Among the objections to listings in the Rhyolite Software, LLC list of unwelcome domains, unwelcome IP addresses, or the free mail providers, there have been the following. This list contains only those objections, questions, or complaints that seem to be threatening or denying the undeniable.
Why bother remembering, not to mention publishing denials from senders of unsolicited bulk mail? There are many sorts of people and organizations that send spam. Some are straightforward about what they are doing and even proud of their efforts. Others say it was all an unfortunate accident. Still others deny it happened or insist that any target of spam who complains is lying and in fact solicited the bulk mail. It is difficult for a single, isolated target of spam to know whether a sad story about a hacker that polluted a confirmed opt-in list of interested customers is the truth. However, targets who can compare notes are not isolated. If search engines find no evidence to the contrary, a story excusing bulk mail might be true. If searching finds that the same story excused other events or that other events were excused with unlikely stories, perhaps the current excuse is not entirely accurate.
This list of objections is offered not as proof that the complaints or the listings are valid or invalid. The listings are only valid in the sense that mail from domains listed in the Rhyolite Software, LLC list of unwelcome domains is unwelcome at Rhyolite Software. For any other validity, you must evaluate the evidence here and elsewhere and draw your own conclusions. These objections as well as the list of unwelcome domains should not be seen as reasons why any other person or organization should do or not do anything.
Most objections to entries in the Rhyolite Software list of unwelcome domains come from listed domains or IP addresses. This is strange, because mail sent from listed sites is likely to be seen by no one at Rhyolite Software. As the descriptions of the lists say, mail may be accepted with an SMTP status of 250-OK, logged, and discarded instead of delivered. The thousands of unwelcome messages logged daily make it impossible for me to read more than a small sample. Why do people think that their complaints, comments, or objections might not be filtered the same as their other mail?
Many senders of unsolicited bulk mail are unable to imagine that anyone might not want to hear about their product, service, religion, charity, or whatever. They often reason that since they would never something nasty like spamming, their messages could not have been spam. No matter how often I tell them i never heard of them before their junk mail, many insist that I'm lying or confused. Most of the rest say things from my list of proofs that unsolicited bulk email is not spam.
Why do people bother to complain about entries on an obscure list like the Rhyolite Software list of unwelcome domains? It is not supposed to be used for automated blocking of mail except at Rhyolite Software.
Why do people make threats to get entries removed from the list? Do they really not understand that threats of violent, legal, or other undesirable actions are themselves sufficient to make mail from their domain names and IP addresses unwelcome regardless of spam?? Why do so many senders of unsolicited bulk mail think that a threat prefaced with an apology will force me to do what they want?
When senders of unsolicited bulk mail contact me about the Rhyolite Software list of unwelcome domains, they often endlessly repeat their demands or "How can we work this out?" questions. Perhaps they think repetition is the key to success in more than just advertising by mail.
There are only three reasons for removing an entry from the Rhyolite Software list of unwelcome domains
Contact Vernon Scrhyver at vjs@rhyolite.com but not this spam trap.
