Saturday, May 31st
Reclaim The Streets! Mobile Dance Party!
- Because dancing in the streets is more fun than driving in them!
Starting 1pm at Dolores Park! From there, we take to the streets!
This event will last ALL DAY, be entirely outdoors, 100% FREE.
They're trying to get rid of rent control in San Francisco through Prop 98, so we decided we'd throw a party to get the word out and to celebrate the city we all live in! Meet us in the streets at the end of May to dance, sing, resist and take the streets!
Renters Rise Up is first and foremost a party. It is a community party, being thrown for anyone who wants to participate by anyone who wants to help plan it. And what better place for the community to have a party than in the streets?
Why are we having this party? Why does anybody have a party? To celebrate.
And what are we celebrating? We are celebrating ourselves and our communities. We here in the Bay Area live in a pretty amazing place. But it is the people of the Bay Area who make it what it is. And let's face it. We here in the Bay Area are pretty kick-ass people.
If that wasn't reason enough to have a dance party in the street, right now we need to stand up and appreciate what we have made here. Because we and our communities are under attack.
This is because rent control, the law that makes cities like San Francisco affordable to regular working people, is in danger of being overturned.
Against Landlords - Against Prop 98 - For Freedom in the Streets
--
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
From my working life
By Len Shneyder
CTIA – The Wireless Association reported that in 2007 mobile subscriptions grew to 252 million. This means that 85 percent of the U.S. population is essentially paying one carrier or another, but it also means that 85 percent of the population is capable of receiving smart and targeted content delivered by savvy marketers.
Meanwhile, a recent BusinessWeek article reported that carriers were losing market share in the content arms race. However, according to the article, carriers such as Sprint Nextel weren’t at all afraid as the lost revenues would be made up in the growing demand for wireless Internet access. Data packages for mobile phones which rose 53 percent to $23 billion in 2007, according to CTIA.
So what does this mean for the average consumer?
Well, in one frustrated user’s humble opinion, it means that the pinch is on and we’re all about to get squeezed.
From double-dipping to surcharges on international texting, carriers have found ways of nickel-and-diming consumers.
But what does this mean for marketers? It means that consumers paying premium fees for nominal services are less inclined to pay for content and media, making it more challenging for marketers to cross the mobile divide.
However not all hope is lost. Understanding a few of the ways in which consumers are saving money may offer insights into how marketers can stay competitive in this new and important channel:
Learning to do it yourself. Media for a mobile phone is fairly simple to create. There are a host of tools on the Internet which empower users to make their own mobile desktop backgrounds and ringtones, for example.
As consumers realize the cost savings of doing-it-themselves, marketers can stay relevant by empowering end users through innovative desktop-to-mobile tools which take advantage of existing services but are optimized for the mobile audience.
Email is the consumer’s best friend, especially if his or her friends are overseas. Avoiding surreptitious fees associated with services such as international SMS is as easy as sending an email.
Consumers will eventually maximize the use of their data packages to offset per-use charges. Email is still mostly free, SMS is not.
Marketing via mobile email is also less expensive than SMS and richer so long as you understand the basic concepts of smaller and more targeted emails.
Wi-Fi to the rescue? The Apple iPhone and other mobile devices can connect to wireless networks in order to download content and media. As a matter of fact, the iTunes store on an iPhone will only work on a Wi-Fi network.
All signs point to increased wireless access of the Internet which will spur innovation and enrich available content through available packages and services.
As a savvy marketer of the 21st century, be aware of your consumer’s existing fees and needs. Find the niche where your products and services help mitigate those fees to stay relevant and on the consumer’s radar as useful tool, rather than just another fee.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix.
CTIA – The Wireless Association reported that in 2007 mobile subscriptions grew to 252 million. This means that 85 percent of the U.S. population is essentially paying one carrier or another, but it also means that 85 percent of the population is capable of receiving smart and targeted content delivered by savvy marketers.
Meanwhile, a recent BusinessWeek article reported that carriers were losing market share in the content arms race. However, according to the article, carriers such as Sprint Nextel weren’t at all afraid as the lost revenues would be made up in the growing demand for wireless Internet access. Data packages for mobile phones which rose 53 percent to $23 billion in 2007, according to CTIA.
So what does this mean for the average consumer?
Well, in one frustrated user’s humble opinion, it means that the pinch is on and we’re all about to get squeezed.
From double-dipping to surcharges on international texting, carriers have found ways of nickel-and-diming consumers.
But what does this mean for marketers? It means that consumers paying premium fees for nominal services are less inclined to pay for content and media, making it more challenging for marketers to cross the mobile divide.
