Email or No Email?

[WebSavvy]

This is a question for our submitters:

To date, we have not sent out an email response to the submitter to inform them whether or not their site has been accepted.

I've heard from many people that their chief complaint about submitting to directories was the email being sent them afterwards.

Then on the flip side to that argument, I've heard also, "It would be nice to hear something to let me know if my site was accepted or not."

We're getting ready to implement all of our new changes now (the work is completed) and I'd like to know how the majority feel.

Do you want an email letting you know your site has been accepted/declined?

-- OR --

Do you not want any email at all?

If we did send one to inform you if your site was accepted/declined, it would be the ONLY email you would ever get from us and your email address would not be shared with third parties or sold.

[ihelpyou]

hmm. That's a tough one. Real tough one.

You are on your own with that decision. :D


You should put the options in a form of a vote poll.

Oh, you did. LOL

Make a third option of "indifferent".



The thing to consider is that right now you are not asking for an email address. You may be getting more submissions because of that. If you start sending out emails upon being listed, of course you ask for an address. Submissions may go down. There are strong arguments for both sides.

I don't have an opinion as it makes no difference to me.

[WebSavvy]

Doug, actually we've asked for an email address all along. It's in our submission form. We have a field for email and for contact name.

The contact name & email address are used as a verification measure for validating requests for changes to records.

If you're indexed, and some competitor comes along and decides they'll make a "request" (as you) for your record to be changed/delisted -- we verify the legitimacy of the request by the email address and contact name.

If the request for changes comes from an email address other than the one we have listed, no changes to the record will be made.

<added> You'll have to insert the 3rd option into the poll for me. I get a permission denied response. :( </added>

<added> Thanks for adding the other 2 options Doug. :) </added>

[~Karen~]

Deb,

Would it be possible to make it optional? Have a yes or no check box asking if the submitter would like to receive confirmation?

Karen

[WebSavvy]

That's a great suggestion Karen. Yes, that would be very easy to do. :)

[captainccs]

I would send an e-mail only when the site is accepted. The acceptance brings joy to the site owner, rejection does not! Not only that, it gives the site owner the opportunity of an early review of your editor's work, miskates do happn.

Of course, you should send an e-mail if the editor has questions.

I'm still waiting for my Savvy e-mail! :lol:

[WebSavvy]

Good suggestions Denny, thanks. :)

Yes, I know you are still waiting, as are many folks. :) Thanks so much for your patience and support though. Your site will be indexed very soon as we now have over 2000 newly added categories.

Ask my editors. They nearly fainted in our staff area when they saw the list of new categories I've created. :D

We have tons of new features, new search functions, etc. Tomorrow evening, one of my programmers and myself will be setting all the new stuff up. On Monday, it'll be in public view. I'm really excited because I've worked very, very hard on this.

[ihelpyou]

Oh okay. My 'submit' gal does that for me so I did not know you asked for an email address. :D


Good suggestions everyone.

[maninderwalia]

Hi! Deb
As Doug mentioned its a tough one.
People(having Dmoz experience) more or less assume not to get any information about their site status and believe me they think that the sites/directories not sending them an email are more genuine.
Logically people should appreciate the effort of updating them about the site status.
Hey Deb lets be more innovative , how about sending an Sms :p

Mani

[captainccs]

Originally posted by maninderwalia
People(having Dmoz experience) more or less assume not to get any information about their site status and believe me they think that the sites/directories not sending them an email are more genuine. I don't know what people with Dmoz experinece think but I do like to get a confirmation. This is helpful in various ways. First I don't waste my time trying to find out if the gods have been favorable to me or not. No email = no favors. Mail = favors. I would think this produces positive feedback. Also, I appreciate the fact that I can check my listing while it is still fresh in the editor's mind.
Hey Deb lets be more innovative , how about sending an Sms :p What is Sms? :confused:

[WebSavvy]

Denny, SMS are text messages to Mobile Phones.

Mani, that's not appropriate contact method for a submission confirmation.

==

We will put in the option for people to select whether they wish to get an email confirmation or not. It'll be sent out only to those who select "Yes' and then only if they are indeed accepted.

