Who is your program for?
When designing something, one of the things which have to be done first is to consider what the purpose of the thing is. Many design decisions are based upon a consideration of whom the program is...
View ArticleForcing Consent Is A Bad Idea
We previously asked the question “who is your program for?” The idea behind that post was to briefly examine the idea that we make decisions for our programs that are based upon whom we have in mind to...
View ArticleLaws Still Apply to Bad Ideas
On Monday, I posted that “Forcing Consent Is A Bad Idea”. The point was to tell say that, regardless of legal issues, there are very practical reasons in favor of setting a policy of not trying to...
View ArticleEnforcement is therapeutic
Policies exist for a reason. For instance, most email service providers have a policy forbidding the use of non-opt-in lists. Those policies exist because of statements like this one: Microsoft...
View ArticleMental Health on Teams
Did you know that “burnout” is coming to the ICD-11 (due to be released in June 2022)? It’s true. Burnout will be recognized as an occupational syndrome resulting from work-related stress. Burn-out is...
View ArticleWhat is a spamtrap?
One of the issues that I get to deal with in policy enforcement is handling complaints about customers sending messages to “spamtraps.” This invariably leads to a discussion about what, exactly, is a...
View ArticleSpamtraps are not the problem
When you go to the doctor, do you want the doctor to treat your symptoms or do you want the doctor to give you treatment for the disease that is causing the symptoms? If you’re like most people, the...
View ArticleHow to handle spamtraps
So, you’ve discovered that your customer has an issue with spamtraps on a mailing list. What do you do now? As a rule, spamtraps end up on a list due to problems with permission or hygiene. No, that’s...
View ArticlePolicy exists for business reasons
We live in a politically polarized world. Everyone wants exactly what they want and will only take it exactly as they would like it. You only need to look at the 2020 US Elections to see that. The New...
View ArticlePolicy at scale: Figuring reputational damage
How important is policy? Policy not only reflects and is a product of reality. Policies are created as a reflection of what a company wants to do and how it will pursue its business. For some...
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