However not all hope is lost. Understanding a few of the ways in which consumers are saving money may offer insights into how marketers can stay competitive in this new and important channel:
Learning to do it yourself. Media for a mobile phone is fairly simple to create. There are a host of tools on the Internet which empower users to make their own mobile desktop backgrounds and ringtones, for example.
As consumers realize the cost savings of doing-it-themselves, marketers can stay relevant by empowering end users through innovative desktop-to-mobile tools which take advantage of existing services but are optimized for the mobile audience.
Email is the consumer’s best friend, especially if his or her friends are overseas. Avoiding surreptitious fees associated with services such as international SMS is as easy as sending an email.
Consumers will eventually maximize the use of their data packages to offset per-use charges. Email is still mostly free, SMS is not.
Marketing via mobile email is also less expensive than SMS and richer so long as you understand the basic concepts of smaller and more targeted emails.
Wi-Fi to the rescue? The Apple iPhone and other mobile devices can connect to wireless networks in order to download content and media. As a matter of fact, the iTunes store on an iPhone will only work on a Wi-Fi network.
All signs point to increased wireless access of the Internet which will spur innovation and enrich available content through available packages and services.
As a savvy marketer of the 21st century, be aware of your consumer’s existing fees and needs. Find the niche where your products and services help mitigate those fees to stay relevant and on the consumer’s radar as useful tool, rather than just another fee.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Another from my working life...
By Michelle Eichner and Len Shneyder
Social networks have evolved to fill every societal niche. There are sites dedicated to business networking like LinkedIn, special interests such as Vampirefreaks.com and monolithic sites like MySpace that have become hubs of innovation with features such as artist pages that provide struggling musicians a fast and easy means to promote their talents.
Why so much buzz about social networks? In a recent Reuters article, MySpace was quoted as having 110 million users and Facebook boasted 67 million active users.
It’s not just about size, though – social networks have mastered the art of engagement as evidenced by enviable stats such as 20-plus visits per month, 500-plus viewed pages per visitor and 200-plus minutes per visitor per month.
Mobile? You’d think these fat cats would be resting on their laurels, but they’re not ...
While most businesses have yet to embrace an increasingly mobile audience, social networking sites are setting the trend.
With the exception of Friendster, the majority of industry leading social networking sites, including Bebo, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn (in beta), Twitter and even a Russian site called Vkontake, have firmly planted themselves as mobile-ready by creating light, sleek and relevant versions of their sites for mobile devices.
One of the challenges in mobilizing your site is adapting your content to an extremely limited environment – both in size and in functionality.
This requires trade-offs between what you want to promote to consumers and what will compel them to use your site from their smartphone.
In the case of most social networking sites, the mobile landing page tends to be the friend update section, which makes a lot of sense when you consider that people are using social networking sites as a means of keeping track of what their friends are doing.
Instead of bombarding mobile users with promotions, social networks’ mobile sites have honed-in on the core services and functions that their customers are most likely to need or want when on-the-go.
The cue we can take from the social networking world is that regardless of how popular you already are or aren’t, providing easy access via any means a user might possibly want is a critical key to retaining and growing your user base in the 21st century.
While the rest of us are repeating the mantra of targeting the right person, at the right place, at the right time, social networking sites recognize that to do so successfully today means cross-platform capabilities.
It’s not only about reaching consumers when they are sitting in front of their computer but also when they are standing at a subway stop, walking down the street or sitting on top of a mountain with their smartphone in hand.
Don’t dig social networking sites or need another reason to create a mobile-ready site? Take a look around you the next time you’re waiting for your flight: How many people have a smartphone in hand?
Smartphones are not just the mainstay of busy travelers; they are a hot-ticket item amongst consumers of all generations. The future is here: mobilize with it.
Michelle Eichner is co-founder and vice president of client services for Pivotal Veracity, a Scottsdale, AZ-based deliverability consultancy and service provider.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity.
Social networks have evolved to fill every societal niche. There are sites dedicated to business networking like LinkedIn, special interests such as Vampirefreaks.com and monolithic sites like MySpace that have become hubs of innovation with features such as artist pages that provide struggling musicians a fast and easy means to promote their talents.
Why so much buzz about social networks? In a recent Reuters article, MySpace was quoted as having 110 million users and Facebook boasted 67 million active users.
It’s not just about size, though – social networks have mastered the art of engagement as evidenced by enviable stats such as 20-plus visits per month, 500-plus viewed pages per visitor and 200-plus minutes per visitor per month.
Mobile? You’d think these fat cats would be resting on their laurels, but they’re not ...
