How I Learned to Stop Spamming and Love the E-Mail Signature Thread poster: OG Pete
|
|---|
OG Pete 
United States
Russian to English
+ ...
A translation agency recently asked for a cost estimate. I happily obliged and shot them back an e-mail with a quote. And waited. And waited.
After an hour had gone by, I was a bit perplexed that they hadn't written back yet.
On a hunch, I decided to run a thoroughly unscientific experiment: I resent the quote, but this time... See more A translation agency recently asked for a cost estimate. I happily obliged and shot them back an e-mail with a quote. And waited. And waited.
After an hour had gone by, I was a bit perplexed that they hadn't written back yet.
On a hunch, I decided to run a thoroughly unscientific experiment: I resent the quote, but this time deleted the email's closing signature.
Although my e-mail with the above signature was seemingly lost in cyberspace, my client immediately replied to the same e-mail sent without it. My initial reply had been marked as spam. Strike one.
A few days later, another client of mine was uncharacteristically late with a reply to my quote. He apologized, explaining that he had just found my e-mail in his spam (junk mail) folder. Strike two.
Determined not to strike out, I stopped appending my rather-long signature to future e-mails and opted for a much shorter one.
Nobody's found my messages in their spam box since then. Coincidence?
How about you? Have you ever been deemed a spammer? What do you do about it?
[edited for typos]
[Edited at 2013-07-02 15:49 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | nrichy (X)
France
Local time: 06:22
French to Dutch
+ ...
| Discovered that too | Jul 1, 2013 |
On my old computer I discovered that some of my e-mails got lost in cyberspace, arrived in other people's junk folder or arrived very late (at the end of the day) because of the logo in the signature, which is a photograph. At the receiving end there was a scanning function which couldn't make any sense of it.
No problem anymore since I deleted it and only use letters.
And also, I could not send back client e-mails which contained social website logos (LinkedIn, Xing, Twitter... See more On my old computer I discovered that some of my e-mails got lost in cyberspace, arrived in other people's junk folder or arrived very late (at the end of the day) because of the logo in the signature, which is a photograph. At the receiving end there was a scanning function which couldn't make any sense of it.
No problem anymore since I deleted it and only use letters.
And also, I could not send back client e-mails which contained social website logos (LinkedIn, Xing, Twitter, etc.). I had to delete them before sending my answer. Probably a security setting, but I never knew which one. ▲ Collapse
| | | |
Coincidence?
Not at all! Your old signature had way too many links with little content, which is always a red flag.
It's good idea to check all email signatures/templates, etc. using a spam rating tool (out of the top of my head I only recall https://spamscorechecker.com but there's a myriad of such sites on the web, just search for "spam rating" or "spam score" to find several sites).
| | | | | Emails marked as High Priority or Urgent | Jul 2, 2013 |
Also, emails marked as High Priority or Urgent are often recognized as spam by span filters.
The same emails but not marked as HP or U are not recognized as spam .
| | |
|
|
|
OG Pete
United States
Russian to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Not all that spammy after all | Jul 5, 2013 |
nrichy wrote:
On my old computer I discovered that some of my e-mails got lost in cyberspace, arrived in other people's junk folder or arrived very late (at the end of the day) because of the logo in the signature, which is a photograph. At the receiving end there was a scanning function which couldn't make any sense of it.
No problem anymore since I deleted it and only use letters.
And also, I could not send back client e-mails which contained social website logos (LinkedIn, Xing, Twitter, etc.). I had to delete them before sending my answer. Probably a security setting, but I never knew which one.
Were the social-network logos and the photograph hotlinked to in the HTML code of the e-mail or simply attached to it? My e-mail signature with all the social-networking links was the one that got marked as spam. As Rossana asks, are the outbound links themselves the issue?
Rossana Triaca wrote: Coincidence? Not at all! Your old signature had way too many links with little content, which is always a red flag. It's good idea to check all email signatures/templates, etc. using a spam rating tool (out of the top of my head I only recall https://spamscorechecker.com but there's a myriad of such sites on the web, just search for "spam rating" or "spam score" to find several sites).
Thanks Rossana! Yeah the old one had tons of links, but it was so much more fun!
I sent the offending message to SpamScoreChecker and it got back a Spam-Assassin score of -0.1/5 and listed the following broken rules:
* 0.0 FREEMAIL_FROM Sender email is commonly abused enduser mail provider (username[at]gmail.com)
* -0.0 NO_RELAYS Informational: message was not relayed via SMTP
* -0.1 DKIM_VALID_AU Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from author's domain
* 0.1 DKIM_SIGNED Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily valid
* -0.1 DKIM_VALID Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK signature
* 0.0 T_FILL_THIS_FORM_SHORT Fill in a short form with personal information
Alexander Kupriyanchuk wrote: Also, emails marked as High Priority or Urgent are often recognized as spam by spam filters. The same emails but not marked as HP or U are not recognized as spam .
Thanks, Alexander! I sent this one from gmail and so I don't know of any option to mark messages as High Priority or Urgent. I don't see the priority markings that other people put on e-mail they send to me either.
Hopefully my e-mail contacts know that any e-mail from me is High Priority
[Edited at 2013-07-05 06:50 GMT]
| | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » How I Learned to Stop Spamming and Love the E-Mail Signature | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop
and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
More info » |
| | Protemos translation business management system | Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!
The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
