Aha! Now I think I understand. The "confirmed" part of "confirmed opt-in" and
"double confirmed opt-in" does not refer to a confirmation *request*, it refers
to a confirmation *notice*, i.e., the "you have been added to the list" message,
sent to the new subscriber to "confirm" that his/her address has been added to
the list. If I am correct, then the various levels of opt-in, as defined by the
marketers, work this way:
1. Pure opt-in: The list owner receives a subscription request and immediately
adds the apparent sender of the request to the list. No notification is sent
to the new subscriber. If the subscription was intentionally forged, or the
sender accidentally typed someone else's address (finger-glitch, mind-glitch,
whatever), or the subscription request was submitted inadvertently because
somebody clicked OK one too many times, or whatever, the new subscriber will
not find out about the new subscription until the first spam arrives.
2. Confirmed opt-in: The list owner receives a subscription request and
immediately adds the apparent sender of the request to the list, then sends
a message "confirming" that the subscriber's address has been added to the
list. Hopefully, this "confirmation" notice will include unsubscribe
instructions, and will arrive before the first spam is sent.
3. Double confirmed opt-in: The list owner receives a subscription request and
sends a message to the apparent sender asking the sender to verify the
request. Upon receipt of this verification, the list owner adds the new
subscriber to the list and sends a message "confirming" that the subscriber's
address has been added.
So, "unconfirmed open subscription" is now "confirmed opt-in", unless you
suppress the signup message, in which case it is "pure opt-in".
Now that we have resolved this misunderstanding, I have to ask (well, maybe I
don't have to ask, but I'm going to ask) whether L-Soft will be changing its
documentation to use this new terminology, to ensure that the marketers and
their technical geeks do not experience similar misunderstandings?
--
Paul Russell
Senior Systems Administrator
University of Notre Dame
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