h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Six months ago I buy some rail tickets via the SNCF (French Railway Network) website and forget to tick one of the boxes that says Don't send me loads of Junk mail...

For the next six months I get a couple of mails every week trying to sell me cheap rail tickets...

All of a sudden I get a mail from them saying that they've noticed that I haven't responded to their mails and that I should click on a certain link in the mail if I _want_ to keep receiving their special offers



That's got to be a first - a company actually asking you to opt IN to receiving advertising after they'd already got your e-mail address!

Completely restored my faith in human nature that has (well, almost )

in some european countries anti-spam law comes in effect. I believe the France is one of first.

one part is that opt-out must be included in all e-mails.

be aware opt-outs can be abused as check if your e-mail is correct.

Yup, but this is an Opt IN...

Otherwise meaning - if I don't reply I stop getting mails... If I reply then I keep getting mail...

And it's not as if the wording is deliberately confusing and trying to get people to opt in by clicking on the link when they think they're actually trying to stop the spam...

At the risk of getting moderated

The subject line of the e-mail is...
Urgent ! Dernier message avant resiliation
(Urgent! Last message prior to resiliation)



and the link itself is

"Oui, je veux continuer à recevoir la newsletter..."
("Yes, I want to continue receiving the newsletter")

That's the nice bit - If I don't actually do anything they _stop_ sending me the stuff...

aha
....you should investegate a new internet identity "passport".
http://xdi.org/http://idcommons.net/

and then you could read http://2idi.com/ and if you liked it you could join by buy an i-name (US$ 25 / about GBP15,40 for 50 years).

if you have you joined, then send i-request to me at http://public.2idi.com/=pheloxi

sorry links seemed to be melted together
http://xdi.org/
http://idcommons.net/

Whisky, i'm not that surprised about the SNCF doing that. after all it's not really spam trying to con you to buy something you don't need: you're either taking a train or you're not, and if you are the SNCF has your biz. Moreover, i've always been impressed by the thoughtfulness and efficiency of the SNCF. A further anecdote, my sister-in-law got a partial reimbursement recently because her train was (very) late, and all that without any request or paperwork on her part! Surprise!

In fact, the only fallings down of the SNCF imo are:

1) the pricing system for tickets is very complicated; so many special rates and offers that the cheapest way to buy your ticket is not always obvious. As such, the information they're sending you as "spam" may be very helpful to some.

2)their website is very slow and cumbersome, perhaps due to the colossal demand put on their computers; they may be very avid to lighten the load on their IT systems in any way possible, including their mailing lists.

I brought tickets with SNCF nearly three years ago, and still get spam... but I'm sure it would be quite useful if I did use the French railways regularly, and I spoke enough french to be able to understand them.

Sounds like your e-mail address is on a list that's been forgotten about on some old PC gathering dust in a broom cupboard somewhere in the basement with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard"

They've now stopped sending me stuff!