While most businesses have yet to embrace an increasingly mobile audience, social networking sites are setting the trend.
With the exception of Friendster, the majority of industry leading social networking sites, including Bebo, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn (in beta), Twitter and even a Russian site called Vkontake, have firmly planted themselves as mobile-ready by creating light, sleek and relevant versions of their sites for mobile devices.
One of the challenges in mobilizing your site is adapting your content to an extremely limited environment – both in size and in functionality.
This requires trade-offs between what you want to promote to consumers and what will compel them to use your site from their smartphone.
In the case of most social networking sites, the mobile landing page tends to be the friend update section, which makes a lot of sense when you consider that people are using social networking sites as a means of keeping track of what their friends are doing.
Instead of bombarding mobile users with promotions, social networks’ mobile sites have honed-in on the core services and functions that their customers are most likely to need or want when on-the-go.
The cue we can take from the social networking world is that regardless of how popular you already are or aren’t, providing easy access via any means a user might possibly want is a critical key to retaining and growing your user base in the 21st century.
While the rest of us are repeating the mantra of targeting the right person, at the right place, at the right time, social networking sites recognize that to do so successfully today means cross-platform capabilities.
It’s not only about reaching consumers when they are sitting in front of their computer but also when they are standing at a subway stop, walking down the street or sitting on top of a mountain with their smartphone in hand.
Don’t dig social networking sites or need another reason to create a mobile-ready site? Take a look around you the next time you’re waiting for your flight: How many people have a smartphone in hand?
Smartphones are not just the mainstay of busy travelers; they are a hot-ticket item amongst consumers of all generations. The future is here: mobilize with it.
Michelle Eichner is co-founder and vice president of client services for Pivotal Veracity, a Scottsdale, AZ-based deliverability consultancy and service provider.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
From my working life...
When less equals More
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM , BY MICHELLE EICHNER AND LEN SHNEYDER
Change how you're acquiring customers
The goals of those involved in acquisition are often at odds with today's e-mail reality. When success is measured on the number of new registrants and cost per registrant, marketers often rely on tactics that pose substantial risks to the health and well being of core customer communications. This is because they are likely to be adding names that have no real interest in receiving your ongoing e-mails.
Again, more is not better! One such tactic is incentive-based — the heavy use of promotions and sweepstakes to quickly and inexpensively acquire new names for your database. Folks sign up for the sweepstakes and then immediately unsubscribe or, worse yet, complain tht you are spamming them. Remember, at ISPs such as AOL if a tiny fraction of your customers complain you are spamming them, you risk having all your mail blocked (yes — that means all mail — including the mail to your active and engaged customers!).
Another tactic is what we call the “hidden-agenda method.” You may make a compelling benefit such as access to key information on your Website contingent, upon the person providing you their e-mail address.
In many cases, the customer may want access to your site, but has no interest in ongoing e-mails — so to accomplish this, he or she provides a fake address. As a result, your bad-address rate spikes for newly acquired names, and you once again risk having all mail blocked.
E-mail appends, unqualified co-registration programs, the list goes on — but the risks to your good mailing reputation cannot be ignored and should be measured. Only then can the potential impact be quantified and fully understood. Today, clarity is king. More names is definitively not better, and you should always provide a clear, unencumbered, and conspicuous opt-in to your ongoing e-mail communications.
Change what you're sending your customers
Not every customer should get the exact same thing. This becomes even more true over the course of their relationship with you. Your customers are unique individuals; providing relevant and personalized content will inspire and motivate them to visit your site and hopefully purchase your products and services.
Leverage the power of e-mail! Affordable e-mail technology allows you to provide a truly one-to-one message based on three main data sources: who they are (age, gender, geographic location, job type etc.), what they want (stated preferences at e-mail capture) and what they do (interests you ascertain by tracking what they click on — including e-mail and Web).
But too little consideration is given to the fact that your customers' interests evolve over time. The end result is that your customers, bored with your content and annoyed by the frequency of your mailings, will unsubscribe or report your e-mail as spam. Therefore, it is critical that you do not forget to revisit your segmentation strategy continuously over the course of the customer lifecycle.
Fine tune the frequency of your communications
Not every customer needs — or wants — to get an e-mail every single time you send one out. Mail smarter and to the right people. As we've discussed, there's an inherent danger in sending too much mail. Do not overestimate your customers' appetite for your e-mails — you don't want to burn out the new subscribers and you don't want to anger older ones who may have forgotten how or why they wound up on your list.
Sending friendly and gentle reminders requesting profile updates, and those such as “We haven't heard from you in a while, would you like to remain on our list?” are excellent tactics and provide a personal touch.
