Photo.net: Monthly Photography Newsletter from Photo.net: Photo.net article

Monthly Photography Newsletter from Photo.net

by Josh Root



Starting in October 2007, Photo.net began delivering a monthly
newsletter to its users. The purpose of the newsletter is to bring the
best of photo.net to our users’ email inbox. It will inform them of new site
content, draw attention to some talented photo.net members, and
highlight some of the more interesting tips, events, photos, and
information posted to the site every month. With thousands of new
forum and gallery posts every day, it would be impossible to keep
track of everything on photo.net. This is the photo.net team’s way
of helping with that problem.

If you do not wish to receive the Photo.net newsletter, you can modify your newsletter subscription status from your “my workspace” area. Look for the “Newsletter Subscription” link in the “Account Options” section.
Previous Newsletters

2011

• April 19, 2011 Editorial/Community
• March 16, 2011 Editorial/Community
• February 17, 2011 Editorial/Community
• January 25, 2011 Editorial/Community

2010

• December 14, 2010 Editorial/Community
• November 23, 2010 Editorial/Community
• November 4, 2010 Editorial/Community
• October 12, 2010 Editorial/Community
• September 14, 2010 Editorial/Community
• August 5, 2010 Editorial/Community
• July 20, 2010 Editorial/Community
• June 24, 2010 Editorial/Community
• June 8, 2010 Editorial/Community
• May 25, 2010 Editorial/Community
• May 6, 2010 Editorial/Community
• April 2010 Editorial/Community
• March 2010 Editorial/Community
• February 2010 Editorial/Community
• January 2010 Editorial
• January 2010 Community

2009

• December 2009 Editorial
• December 2009 Community
• November 2009 Editorial
• November 2009 Community
• October 2009 Editorial
• October 2009 Community
• September 2009 Editorial
• September 2009 Community
• August 2009 Editorial
• August 2009 Community
• July 2009 Editorial
• July 2009 Community
• June 2009 Editorial
• June 2009 Community
• May 2009 Editorial
• May 2009 Community
• April 2009 Editorial
• April 2009 Community
• March 2009 Editorial
• March 2009 Community
• February 2009 Editorial
• February 2009 Community
• January 2009 Editorial
• January 2009 Community

2008

• December 2008 Editorial
• December 2008 Community
• November 2008 Editorial
• November 2008 Community
• October 2008 Editorial
• October 2008 Community
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008

2007

• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007

Things that might be confusing

Photo.net uses a company called Silverpop to mail out the
newsletter. Due to the sheer size of the photo.net mailing list we
have to be very careful about the way we send out mail. If we weren’t,
all mail coming from the photo.net servers would quickly get tagged as
spam. This would be particularly bad because new user email, topic
notifications, email requests, and password reminders would all be
blocked as a result. This would, understandably, cause a huge logjam
of problems. This is where Silverpop comes in. They are used to
working with email and internet service providers to prevent
legitimate email from being blocked. Silverpop does mailings for
companies like Buy.com, Golfsmith, Mazda, and Jetblue. They are a
well-respected business working with Fortune 500 companies, not merely
a fly by night spam-marketer.
What does this mean for you, the user? It means that a few things
in the newsletter are going to be more suspicious than you would
probably want them to be:

Some users have received the newsletter and others have
not.

This is not because of any sort of priority mailing list. It is simply because even with a company like Silverpop helping us, we cannot send to our full mailing list at once. This has to be done in stages over a few days. As people have varying email delivery speeds and a variety of different spam catching security systems, there is bound to be a wide range of time in which users will receive the mailing. As we gradually delete the out-of-date email addresses and update the list to reflect those who have unsubscribed, the overall delivery time should become faster.

The newsletter is sent from a “no reply” email address.

This is a necessity due to the fact that without it our mail servers would crash as a result of all the bounced email from addresses that no longer exist. Within each newsletter we will list the contact email (contact@photo.net) for our Director of Community, Josh Root, so that he can help with any related issues that may occur.

The “from” address is different from the actual sender.

While the sender email is listed as “noreply@photo.net”, those who look into the email header information will notice that the actual sender is from a “mkt691.com” domain. Again, this is part of the system that email-marketing companies like Silverpop use to keep the photo.net domain from being accused of spam activities.

Newsletter links do not point to photo.net.

The links in the email (including the “opt-out” link) do not direct you to http://photo.net, rather they point to “http://links.mkt691.com”. This is another part of the service that Silverpop provides. These dedicated links allow them to tell us how many people are actually using the email and how many are choosing to unsubscribe. If we found out that 90% of our users did not want to see a photo.net email, we would know to not bother in the future. Conversely, if we found out that people particularly liked one aspect of the newsletter (the “Featured Member” for example) we would know to add similar content in the future.

Does this mean that photo.net is selling user names and
email?

Absolutely not. Please read the Photo.net Privacy Policy and be assured that we will never sell or give away your personal data to other companies.

How to subscribe or unsubscribe to the newsletter:

When you first register with photo.net, you have a chance to choose to receive the Photo.net newsletter. If for some reason you decided at that time not to receive it and then change your mind later, or decide that you no longer want to receive it, here is how you can subscribe or unsubscribe.

• First, log in to your Photo.net account if you are not already logged in.
• Then, click on the “my workspace” link in the upper right hand corner of any page.
• Look for the “Account Options” heading on the right hand side of the page.
• Click on the “Newsletter Subscription” link.
• You will then see a statement that indicates if you are subscribed or unsubscribed. There will also be a link that will allow you to either subscribe (if you are currently unsubscribed) or unsubscribe (if you are currently subscribed). Click that link if you wish to change your subscription status.

In addition, you can unsubscribe from the newsletter by clicking the “If you wish to unsubscribe from this newsletter, please click here.” link that is at the bottom of every newsletter.