Hi Rick, I received an unexpected, unsolicited email from this site's blog.

I dislike spam (unsolicited email) and tried to Opt-out. I was shocked to see that your opt-out contains this message "Before you unsubscribe, PLEASE READ this NOTICE:
By unsubscribing you will removed from BOTH our Catsailor.com Forum AND the OnlineMarineStore Blog. You will no longer have access to your past forum posts and will no longer receive our blog or newsletter emails. This cannot be undone.".

As a web marketer (of 19 years) I have to tell you this is a poor practice. You risk angering your public (us) and losing your forum and site members (who are the lifeblood of your site).

If this was just about any other forum i am a part of ... I would simply unsubscribe and never return.

As an email developer - this is also a matter of legality... It is a arguably an illegal Can-Spam infraction under the "harvesting of emails" (since we have no business relationship, I have not opted-in, and you have offered a free service (this forum) and have harvested the emails to send out a commercial email.

I hope you will reconsider your practice and offer a double opt-in (best practice) to anyone who wishes to receive your emails, or at the least an opt-out that does not have additional repercussions.



FYI
What are the penalties for violating the CAN-SPAM Act?
A. Each separate email in violation of the law is subject to penalties of up to $16,000, and more than one
person may be held responsible for violations. For example, both the company whose product is promoted
in the message and the company that originated the message may be legally responsible. Email that makes
misleading claims about products or services also may be subject to laws outlawing deceptive advertising,
like Section 5 of the FTC Act. The CAN-SPAM Act has certain aggravated violations that may give rise
to additional fines. The law provides for criminal penalties – including imprisonment – for:
• accessing someone else’s computer to send spam without permission,
• using false information to register for multiple email accounts or domain names,
• relaying or retransmitting multiple spam messages through a computer to mislead others about the
origin of the message,
• harvesting email addresses or generating them through a dictionary attack (the practice of sending
email to addresses made up of random letters and numbers in the hope of reaching valid ones), and
• taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without permission.

- https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/do...n-spam-act-compliance-guide-business.pdf