Another practical approach: Do not mail everyone at the same time. Send your most active names first and allow those to deliver. Then create a separate and relevant e-mail to your least active names and send that at least a full day after you've delivered your bread and butter. This may also have an added benefit of smoothing Web traffic and fulfillment.
And last but not least, remember: Although every name on your list represents incremental revenue, those names just as easily represent exponentially greater amounts of lost revenue because they can impact the delivery of your entire campaign. This is why less is truly more when it comes to e-mail marketing.
Michelle Eichner is chief operating officer/vice president of client development and Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications for Pivotal Veracity, an e-mail deliverability service provider.
Between a rock and a hard place
A client e-mails all opt-in names weekly (excluding those who have unsubscribed, bounced, or generated a spam complaint). In late 2006, Comcast blocked its IPs, preventing the client from being able to deliver any e-mail to Comcast. We contacted Comcast to ask why the client's e-mails were being blocked, and learned Comcast's filter (Brightmail) reported X% of this client's mail as spam. Based on a request from us, Comcast removed the block and the client continued mailing without changing its practices.
Business continued as usual, but so did the specter of less equals more. The client mailed its entire house file again and triggered Comcast's filters again. We again had the block lifted. But this quickly became less than ideal for the mailer, Pivotal Veracity, and Comcast; something had to be done.
The mailer's first tactic was to e-mail only subscribers with any post-signup activity, such as clicks or purchases, regardless of how long ago. Unfortunately, this also resulted in Comcast blocking the mail as in previous campaigns. The implication: Just because someone was engaged at one time does not mean they are still engaged and, as many folks do, they used the report-as-spam button to get off the list.
Rather desperate now, the mailer decided to test e-mailing only to Comcast addresses that had made a purchase; a dramatic measure but one with dramatic results. Since employing a Comcast mail strategy that includes buyers only, this client has received consistent 100% inbox delivery.
Older, inactive users were complaining, which caused the entire e-mail to be blocked by Comcast. Although the inactive names as a segment were producing incremental revenue as a small fraction purchased, the effect of sending e-mails to these users actually resulted in a net loss of revenue because it affected the ability to mail any e-mails to Comcast.
By taking proactive measures, the client has been able to successfully deliver to the inbox across all subsequent campaigns.
— ME/LS
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM , BY MICHELLE EICHNER AND LEN SHNEYDER
Change how you're acquiring customers
The goals of those involved in acquisition are often at odds with today's e-mail reality. When success is measured on the number of new registrants and cost per registrant, marketers often rely on tactics that pose substantial risks to the health and well being of core customer communications. This is because they are likely to be adding names that have no real interest in receiving your ongoing e-mails.
Again, more is not better! One such tactic is incentive-based — the heavy use of promotions and sweepstakes to quickly and inexpensively acquire new names for your database. Folks sign up for the sweepstakes and then immediately unsubscribe or, worse yet, complain tht you are spamming them. Remember, at ISPs such as AOL if a tiny fraction of your customers complain you are spamming them, you risk having all your mail blocked (yes — that means all mail — including the mail to your active and engaged customers!).
Another tactic is what we call the “hidden-agenda method.” You may make a compelling benefit such as access to key information on your Website contingent, upon the person providing you their e-mail address.
In many cases, the customer may want access to your site, but has no interest in ongoing e-mails — so to accomplish this, he or she provides a fake address. As a result, your bad-address rate spikes for newly acquired names, and you once again risk having all mail blocked.
E-mail appends, unqualified co-registration programs, the list goes on — but the risks to your good mailing reputation cannot be ignored and should be measured. Only then can the potential impact be quantified and fully understood. Today, clarity is king. More names is definitively not better, and you should always provide a clear, unencumbered, and conspicuous opt-in to your ongoing e-mail communications.
Change what you're sending your customers
Not every customer should get the exact same thing. This becomes even more true over the course of their relationship with you. Your customers are unique individuals; providing relevant and personalized content will inspire and motivate them to visit your site and hopefully purchase your products and services.
Leverage the power of e-mail! Affordable e-mail technology allows you to provide a truly one-to-one message based on three main data sources: who they are (age, gender, geographic location, job type etc.), what they want (stated preferences at e-mail capture) and what they do (interests you ascertain by tracking what they click on — including e-mail and Web).
But too little consideration is given to the fact that your customers' interests evolve over time. The end result is that your customers, bored with your content and annoyed by the frequency of your mailings, will unsubscribe or report your e-mail as spam. Therefore, it is critical that you do not forget to revisit your segmentation strategy continuously over the course of the customer lifecycle.
