Comments on: SpamAssassin’s Tips on Deliverability

By: Jim Liddane

Jim Liddane — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:38:44 +0000

Thanks John - I think you have hit the nail on the head, and you are also right in saying that the longer the message - the less likely it is that Spam Assassin will highlight the problem.

Since starting this thread, I have isolated the newsletters that brought up a warning, and by laboriously removing one link at a time (I kow - I lead a sad life!) and re-checking the score, I have managed to work out which domain is causing the spam-assassin warning.

Unfortunately, it is a domain used by more than a few musicians!

Still, at least now I know.

By: John W. Furst

John W. Furst — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:55:59 +0000

About Spamassassin score: It happens that I use a Top Level Domain (TLD) ".BIZ" that is associated with much spam. I discover that the Spamassassin Score goes down, as the message is longer (=more valuable). I think, it is said that some TLDs get penalized that way. But it seems like one can live with it.

About HTML Emails: I admit I preferred to write plain text only emails until recently. It was AWeber, that made me investigate the HTML issue with emails further. Now I use a simple HTML Template with a graphics header and some text formatting and send combined HTML/Plain text messages. I don’t limit this to the newsletter, but also write more HTML/Plain text mails on an individual basis. It looks very professional, if you do it right and don’t misuse the HTML. — John

By: Lund

Lund — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:11:12 +0000

Thank You for the usefull Tips on Deliverability!

By: Donate Your Weight

Donate Your Weight — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:58:17 +0000

Plain text e-mail is just….Plain. I like an HTML e-mail, it reminds me of a newsletter and I can jump around to the sections of the message I’m most interested in quickly. With text e-mails, everything looks exactly the same and if I’m busy, I might delete it rather than scan through it to see if it interests me.

By: Justin Premick

Justin Premick — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:51:50 +0000

Neil,

Your comment highlights a good point: not everyone prefers the same formatting on emails.

This is one reason why we emphasize that you should always include a plain text version when sending an HTML email. Some people prefer to read email in plain text (and may even turn off HTML in their email program).

With respect to your comment that "email is intended to be plain text" I have to disagree. I personally find well-formatted HTML messages easy to read and scan, and know that others also find the format preferable.

Moreover, if email were "intended" to be plain text, then it’s unlikely that modern email clients such as AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, Thunderbird, Outlook, etc. would permit any HTML to be displayed in their programs. And as we all know, they do indeed permit HTML.

Different strokes for different folks.

By: Neil

Neil — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:37:37 +0000

You should discourage people from sending html in email. HTML is for web pages, email is intended to be plain text. Sending me html will get your email listed as spam faster than anything else. Let me reiterate EMAIL IS SUPPOSED TO BE PLAIN TEXT!!!!!

By: Jim Liddane

Jim Liddane — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:50:19 +0000

Usually, our emails rate 0 on Spam Assassin.

However, occasionally, they rate an 0.5 with the accompanying note saying that the message "contains a link to a likely spammer".

However, when you scroll through the message, no link is highlighted.

As we publish a newsletter, where members are allowed link their own sites, and provide links to sites they find useful, it is difficult to pinpoint which link is the offending one.

Does anybody have any idea how to do this?