It's still coming

So 10 days into our much vaunted anti Spam act, what has happened?

Well, 2 things; the first is that I am still getting the same volume of spam as before - no surprises there.

The second is that I have also received, many well after due date, a raft of messages asking me to opt back in. One even told me that my previous opt in was irrelevant - if I did not opt in a second time they had to unsubscribe me.

Given the significance of email as a communications tool for both personal and business reasons, you would think that a relatively simple piece of legislation such as this would be a little clearer for people. But it is not, and one result is that many businesses have shed up to 50% of their marketing databases unnecessarily.

Another has been our bombardment (mostly quite without need) of these opt in emails. We want value when we receive a marketing email, not chores.

So, so far, the anti spam act has been a failure - my inbox is more clogged than ever, and we are no nearer to a solution that we were six months ago.

There is, supposedly, in the pipeline, a solution - a national whitelist. You might have thought that there would be an urge to announce it as work in progress, and a desire to prioritise it, but apparently not.

I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, work on your email - deliverability is only in your own hands right now.