Fine tune the frequency of your communications
Not every customer needs — or wants — to get an e-mail every single time you send one out. Mail smarter and to the right people. As we've discussed, there's an inherent danger in sending too much mail. Do not overestimate your customers' appetite for your e-mails — you don't want to burn out the new subscribers and you don't want to anger older ones who may have forgotten how or why they wound up on your list.
Sending friendly and gentle reminders requesting profile updates, and those such as “We haven't heard from you in a while, would you like to remain on our list?” are excellent tactics and provide a personal touch.
Another practical approach: Do not mail everyone at the same time. Send your most active names first and allow those to deliver. Then create a separate and relevant e-mail to your least active names and send that at least a full day after you've delivered your bread and butter. This may also have an added benefit of smoothing Web traffic and fulfillment.
And last but not least, remember: Although every name on your list represents incremental revenue, those names just as easily represent exponentially greater amounts of lost revenue because they can impact the delivery of your entire campaign. This is why less is truly more when it comes to e-mail marketing.
Michelle Eichner is chief operating officer/vice president of client development and Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications for Pivotal Veracity, an e-mail deliverability service provider.
Between a rock and a hard place
A client e-mails all opt-in names weekly (excluding those who have unsubscribed, bounced, or generated a spam complaint). In late 2006, Comcast blocked its IPs, preventing the client from being able to deliver any e-mail to Comcast. We contacted Comcast to ask why the client's e-mails were being blocked, and learned Comcast's filter (Brightmail) reported X% of this client's mail as spam. Based on a request from us, Comcast removed the block and the client continued mailing without changing its practices.
Business continued as usual, but so did the specter of less equals more. The client mailed its entire house file again and triggered Comcast's filters again. We again had the block lifted. But this quickly became less than ideal for the mailer, Pivotal Veracity, and Comcast; something had to be done.
The mailer's first tactic was to e-mail only subscribers with any post-signup activity, such as clicks or purchases, regardless of how long ago. Unfortunately, this also resulted in Comcast blocking the mail as in previous campaigns. The implication: Just because someone was engaged at one time does not mean they are still engaged and, as many folks do, they used the report-as-spam button to get off the list.
Rather desperate now, the mailer decided to test e-mailing only to Comcast addresses that had made a purchase; a dramatic measure but one with dramatic results. Since employing a Comcast mail strategy that includes buyers only, this client has received consistent 100% inbox delivery.
Older, inactive users were complaining, which caused the entire e-mail to be blocked by Comcast. Although the inactive names as a segment were producing incremental revenue as a small fraction purchased, the effect of sending e-mails to these users actually resulted in a net loss of revenue because it affected the ability to mail any e-mails to Comcast.
By taking proactive measures, the client has been able to successfully deliver to the inbox across all subsequent campaigns.
— ME/LS
Monday, March 03, 2008
New poem up on Sidebrow
I've a new poem up on Sidebrow as part of the litopolis project. Go check it out... www.sidebrow.net... for one Mr. Armand F. Capanna II...
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Ted Koozer on VD
Ted Koozer was just on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED reading his little poems. He was quoted as having said that "Valentine's Day is the poet's holiday." He went on to say that Valentine's Day was all about expressions of sentiment... puhleeeeeeze... when asked why I don't think of myself as a poet it's because there are self righteous Koozers running around laying claim to hallmark holidays. It's ok, step away from the ledge, put down the pretentious boat anchor, you can still hang yourself without splitting the pavement with your gizzards.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
...
Somehow the dream last night had a pause button,
every traffic light was stuck
on a yellow like blood
not quite orange or what you squeezed for breakfast
not quite the color of a dress
not really the consistency of rain
or something slicker
last night this morning was fast forward
and after birth came meetings
corporate slag, so many slivers to yank
from your finger tips holding
the bleeding edge of a metaphor
caught in the weather
after something like lunch
the guy crossing the street
you couldn't help but stare at his crotch
the last dream you had post dreaming
filtered with possibilities where coffee
seemed to loose its luster
as the emotional pay cut arrived with a title.
every traffic light was stuck
on a yellow like blood
not quite orange or what you squeezed for breakfast
not quite the color of a dress
not really the consistency of rain
or something slicker
last night this morning was fast forward
and after birth came meetings
corporate slag, so many slivers to yank
from your finger tips holding
the bleeding edge of a metaphor
caught in the weather
after something like lunch
the guy crossing the street
you couldn't help but stare at his crotch
the last dream you had post dreaming
filtered with possibilities where coffee
seemed to loose its luster
as the emotional pay cut arrived with a title.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
From my working life....
