* How TAF forms can be seen as spam:

A visitor comes to your site and enters someone elses email address into
a form which you as the site owner then email with information about
your site. That information was not requested and is being sent
on behalf of a 3rd party. The friend didn’t request information
from you and you have no way of authenticating if that person even
is a friend to begin with.

It’s one thing if a person emails their friend directly from their
own computer and tells them about your website. It’s another thing
entirely when you as the site owner are sending that email on behalf
of the friend. The chain of responsibility is different and it
opens you, your webhost, and any other service used on that site
to spam complaints.

Opt-in is all about permission. A 3rd party friend can not give you
permission to email someone else.

If your concern is the presence of an Aweber opt-in form on a website that might (or might not) be accused of spamming techniques, then you have just loaded yourself with the responsibility of banning Aweber opt-in forms on any website that contains a vulnerable contact form, which could be exploited by spammers, amongst other things.

My opinion is that you are opening a huge can of worms for yourself with this one. It appears as if you are telling website owners what they can and cannot have on their websites if they want to have an Aweber opt-in form on their site. To be consistent, if you feel it is within your rights to do this, then you have to compile a mile long list of other "things" that a site owner also cannot have on his/her site.

The point that many are making, and I still cannot understand how it can be seen as spam, is that with a reputable and properly written TAF form, the friend INITIATES the action of sending the email to his/her friends, and the email is addressed to others from their friend, not from the website owner or any other email address. He/she is simply using a convenient service provided by the website owner.

We all agree that subscribing people to an Aweber list without their express action/request must not be done. But what you have said has taking this discussion far beyond that point.

You said in your comment, "We simply ask that if you use AWeber, you not use TAF in connection with marketing a website containing AWeber opt-in forms."

Are you really saying that a website owner cannot have any form of TAF anywhere on his/her website if they have an Aweber opt-in form anywhere else on the same website? Even if the TAF form does not at all subscribe or attempt to subscribe people to an Aweber list, and the TAF form and Aweber opt-in form have nothing in common, except for appearing on the same website?

As many have posted above, the TAF scripts are simply that – just a form providing an opportunity for a one-time email to some friend(s). There’s no adding them to a list without their permission.

The TAF scripts are asking for the SENDER’s email and name, so it’s not as if it’s coming unsolicited from an unknown person.

If the TAF scripts did some sort of cloaked subscriber signup in the background or added the recipient email addresses to some spam database then yes you are correct. But the ones I’ve seen don’t do this.

I think you need to check this out further.

Cheers,
Peter

* Technical aspects:

TAF forms in nearly all instances work the same way. A website visitor
sees your TAF form and types in 1-3 different "friend’s" email addresses.
The website itself uses a script or some other backend program to
physically send those emails on the visitors behalf to the "friends"
that have been entered. Those emails are physically sent from the
website owners machine and not the friend themselves.

This is most frequently where trouble is found. Since the emails
originate from the website and not the friend, any complaints or
spam as a result of that form are the website owners responsibility.
As such, any other services being used by that website owner on
the mentioned website fall into the scope of the spam complaints.
Thus, using an AWeber form on sites with TAF forms puts AWeber at
risk of spam support services. That’s a very, very bad thing if
you’re trying to maintain top email deliverability.

* Others are doing it, why can’t I?

If you’re driving 100mph on the freeway and get pulled over, the
officer is going to laugh if you try to tell him he shouldn’t give
you a ticket because others were going 100mph as well. If you have
your ear to the heartbeat of the email, ISP, and deliverability world
you would hear a huge grumbling about the myriad of social networking
sites and the vast quantities of complaints generated from emails
of this type. Many of those sites suffer deliverability issues due
to this type of email communication.

* Bottom line:

It’s your business, your reputation, your website, and your
ultimate decision on how you market your business. Whether you use
TAF forms or not is a decision you need to make in how you would like
to promote your business. The issue comes in the services that you
use along with your website and business. While TAF forms being
spam or not spam depending on where the email originates is open
to debate, the truth is that it is entirely debatable and therefor
risky. That risk is not something we’re willing to bear for a
small minority of our customers when it comes to the bigger picture
of providing a rock solid, responsible opt-in email marketing
platform with top email deliverability.

We simply ask that if you use AWeber, you not use TAF in connection
with marketing a website containing AWeber opt-in forms.

I’ve spent nearly 9 years in this industry and seen a lot of things.
We try to use our experience and judgment to help educate and keep
customers out of potential troubles that could have a long lasting
impact upon their business. This is one area where in our previous
experiences has been fraught with issues and problems. It’s not
something that we see "potential" issues with, it’s one that we’ve
already seen issues with ex-customers on.

Just trying to save you from experiencing those same issues.

The ironic thing about your decision is that there have been people using Tell A Friend Scripts for years that are on the spammy side and yet there have been no restrictions made against it. Hotmail & Google just to name a few have made their online empires in no small part to the use of TAF.

Now Mike Filsaime releases one of the most clean and SPAM Free TAF Scripts and then it gets banned by you.

I find it really disappointing since I know that Mike has put a lot of effort into the product and that it is definitely not spam.

I hope that you will reconsider your position with regard to this issue.