Delivery Failure Notification
based on a true story.
Ever got an e-mail with the subject “Delivery Failure Notification”? If so, you’re not alone. I wonder how many e-mails get sent every day around the world with the message: dude, they’ve changed their e-mail address and you did not get notified.
Last week, all companies @ minc got a nice little tip about free office space in saltimporten, a new creative office hotel in Malmö. I have no idea how the guy got all of our e-mail addresses but I guess that he just grabbed it from http://www.minc.se/allcompanies.aspx. There, you can find the official contact info to all the companies.
I found the approach quite amusing. I took a moment to think about the phenomena; someone want to reach out to a specific group of people, collect all addresses manually and send the humble e-mail about an offer.
The first reply is a short ‘I’m very satisfied with my office @ Minc!’ and shortly after I reply ‘thanks for the tip, and now we’ve got an email list to all of Minc, hurray!
What do we get back? A flood of responses from Mail Delivery Subsystem saying that this list is crap.Take a look at it. At least 30 addresses is no longer valid. Great. So how do we find out what the correct contact info is?
Someone has to sit and type all those lists manually, then publish them, then correct them, then correct them again.
Let’s imagine a system where you have your profile with your contact info, and the second you change anything all those list where you appear – they get updated, and you don’t even have to log in to each of those sites where you’re registered. That would make Mail Delivery Subsystem unnecessary. Good thing we’re working on that.