Trouble with Comcast? You’re Not Alone
Feb 5, 2008 2:30 PM , By Ken Magill
Dave Linhardt isn’t the only e-mailer apparently having trouble with Comcast.
The chief executive of e-mail marketing firm e360 Insight sued Comcast recently, claiming the cable and Internet service provider was blocking his e-mails from reaching recipients.
It turns out Comcast is blocking a lot of senders’ e-mail, according to multiple sources.
Comcast, however, begs to differ.
Multiple e-mail deliverability specialists are reporting that many of their clients are having difficulty getting their e-mail into Comcast address holders’ inboxes.
“I can usually tell when one of the ISPs makes some change to their incoming spam filtering just by my call volume,” wrote co-founder of deliverability consultancy Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, on her blog. “The past few weeks, the ISP in most of my calls has been Comcast. And, what do you know, they have made changes to how they are filtering e-mail.”
This is not a small problem. Comcast is the No. 2 Internet service provider with 12.9 million subscribers, according to ISP Planet.
Comcast recently began using technology from anti spam firm Cloudmark. The change apparently resulted in heavier filtering of incoming e-mail.
Also, Comcast has been fiddling with its throttling rules resulting in fluctuations in the amount of e-mail it will accept from mailers, according to Len Shneyder, director of partner relations for deliverability consultancy Pivotal Veracity. Comcast has also limiting the number of connections any sender can establish with its servers.
As a result, e-mail is getting into Comcast more slowly.
“In general, the entire industry is experiencing problems with Comcast due to heavier filtering and rate limiting,” Shneyder said. “This is not unusual for ISPs in their fight against spam as they fine tune their systems to cope with the ever-increasing volume of spam.”
What to do? Shneyder recommends throttling, or slowing the amount of e-mail sent to Comcast addresses. He adds this may be difficult for some mailers with internal e-mail or home-grown systems, but most e-mail service providers can throttle e-mail by domain.
Shneyder said his contact at Comcast told him last week that mailers should limit outbound messages to Comcast addresses to six recipients per second.
Shneyder also said his Comcast contact told him senders should limit their connections to its servers to 10 per IP address.
Meanwhile, Jay Opperman, director of security and privacy for Comcast, said he isn’t aware of any widespread deliverability issues affecting incoming permission-based e-mail at the cable provider.
“The way I tell if it’s a big broad problem is I’ll get escalations, and we’re not seeing that,” he said. “Metrics that I have say we’re getting to the phone and answering people’s phone calls.”
He confirmed that Comcast implemented new anti-spam measures at the end of the third quarter of last year, including switching from anti-spam technology provider Brightmail to Cloudmark.
Opperman added that like many ISPs, Comcast places great weight on spam complaints from subscribers when determining how to handle incoming mail.
“Principally, a lot of actions that we take are based on feedback from our customers,” he said. “The issue that we run into with most of e-marketers is they don’t have a clean list.”
Opperman also said Comcast is considering increasingly using mailers’ so-called reputations—generally defined as the number of spam complaints a mailer gets, and the number of dead addresses and spam complaints a mailer hits—to determine how to process incoming mail.
“We’re looking at it,” he said. “We have not implemented a reputation-based filtering system at this point.”
Opperman added that when Comcast blocks a sender’s mail, the mailer will get an error message with a code and links they can follow for instructions on how to solve the problem. Mailers who experience deliverability issues should follow the links and fill out the appropriate forms when the situation warrants. They can also call Comcast’s anti-spam team, he said. The number is (888) 565-4329.
“If they don’t feel that their problem is being addressed, they can always escalate,” he added.
Feb 5, 2008 2:30 PM , By Ken Magill
Dave Linhardt isn’t the only e-mailer apparently having trouble with Comcast.
The chief executive of e-mail marketing firm e360 Insight sued Comcast recently, claiming the cable and Internet service provider was blocking his e-mails from reaching recipients.
It turns out Comcast is blocking a lot of senders’ e-mail, according to multiple sources.
Comcast, however, begs to differ.
Multiple e-mail deliverability specialists are reporting that many of their clients are having difficulty getting their e-mail into Comcast address holders’ inboxes.
“I can usually tell when one of the ISPs makes some change to their incoming spam filtering just by my call volume,” wrote co-founder of deliverability consultancy Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, on her blog. “The past few weeks, the ISP in most of my calls has been Comcast. And, what do you know, they have made changes to how they are filtering e-mail.”
This is not a small problem. Comcast is the No. 2 Internet service provider with 12.9 million subscribers, according to ISP Planet.
Comcast recently began using technology from anti spam firm Cloudmark. The change apparently resulted in heavier filtering of incoming e-mail.
