The Editors Desk!
Sad Sad Day for the "Email Now"
SPAM! I can't stand it. What I probably hate even more is Spam Protection. Most programmes promise the world, but in reality unless you spend hours fine tuning them you lose more "real" mail and spend more time trying to find that lost mail than it would have taken to use your trusty tried & tested finger to hit that delete key :(
One of the most successful and satisfying aspects of our site is the "Email Now" system. It is used by hundreds of people a day, many users are offcoast, preparing quotes to fix their units etc and quite a lot of that business would have gone to non-sunshine coast companies had they not had that facility to use. That we are very proud of. The fact that overseas spammers have also found it is awful. You all know my thoughts in regard to the anti-spam legislation and how useless it is in regard to dealing with offshore spammers (which is most spam), and we were forced into a terrible dilemma...
Using anti spam software is fine for the private individual, if that email from Aunty Joan accidentally gets deleted, she will still phone you and berate you for being rude and not answering her (but hey, at least you know you missed some mail), BUT for a business, the mail that goes missing or was stopped (due to some inanimate programming) could be worth a lot of money, I personally don't know many out there that can afford to miss out on any extra business? So... Sad to say, after all the pros & cons, Big Brother programming was the only option to keep the system live & helping people, yet stop the scum.
If you do accidentally get disadvantaged due to the new programming, or have your mail delayed due to the use of a particular word, we do apologise profusely. Unlike most of these programmes, the mail will not be stopped (unless it is spam of course), but only delayed until it is physically eyeballed by a staff member to check it is not Spam, hence the delay, if it is ok, it will then be allowed through.
We really don't like being forced to do this, though of course stopping the spam which is ruining the system has to be the priority here. Don't worry, if your friend from overseas has found your business onsite & is dropping you a line to say Gday, we will of course be letting that through, just our "lost long relative who has died, leaving you blah blah" mates will be given the flick. If you do want further information about how the system has changed, please just give us a yell and Big Brother (me LOL!) will be happy to explain it to you and how it affects the "email now" on your organisations Free Business Listing!
Best Regards, Noely, Community Site Co-ordinator