darrenjsmith's comments

— Hi Darren,

Unfortunately I won't be able to feature Blindfold Club on the site. Although we're relatively flexible in what we allow on the site, I'm not comfortable featuring a product that's as explicit as yours.

This is not a value judgement, but rather a practical consideration. Many people in our audience read the website at their office, and some people even automatically share the startups we feature. I feel like many wouldn't feel comfortable doing that with Blindfold Club hence us choosing not to feature it.

I hope you understand. I've issued a full refund which should appear on your bank statement within 5-10 business days depending on your bank.

Marc

—

Hi Darren,

The primary reason for me not feeling comfortable featuring it, is because we have a large group of people automatically retweeting our posts. This means we don’t just have to consider what WE find appropriate, but also what we believe our audience would feel appropriate sharing with their followers.

I realise how frustrating it must be to have totally legit product many people could benefit from and then not getting the visibility you deserve due to an (outdated) taboo, but I hope you also understand where I’m coming from.

I’m sure you’ll find plenty of other publications that are happy to feature you though (have you considered podcasts sponsorships including an audio fragment?). Wish you the best of luck and if there’s anything else I can help you with don’t hesitate to let me know.

Marc

They still haven't replied to me. Ah well. I'm using GetResponse for now :)

Patio, that reply is immense. Thank you for taking the time.

I will make a couple additions and send it off to them tomorrow! Will let you know how it goes :)

Cheers

Good shout! Thanks Jordsmi

Thanks Patio. Totally understand what you're saying. 'tis an unlikely outcome.

With regards to the 'collate links from across the web' - I should maybe reword this. Thanks for the feedback.

I should add, building a mailing list and delivering relevant content (currently, 'collate links from across the web') has a 60-70% open rate and 40-50% click through. Already, I've proven I'm adding value based on quant and qual research.

Having said that, a simple mailing list isn't the future of Pillow Talk- a crowdsourced sex tips platform, is. This is just the early stages.

Thanks! That's the second mail gun recommendation I've had, but as a product guy (not a dev) I was trying to stay away having to set this up! :)

----- Draft Email I am Crafting in Reply -----

Hey MailChimper's!

Thanks for the clear communication in the MailChimp Compliance email I have received. The ability to send email from my account has been blocked. I regretfully understand as to why my account has been blocked thus far. Having said that, I have a few questions.

Pillow Talk provide a weekly collection of links from across the web to educate couples on how to have a better sex life. The majority of links I include are from legitimate blogs, Reddit, YouTube, IMDB and Amazon.

We’re not a scammers or spammers and every recipient has has to double opt in to receiving this email. I appreciate that your abuse prevention system Omnivore, has highlighted ‘content, keywords or activity’ that 'indicate the possibility of harmful information being sent through your service’ and I’d love to understand exactly what we’re doing that is inappropriate?

I was attempting to send issue 8 of Pillow Talk last Friday 17th October. I have used Mail Chimp for 7 weeks without any problems. Why now? What exactly has caused Omnivore to highlight us?

Our email is clearly about sex, but we’re not sending thousands of emails selling viagra pills or pornography! I understand why your ToS has been written the way it is, but I can’t imagine it's for small educational mailing lists like ours. I feel we have been bucketed with all the ‘bad guys’, but clearly we’re trying to educate, not spam!

In the last issue, I did include a link to a porn site— for an educational how-to video. I’m very happy not linking to porn sites if this is the issue? Please could you confirm?

It’s a really unfortunate kick in the teeth. I’m at the beginning of building a sexual education platform for the 21st century and already hitting institutional roadblocks and rules which are there to stop the scammers and spammers, not legitimate businesses trying to educate couples!

I please, please, kindly ask you to review your decision. I know you don’t have to at all! But, for everyone suffering from boring sex in the long term relationships, or for all the sexless marriages out there, this is a huge problem for millions. We need to get better at talking and learning about sex and at the moment the scammers, spammers and porn industry are winning because they’re making it difficult for anyone legitimate to make things better! Can you be part of helping stop that, please?

----- Message From MailChimp -----

Hello Darren,

As a bulk delivery service, a huge part of our job is providing great deliverability for all our customers. ISPs and spam filters are becoming more sensitive to certain types of keywords and content.

Keeping this in mind, MailChimp is not able to serve as your email provider, because the content associated with your industry conflicts with our acceptable use policy. For direct questions regarding our acceptable use policy and the types of content that aren’t supported, please visit our Acceptable Use policy under Prohibited Content: http://mailchimp.com/legal/acceptable_use

Nothing personal against your content or industry; there are just some very strict spam filters and ISP rules that we have to comply with to maintain the best possible sending environment. These filters are becoming increasingly sensitive to certain keywords because some industries tend to generate greater than average complaint rates (legit or not) with their emails. A risk that we unfortunately cannot take.

We appreciate your understanding in this matter.

The account is open so that you may log in anytime to back up data. If you have any questions related to billing, please contact [email protected].

All the best,

The MailChimp Compliance Team

Fair play, "to make apps". Terrible title. Agreed ;)

..having said that, the idea is less important than committing to make something happen. Which is why I have not yet decided on which idea to pursue!

Neat app. I'll be using this when it launches.

Straight up genius!!! Would love to see it built in at OS level as it has all sorts of uses.