[captainccs]

Originally posted by savvy1
Denny, SMS are text messages to Mobile Phones. All my phones are attached to the wall by cable. Well, I do have a cordless one but the base station is still attached to the wall by a cable. I'm one of these tech guys who does not want to own a cell phone so that I always have the excuse that I was not at the phone when people called. They can always leave me a message on the answering machine but I much prefer to "talk" to them by e-mail most of the time. Much less intrusive.
We will put in the option for people to select whether they wish to get an email confirmation or not. It'll be sent out only to those who select "Yes' and then only if they are indeed accepted. Debby, I think that's a really good choice! :thumb: :thumb:

[g1smd]

>> If you're indexed, and some competitor comes along and decides they'll make a "request" (as you) for your record to be changed/delisted -- we verify the legitimacy of the request by the email address and contact name. <<

You are assuming that the original submission came from a reliable and legitimate source, no?


>> If the request for changes comes from an email address other than the one we have listed, no changes to the record will be made. <<

A lot of people change their email address on a regular basis. I'm guessing that many submitters will not bother to keep you updated with their email address changes each time they change it.

You should probably go with the email address featured on the site, but that assumes that they submitted themselves, rather than an individual employee, or an agent, or the webdesigner, or......

Additionally, it is easy to put whatever address you like in the From: field of the email address, so you'll need to check the originating server name as well as the actual From address (but then again, when I send some email out, I redirect replies back to a different account, with another ISP, so you can't rely on this at all).



The email thing might be a good idea in some cases, but is riddled with potential problems. You also don't want to send spammers a note about their listing being rejected. You want to keep them in the dark as to listing status. Just read the Resource-Zone threads about this in relation to the ODP.

[polarmate]

You are assuming that the original submission came from a reliable and legitimate source, no?g1smd, if the submission is genuine then we have to assume that the email address is also genuine. Spam submissions get filtered by our editors so the legitimacy for contact details for those sites is a non-issue.
Additionally, it is easy to put whatever address you like in the From: field of the email address, so you'll need to check the originating server name as well as the actual From address (but then again, when I send some email out, I redirect replies back to a different account, with another ISP, so you can't rely on this at all).
Very true, g1smd! However, the change/edit URL request will be via a form. So verification of the From address, the Reply to address and the reverse DNS lookup will not be necessary.

What this means is that the submittor needs to record the details of their submission when they make it. In sum, we are very committed to what we do and the submittor also needs to be serious about getting a listing in our directory.

[captainccs]

Originally posted by polarmate
What this means is that the submittor needs to record the details of their submission when they make it. In sum, we are very committed to what we do and the submittor also needs to be serious about getting a listing in our directory. One outfit that I have dealt with insists on sending the e-mail to an address that also appears on the web site as determined by their robots supposing that only the site owner is capable of adding web addresses to the site. The one drawback to this is that you cannot disguise that address to fool SPAMbots so you open yourself up to SPAM.

I think that receiving the instructions via a form and confirming them via a password sent to the user at his e-mail address of record is perfectly valid and workable. That's what I'm using.

[WebSavvy]

Our submissions use a form that feeds right into a temporary database. The editors can see the email field, the contact name field, etc.

When a request for changes to a record are made, the email address, contact name, etc., must all match before any changes are made.

Even if the user email address does change, as long as they can provide the contact name that was used when they submitted their record, then we would make the changes to the record.

All of this is covered in the new guidelines section that will accompany the new submission set up.

The submitter is also asked to supply a secret word, which if any of their other data changes (email, contact name) we can still make a positive verification based on the secret word field.

[g1smd]

... so if a well-intentioned friend submits my site, and you list it, if I later on contact you with an update for my own site, it will be rejected as the email address doesn't match?

[WebSavvy]

Please reread what's already been stated.

There are several criteria for verification: email, contact name, secret word.

If your well-intentioned friend submits your site for you, this well-intentioned friend would also supply you with the necessary data, no?

[polarmate]

Originally posted by g1smd
... so if a well-intentioned friend submits my site, and you list it, if I later on contact you with an update for my own site, it will be rejected as the email address doesn't match?
If everything that Deb suggests fails, you can always bring it up in this forum ;) and we can change your contact details to be yours instead of your friend's.

[WebSavvy]

Thanks to all of you for the feedback you've provided. We have decided to go with the majority vote and send out a confirmation email when a site has been accepted.