Top Comments: ENOUGH with the Daily Emails Edition!

Arghhhhhh! I. Have. Had. Enough!

Be warned: this is a rant that’s festered for quite some time. I’m not sure how I’m going to land this plane, but prepare for takeoff….

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I have just finished cleaning out my email inbox and it’s increasingly a nightmare. My delete button is wearing out from all of the emails that I’ve learned to frustratingly delete on sight. The pattern is all too familiar:

Clickbait titles, often including my name, seeming to promise precious news inside or promoting a sense of urgency or emergency that only I can resolve with immediate action. Inside, a beg for money, no news or information about the candidates or organization and what they’re up to. $$$$$$$. Send right now and then tomorrow we’ll ask for more as though we, the beleaguered recipient, have an endless supply of loot for the candidate or organization to plunder and we’re just being stingy. Fake Polls. You know the ones, right? Instead of sending the clickbait title, the newest inbox attention seeker asks us how we “feel about the issues”. Yeah, right. As if they care what answers you provide. And they always — ALWAYS — end with a donation beg. And we never see or get a link to the results of those “important” polls. Fake Petitions. Ditto Fake Polls. I’ve never seen or heard of any of them actually going anywhere or doing anything besides ask for money after you’ve signed. Don’t Delete! I think they are realizing that many of us are auto deleting all of the above emails and believe that a “don’t delete — this is vital”  title will prevent that. It took a few of those before they were also added to the DOS (delete on sight) list. Warning/Danger! Also on my naughty list are all of those “Danger Will Robinson” emails that warn about the actions or plans of other candidates or elected officials. They, too, don’t contain information — only a money beg. Emails from well known people or someone other than the candidate or organization: The name is either familiar or someone I’ve never heard of. It’s only when you fall for it that you realize who it’s realy from and it’s just another money beg for such and such organization or so and so candidate. And finally — they never, ever stop: Give money to a candidate today and they’ll be back in your inbox again tomorrow — or even again today.

It’s not just candidates either. Organizations (yes, I see what you’re doing, too) have been doing this and they never, ever let up. DNC, DCCC, DSCC, Bold Progressives, DFA, WisDems — the list goes on and on and on. At least we get a break between elections from the candidates, but never from the organizations that just keep showing up with their hands out.

And then there are the sales pitches also looking for what’s inside of your wallet (yeah, I’m looking at you Keurig, Amazon, Target, Chewy.com, etc.). If I bought cat food yesterday, that doesn’t mean I need to order more today, tomorrow, the next day and daily through eternity. My cat doesn’t eat it quite that fast.

Amazon, though, is the worst. You buy something and they’re in your inbox starting the next day with similar products as if the one you bought, but haven’t received, is simply an appetizer for additional purchases of the same thing. Buying a set of coat hooks doesn’t mean I want to buy other coat hooks or be reminded daily of the variety of coat hooks available until the Second Coming.

Don’t get me wrong, being disabled I rely on home delivery, but if I bought furnace filters today, I don’t need more of them tomorrow.

Don’t bother unsubscribing either. It doesn’t work. Like the door close button on the elevator that exists just to give you something to do while waiting for the door to close, Unsubscribe means you have to open the email and look for it to click. They got you! And tomorrow you realize that they’re l in your inbox yet again. They win, you lose. It’s like Hotel California — you can check in, but you can never leave.

I’ve got the solution below.

If you want our attention to your campaign or organization, I have some suggestions for you:

Stop the daily money begs: Send us information on your campaign, your next stops, your plans and policy positions, polling information, and campaign information updates. Include a donation button, but don’t make it the central purpose and function of the email. Put it at the end and not between every paragraph. Let us know what you’re doing and do it once week at most. And that goes for multiple money begs in a day just before campaign financial reports are due. Bernie, Liz, Kamela etc., etc., for over 20 candidates — I love you, but not every day in my inbox. Give it a rest after we donate: You got money from us, now leave us in peace for a time. It’s maddening to send money to a candidate only to have a fresh money beg in the inbox the next day with even more urgency in the title. You make your donors feel like schmucks who are holding out on you and that doesn’t make us feel more likely to give you even more money out of our fixed budgets. And with twenty-some candidates with their hands out, it’s maddening. I know not how I get on all their lists. Stop the Fake Polls and Fake Petitions: They insult our intelligence because we never know the results of any of them and never hear about any petitions being delivered. Pssst: The automatic donation page that comes up at the end of the petition signing or poll taking is a dead giveaway about what the poll/petition is really about (and it isn’t about polling data or petitions). Enough with the clickbait titles: The world really isn’t going to end if I don’t send you 20 bucks immediately so stop acting like it will. Read the story of Chicken Little. That’s you in my inbox. Daily, if not more often. Give us information on your local operation: Some folks don’t have money to give, but they have time to volunteer. Give us that link to your local or state coordinator. In the end, our time is likely more valuable than our money. Stop having front men/women listed as the sender: A celebrity name or the name of someone we never heard of like a campaign staffer might induce us to open an email that ends up being from your campaign or organization, but it makes us feel like we’ve been suckered. You’re wasting our time as though our time isn’t valuable (it is to us). Let us truly unsubscribe: Freeeeedoooom! And that places the burden on you to avoid pissing us off on a daily basis.

This might seem like an over-reaction on my part, but when you have dozens of state, local and national candidates and dozens of worthy organizations hitting your inbox on a daily basis, it’s a serious email clogging problem and incredible waste of time. Something needs to be done — the sooner the better. It’s been ridiculous for quite some time.

OK, that’s it. Rant over.

Supply your own rant or add to both of my lists in the comments. No doubt I’ve forgotten to list some major annoyances. I’ll be here to savor each one, as usual. But, act fast before you’re prevented from commenting at all forever by my opponent …. /s (I guess all those clickbait titles are getting to me).

TOP COMMENTS from August 30, 2019

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