Randy Cassingham's Blog

Posted by aGuy, in New England on August 3, 2008:

Honestly, this just reminds me why I long-ago banned Yahoo, and all Yahoo applications, from all the computers I manage.

And why I will keep doing do.

Posted by Peter, London, UK on August 4, 2008:

Just to say, I read of your plight in Slashdot and came over for a looksee. Liked what I saw and I've subscribed - it's not a Yahoo! address, either :o)

So maybe, you'll benefit as more people will be made aware of 'This is True'.

I also agree with John, Independence, MO. Yahoo doesn't reissue addresses. I've lost one of mine in similar circumstances to John.

Posted by Piotr from Warsaw on August 4, 2008:

I've just read about the problem on /. and have subscribed to the newsletters to show my support. I've never heard of your site until now, but I'm interested in finding out more.

Posted by Mike, Hamilon Ontario Canada on August 4, 2008:

No conspiracy theories put forth yet. Interesting. I have a similar situation with a social networking site where competitors are signing up with throw-away yahoo and hotmail accounts and marking the confirmation emails as spam. The results have been brutal. We're seriously thinking about rejecting yahoo and hotmail signups, period.

Posted by michael, plantsville ct on August 4, 2008:

I wondered why This Is True keeps appearing in my spam folder. And even though I keep clicking on the "not spam" and have it returned to my inbox, it comes in as spam next time anyway. But I don't miss it, I just scroll thru the spam in alphabetic order to the T's and there it is. As much as I like This Is True, I've been able to find most of the headlines on my own so I don't need the paid version but I don't want YAHOO to block something that I keep telling them is not spam.

Posted by Danielle, Virginia on August 4, 2008:

Well - the mystery of why I haven't seen This is True in my yahoo account for a few weeks is finally solved. I'd tried adding thisistrue.com and lyris.net to my contacts (the closest thing yahoo has to a whitelist) and I tried re-subscribing in case that was the problem (it wasn't - I got a notice I was already subscribed). So I thought I'd check you site one more time before I emailed you - glad I did!

Sorry to hear about this mess! I will indeed be contacting yahoo about this. This is True had been showing up in my Spam folder sometimes (and I'd been clicking "not spam" each time). Other times it would just be in my inbox. I'm very mad at them for blocking you and still letting real spam in. I plan to email my friends and family urging them to subscribe, and I'm going to get a gmail account and then sign up for Premium (been meaning to for a while anyway). Good luck fighting them!

Posted by Bernadine in KY on August 4, 2008:

As a Yahoo mail user, I have a filter to put True in my inbox, and the address in my contact list - but True still disappeared. Inspired, this morning, I e-mailed a complaint to Yahoo using their report abuse e-mail address. I complained about THEIR abuse of my account by blocking e-mail that I specifically requested. I asked them to remove all blocks from the e-mailing addresses for both the free and premium editions. If I do get any responses beyond the auto-reply promising action within 48 hours, I'll pass it on.

Posted by Paula, OK on August 4, 2008:

Sorry to hear about the problems with Yahoo! I hadn't received 'This is True' in a few weeks and was getting worried so I went out to the website and of course ended up resubscribing with a different email address. By my email address you can see that I work for a company that many people detest... but right now I'd lay odds that it is more popular than Yahoo! with your readers.

I also wanted to let you know that as soon as payday hits I will be upgrading to premium, using this email so I'm sure to get it!! Hope that will help... I am forwarding the free edition to all my friends and family and encouraging them to join up.

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It *all* helps, Paula. Thanks! As far as your employer, it could be worse: it could be Exxon. :-) -rc

Posted by Peter - Ottawa, Ontario on August 4, 2008:

You are not the only one that this has happened to. I have had this happen with other sites & Yahoo. In one case they blocked all attachments - no reason given. Solution - go to another Email provider.

As for your problem - A while back a 'warning' was sent out advising people not to "Unsubscribe". (Sorry did not keep the Email). The warning went on to say that one had to input their Email address & that doing so would allow it to be intercepted & distributed by Spammers. The 'warning' recommended hitting the SPAM button instead.

My ISP (I would not use Yahoo if it was the LAST Email provider - I'd go back to snail mail!!) blocked your Email as they had been notified that it was Spam, but had the decency to notify me. I was able to got it released.

Good luck with Yahoo.

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I haven't seen that e-mail, but it's stupid advice. You shouldn't use the unsubscribe link on spam. You must definitely should use it on mail you asked to receive but no longer want. To do otherwise is obscenely irresponsible. -rc

Posted by Michael in Burlington, VT on August 4, 2008:

Yahoo Mail has done the same to our service, called Front Porch Forum. We host 100+ online neighborhood forums covering our metro area and 10,000 households have subscribed already. Recently, Yahoo started blocking us in many cases and about 17% of our subscribers use Yahoo Mail. No resolution from Yahoo. And we can't easily contact our subscribers letting them know how to mark our e-newsletters as "Not Spam" because our instructional messages is... you guessed it... marked as spam. Very frustrating... I guess we're "collateral damage" in Yahoo's war against spammers.