OnQ

On Spam

I know what a problem spam can be. I've got two different systems filtering my incoming e-mail, and they're catching about 99% of the spam, which I'm thankful for. Given what does still get through, I can only imagine what I'd be combing through if I didn't have that protection in place.

Wel this morning, I re-encountered another spam prevention tool. There's a local vendor that I need to work with on a project I have for one of my clients, and after discussing the project in several phone calls, I told him I'd send him e-mail with some of the specifics. And that's what I did this morning.

But what happened next really got me thinking about spam protection and business image...

I immediately received the following e-mail back from his mail system:

"I apologize for this automatic reply to your email.

To control spam, I now allow incoming messages only from senders I have approved beforehand.

If you would like to be added to my list of approved senders, please fill out the short request form (see link below). Once I approve you, I will receive your original message in my inbox. You do not need to resend your message. I apologize for this one-time inconvenience.

Click the link below to fill out the request:"

This is not the first time I've run across this particular spam prevention tool. The business side of me immediately clicked on the link and requested authorization. Then the personal side of me stepped up and said "Now wait just a minute..."

If that e-mail had been the first attempt I'd made to contact him, I wouldn't have bothered to click on the link and request authorization. My gut reaction is "well, if I have to take extra steps just to send e-mail to this business, I'll go to someone who wants to get my e-mail and my business instead." How many others have tried to contact him by e-mail and had the same reaction? To me, that presents itself as a huge roadblock to getting potential clients to contact you.

Now I know that he'll approve my address and get the message, because we discussed it and he's expecting the e-mail. Still, I sent another message, replying to the autoresponse I got, and shared with him what my initial reaction was and explained that he might be losing business because people don't want to take that extra step just to get e-mail to him.

As a business owner, I want as few roadblocks as possible when potential customers are trying to reach me. If someone has to take an extra step to get in touch with me, who's to say that extra step won't instead be directed to finding someone else to take care of their needs? Yes, e-mail spam is a problem, but it's my problem, not my potential client's problem. If anyone has to take extra steps to ward off spam, it should be me, not someone who is trying to reach me to engage my services.

Something to think about anyway...

On Disk

Following a lead from Susan and Vlad, if you want to remember it, blog it.

Andrew Bettany posted in the SBS2K Yahoo group yesterday about a disk analysis tool that I hadn't run across before. The program is WinDirStat, and it provides an interesting graphical analysis of the data allocation on a disk drive. It also does analysis of UNC paths, so you can use it to analyze a volume or shared folder on a remote machine in addition to a local box. So, I don't have to worry about installing it on a server to get a look at the disk usage on a server volume.

WinDirStat is a sourceforge project, published under the GNU General Public License. It can be found at http://windirstat.sourceforge.net/