We all get programmed to hate SpamCop complaints because they can cause us issues at our host(s) and no one wants to lose a server over something that can be addressed easily with good data hygiene. But do you know that are 4 kinds of SpamCop complaints? Here's a look at the way SpamCop reports come in when you are monitoring your IP space (which we do for clients @ PSM): IP_Address Start/Length Trap User Mole Simp Comments RDNS 108.xxx.xx.xxx Apr 11 14h/1 4 1 0 0 [ no rdns ] 108.xxx.xx.xxx Apr 12 21h/0 1 0 0 0 [ no rdns ] 108.xxx.xx.xxx Apr 12 21h/0 1 1 0 0 [ no rdns ] 108.xxx.xx.xxx Apr 12 21h/0 1 2 0 0 [ no rdns ] Here's the key to reading these columns: -- Key to Columns -- IP Address: The numeric address. Start: The first date (within the past week) that spam was reported to have originated from the IP address. Length: The duration of the incident in # of days Trap: Messages received at traps. User: Messages reported by registered users. Mole: Messages reported by registered users who prefer to remain anonymous. Simp: Simple reports - messages submitted by unregistered users. Comments: Notes reflect blocking-list status and issue-resolved status. RDNS: Reverse dns name of ip address (must pass forward and reverse) Now - I asked in the title: SpamCop - Good or Bad? How in the hell, you ask, could a SpamCop be a good thing? Good question. Let's look at what we can gather from the above report. 1. They were hitting traps. While the data was cleaned it's common knowledge that new traps open up every day and it's recommended that you clean your data regularly if not daily. Knowing that you can mail the same list day to day AND that your once clean data will have more traps in it tomorrow than it did today, why wouldn't you?! This is clearly an indication that this data should go to the cleaners again. 2. They were getting users reporting what they considered spam. These are the SpamCoppers we hate. These guys report legitimate email as spam because of any number of factors. Maybe you pounded the shit out of this data and they're sick of it. Maybe you offended them with an offer. Maybe they were having a bad day. Either way - you gotta get 'em out of your data. After this it appears as though they weren't hitting moles or getting simple reports so that's a positive. So far what do you think? Good or Bad? :stupid: What if you looked at it like this: The better you deliver - the better you inbox - the higher your probability is of hitting traps and users that complain. So in this sense couldn't you use a SpamCop complaint as an indicator of how well you're actually mailing? Look - these complaints are part of mailing. Users are in your deliverables - openers and clickers. If you are mailing day in and day out and not getting any complaints, how well are you ACTUALLY delivering or inboxing? If you keep junking do you think that a user would complain? Or if you beat the shit outta their inbox how long do you think it'll be before they start submitting their complaints? The bottom line is that you need to do everything you can first, then clean up after your drops. What I mean is get your data cleaned regularly. Use more than one company for this. It's been clearly stated in this forum that a combination of IW and HA is a killer way to avoid the traps we all need to get out of our data. So when you have your squeaky clean data and you fire up your pristine IPs and start dropping, get ready to clean out the users (complainers) that report to SC. And don't get bent outta shape when they start coming in, you're obviously doing a great job of mailing. Get mad if you AREN'T getting complaints. You aren't getting the most out of your drops so it's time to go back to the drawing board and work on your creatives and start testing again. But hey - not everybody looks at SpamCop complaints in the same way. :240:
