating correctly without tarnishing the sender's deliverability. Furthermore, manual FBL testing for low-volume senders significantly degrades the sender's Sender Score as calculated by Return Path.
  • There is no convenient mechanism for discovering new FBLs. RFC 6650 provides for auto-subscription on the Feedback Provider's own initiative, which may be a convenient mechanism as long as senders can easily update their Whois data or set up abuse@ mailboxes effectually. However, that diminishes the opt-in mitigation for the first point above.
  • Work has begun at www.maawg.org on an "FBL 2.0" initiative to resolve these issues.

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