Also, Comcast has been fiddling with its throttling rules resulting in fluctuations in the amount of e-mail it will accept from mailers, according to Len Shneyder, director of partner relations for deliverability consultancy Pivotal Veracity. Comcast has also limiting the number of connections any sender can establish with its servers.
As a result, e-mail is getting into Comcast more slowly.
“In general, the entire industry is experiencing problems with Comcast due to heavier filtering and rate limiting,” Shneyder said. “This is not unusual for ISPs in their fight against spam as they fine tune their systems to cope with the ever-increasing volume of spam.”
What to do? Shneyder recommends throttling, or slowing the amount of e-mail sent to Comcast addresses. He adds this may be difficult for some mailers with internal e-mail or home-grown systems, but most e-mail service providers can throttle e-mail by domain.
Shneyder said his contact at Comcast told him last week that mailers should limit outbound messages to Comcast addresses to six recipients per second.
Shneyder also said his Comcast contact told him senders should limit their connections to its servers to 10 per IP address.
Meanwhile, Jay Opperman, director of security and privacy for Comcast, said he isn’t aware of any widespread deliverability issues affecting incoming permission-based e-mail at the cable provider.
“The way I tell if it’s a big broad problem is I’ll get escalations, and we’re not seeing that,” he said. “Metrics that I have say we’re getting to the phone and answering people’s phone calls.”
He confirmed that Comcast implemented new anti-spam measures at the end of the third quarter of last year, including switching from anti-spam technology provider Brightmail to Cloudmark.
Opperman added that like many ISPs, Comcast places great weight on spam complaints from subscribers when determining how to handle incoming mail.
“Principally, a lot of actions that we take are based on feedback from our customers,” he said. “The issue that we run into with most of e-marketers is they don’t have a clean list.”
Opperman also said Comcast is considering increasingly using mailers’ so-called reputations—generally defined as the number of spam complaints a mailer gets, and the number of dead addresses and spam complaints a mailer hits—to determine how to process incoming mail.
“We’re looking at it,” he said. “We have not implemented a reputation-based filtering system at this point.”
Opperman added that when Comcast blocks a sender’s mail, the mailer will get an error message with a code and links they can follow for instructions on how to solve the problem. Mailers who experience deliverability issues should follow the links and fill out the appropriate forms when the situation warrants. They can also call Comcast’s anti-spam team, he said. The number is (888) 565-4329.
“If they don’t feel that their problem is being addressed, they can always escalate,” he added.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Le Scaphandre et le papillon
Go see it... seriously... what are you reading this for? Just go see the film "The Diving Bell & The Butterfly", just be aware that you'll be emotionally hungover, as one critic said, for about a week afterward. One of the most lamentable and difficult to watch stories since "My left foot" and up there with D.D.L.'s performance in that film.
I managed to hunt down the playlist as there's no soundtrack available on Amazon...
'The Diving Bell & The Butterfly' Soundtrack tracklist
1. Charles Trenet - La Mer
2. The Dirtbombs - Chains of Love
3. Tom Waits - All the World Is Green
4. U2 - Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
5. Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle - Don't Kiss Me Goodbye
6. The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes
7. Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Ramshackle Day Parade
8. Paul Cantelon - Theme For the Diving Bell and the Butterfly
thanks to The Play List for posting the fabulous tunes in this film that have left me with an aural hangover when thinking about Le Mer...
I managed to hunt down the playlist as there's no soundtrack available on Amazon...
'The Diving Bell & The Butterfly' Soundtrack tracklist
1. Charles Trenet - La Mer
2. The Dirtbombs - Chains of Love
3. Tom Waits - All the World Is Green
4. U2 - Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
5. Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle - Don't Kiss Me Goodbye
6. The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes
7. Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Ramshackle Day Parade
8. Paul Cantelon - Theme For the Diving Bell and the Butterfly
thanks to The Play List for posting the fabulous tunes in this film that have left me with an aural hangover when thinking about Le Mer...
