youthmalaysia – spammer of the year
It is unfortunate that my first post in a week has to be a rant. I had grand ideas for blog posts with positive vibes… self-serving photos and maybe even witty lines to make you smile. All that will have to wait, because I really cannot take it any more. So here goes…
I am SICK and TIRED of YouthMalaysia spamming my mail inbox. This has been on-going for some time – way earlier this year in fact, and I believe that almost one year is more than enough time for me to re-think if I want to blog about this. Every single time I receive one of their spam e-mails, I get SERIOUSLY pissed off and worked up to write a ranty blog post about them. But every single time I decided not to, thinking that maybe they deserve another chance because… well everyone’s entitled to a few fuck-ups in life. Until now, that is… Youth ‘09 is coming up, which means I am receiving mail from them again.
I wouldn’t mind so much if I’d asked for their site updates and subscribed to their mailing list. Look, here’s the story – last year I signed up as a member at YouthMalaysia because.. well it was new and I wanted to check out what it was about. This was only after someone from Y.M. e-mailed me informing about the new site, and what they hope to do for Malaysian youths, bla bla bla. Then there was the expo thing that they had at PWTC which I went for with KY. Believe you me, I sincerely like to see Malaysian companies and people doing what they believe in, and hopefully they will be great at it.
Then the e-mails start to trickle in. I ignored them for a while, even deleted a few of them. I’ve not been active on-line for a decade not to understand how the ‘x’ and ‘delete’ button work. But after a while, it got to be really irritating and annoying, so I went back to the Y.M. to find out how I could be taken off their mailing list, or even better, delete my membership. Turns out, there were no buttons for either options. So I wrote them back, CC-ed my request to the few e-mail addresses that I found on their website. I was rather polite about it too.
Well, if they’d heeded my request, I wouldn’t be blogging about it now. Finally in April ‘08, I got pissed off enough to create a folder for any incoming mail from Y.M. so I could have a record of their spam. Since April, I’ve received 12 e-mails from them. I didn’t count the ones sent before. It doesn’t sound like a lot, right? WELL IT BLOODY WELL IS! Especially after I’ve replied to them ALMOST EVERY TIME REQUESTING THAT THEY STOP E-MAILING ME. REMOVE MY E-MAIL ADDRESS FROM THEIR DATABASE. DELETE MY MEMBERSHIP. LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE. WHICH PART OF ‘I DO NOT WANT TO RECEIVE ANY MORE E-MAILS FROM YOU’ DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?!
Congratulations YouthMalaysia, for you people are ‘Spammer of The Year’.
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What the hell? some people (I mean some websites) are like this! do not request them to stop SeNdInG YoU EMAILS! that’s a rule in everywhere! bacause they’ll insist on continue!
Wish I was sitting beside you last year! every wise people, all around the world, knows, that in situations like this, you shouldn’t use your main ID!
although i dun receive mail from Youth Malaysia, I’m with you on this, damn hate it.
No option to unsubscribe the mailing list is totally unacceptable!
I somehow had the wit to put a misspelled email then.
marine: well, i’ve done mass e-mailing before to tens of thousands of people. i know that it was a mere nothing to remove any e-mail address from the subscriber’s list.
myhorng: damn annoying right
bryan: yeah. hmmphh! maybe i’ll forward you some of their email blasts
ky: i registered before the expo mah
They have this thingy on Broadcast Badge whom when you put in your blog, you’ll get around Rm0.20 everyday. Then when so many people placed it already, they cancelled the payments and said you’ll only get payments when refer people.
Cheater!
As i’ve said before, these so called entrepreneurs are full of shit and have no ethics. All inherited from parents.
It’s not only unacceptable it’s actually illegal to send bulk mail without an unsubscribe option as it can legally be quantified as UCE (Unsolicited Commercial E-mail).
i don’t ever recall i’ve subscribe to Y.M. and i’ve been SPAMed..
the angst! teh angsttt!!!!!!! too bad lah i is not around teh weekend for the lulz!
It is the one way ticket
welcome to Malaysia
worse come to worse, just submit their domain to the spam list
spam their blogs. these 2 twats are the head honchos there i suppose
http://khailee.info
http://joelneoh.com
they cant even get this right and yet trumpet/brand themselfs to be the young entrepreneur. yuckh.
Nice that you gave them free advertising.
Usually I just delete it even b4 I open.
Suanie, and readers.
You have been very reasonable about the situation. Thanks for bringing this up again.
Believe me -
Youth Malaysia COMPLETELY SCREWED UP it’s email list management from DAY 1 – both from a policy level and a technical level. There were many incidents where the email relationships with it’s users were not treated with the care it deserves.
Joel’s (the founder of Youth Malaysia) first priority as a result, was to set things RIGHT once and for all. When I started working with him on some projects in May 2008, I brought a new technical team in, and showed him how.
New rules. New software. Most importantly GLOBAL UNSUBSCRIBE LINKS – which means, you have one click unsubscribe and you will never hear from Youth Malaysia – no matter where or when you registered, or if your friends use the ‘invite a friend’ tools to email you… you will never receive emails from Youth Malaysia again.
So what happened?
I was notified that a RECENT email WITHOUT the unsubscribe link was sent out by mistake! The horror!!!! I have since frozen ALL email campaigns till I get to the bottom of this.
I’m really sorry the email found its way to your inbox!
As an additional effort, I have set up unsubscribe@youthmalaysia.com – please drop unsubscribe@youthmalaysia.com a blank email – and you will never receive emails from Youth Malaysia again.
I apologize again for the mess
If there’s anything else I can do, or anything else you would like to share with me: Eg. verbal abuse
I can be reached at khailee@youthmalaysia.com
2009 is going to be a fantastic year for all of us, and I am committed to making sure no one is annoyed by any of the youth projects lined up.
Khailee
YOUTH’09 Team
@chingy
When we set up the daily broadcast badge bonus, we wanted it to last forever.
But we quickly learned how difficult it was going to be!
After 5 months of funding the broadcast badge initiative, we had to find a way to reward people in a more fair way. If we had unlimited funds, we would give it to everyone! However it became clear the funds was better used to DOUBLE referral rewards instead. It was a tough call to make, but the community needs to keep going.
Hope it didn’t come off the wrong way!
Sincerely,
Khailee
Khailee, what can I do to get myself removed from Youth Malaysia’s Macrokiosk sponsored SMS spam list?
Hi Paul, replied your email, just email unsubscribe@youthmalaysia.com your h/p number and you’ll be set!
We recently put this information at the footer of our entire website n youth09 sites too so people can easily find a way to opt out
Khailee: thanks for taking the time to explain the situation. didn’t expect it, but highly appreciate it. cheers!