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Between Japan and Sea world
there's the faith of dishes and die cast reflections
things in the mirror are twice as clearly mirrored
i've a finish for a first remembrance
crash-holed the story and wept a gentle rain
while the first girl we kissed and misplaced in our
hairpins and leaves of the living left slumbered
look it's not poignant if no one here dies
sit back relax, strap on your new nuclear tie
without it our intollerance grows
but that's how it works, every time
makes you just a little bit weaker
and cyring once a year is ok
but twice your a crier and that's not allowed
and all things verbotten verukt and vergessen
how can it taste more like the sea
but simple rules are simply kept
salt of the earth salt over my shoulder
salt and the bread
salt and the pepper
and some kept apart.
things in the mirror are twice as clearly mirrored
i've a finish for a first remembrance
crash-holed the story and wept a gentle rain
while the first girl we kissed and misplaced in our
hairpins and leaves of the living left slumbered
look it's not poignant if no one here dies
sit back relax, strap on your new nuclear tie
without it our intollerance grows
but that's how it works, every time
makes you just a little bit weaker
and cyring once a year is ok
but twice your a crier and that's not allowed
and all things verbotten verukt and vergessen
how can it taste more like the sea
but simple rules are simply kept
salt of the earth salt over my shoulder
salt and the bread
salt and the pepper
and some kept apart.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
One or both
Good old G. W. Bush just said, in reference to the president of Pakistan, Musharraf, that "You can't be the president and the head of the military." when asked about the recent state of emergency and martial law that Musharraf has declared in Pakistan, the US's biggest (and perhaps only) middle eastern supporter in the war on Terror... hm... what would that make GW as Commander in Chief? I wonder...
Monday, November 05, 2007
The Devil In You
Last night you saw the devil in a top hat walking with a cane, or maybe sitting on a park bench, wincing whenever the wind blew. Last night the devil was in the details. Two more sad eyed nobodies no more spent than spun. Ham strung hallucinations, two birds came running to your window to find you gone, still sitting there sanitizing the past. No matter the size of the parasol over head you’re ground underfoot. These boots walked and found that hell was a form of personal innuendo when no one was laughing. You choke back a flower wanting to give birth to everything too scared to be born. It’s the manner in which temptation raises doubt how the best things won seem lost and the busses never run on time. Standing out—tearing in, silly thing to want the rain on a sunny day when you can’t stand illumination. Everything in its right place is a wrong aesthetic. Sometimes the medicine is to cut too deeply. Sometimes the devil is a little girl in a red dress with a blue face. Sometimes you can’t have been more than six or seven but when you want to be held you’re always the age you were right then. Pausing that day you thought the wind might wait for your leaves to fall by themselves. A chance reflection, the one you want to be, the one that wants to be you, the one isn’t the same as the one before. Don’t make too much trouble keeping out the stuff coming in. Dorothy Parker’s overwell wrought loves lay bare the door to hell. Last night’s last stand was lost in transliteration. There’s the metaphor you left unedited, the one where you’re at the center of it all. Then there’s last rights, the ones you take before the first kiss. Let’s pretend every last night was the devil in you.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
[Unfinished]
How do you fold the pages of this day into the volume of tomorrow’s night?
The book of opposites
opposes no one man
speaks no one woman
hears no one child
wears not one skin
but stretches them all
seekers and the string of [sought] revelations
have a fastening hook and the bodice of [body]
annihilations sentinels silences
where it’s cut off
while a flower
draws color: oceanic parasol
what is covered
unfolds inside
unwinds and
unstable seems
the string of sought revelations
a fastening and the body
assimilated intractable
Of Reistance
| Tender dream Night’s pillow Borrow a leg Of meaning From the arm Of resistance | Resistance Arms Meaning Borrows feet At night To dream | A leg up Meaning Resistance Is arming The dream tonight | Tender night Borrowed pillows Leggy Meaning Arms irresistible |
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
From Panopticon
The sense \’sen(t)s\ of being – alive a captive – as one dares enter into emotional contracts beleaguered of a future return except the trauma of a sensational harvest. To what end is a stone field plowed? Purloined fruit, the strangest boughs twisting through the cell’s quadrangular similarity while light draws shadows on the eyes of those to be seen. The collective’s separate fantasies dream of curtains to separate them from their presence.
the senses – as an open grave of lillies
From Panopticon
The wholeness \’hōl‘nes\ of the still. Stone and stone locked in stone. The stones lock themselves. The stones lock themselves. This too is kept in stone, written in stone. Stone to stone. He felt the stones had a place for him. Every stone unturned is made of wall. Where the stones have names. Perhaps his name was stone. Seen through like so many he was dim as stone. As a stone falls in water keeping dry its secret. What splits the stone but doors. Standing in the stone cell. Sleeping on the stone. Walking on stone. Stone to stone. He’s made of something more than stones. Seen through. What might look like stone to you. Polyhedron passage lined with stone. Stone dreams sand. Here’s the perfect stone to skip. Bouncing off the stones his light. Shadowy stones. Lighted like a standing stone. His light shadow stone. He was stoned. Against the stone or thrown from or onto stones. Ancient stones to stones to stones to new ones as old as old stones. Here’s a stone. His is.
Friday, September 21, 2007
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