CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Currently (4.0.9) CiviMail refuses to accept a message that lacks an unsubscribe or opt-out token/link. On our site, opting out of e-mail is handled in a different way -- via a Webform that communicates with CiviCRM via the Drupal module webform_civicrm. (The Webform collects more data as well, not just the "do not email" field.)  We'd prefer to be consistent with our users about managing this option, but CiviMail has no flexibility in this regard. We'd like to see CiviMail configuration offer an option to force or not force the "official" opt-out method during mail creation, so that admins can deselect it. It might be a good thing to display a warning that every email should offer an unsubscribe/opt-out option to the recipient.

For those who choose to keep the built-in opt-out link, the opt-out page itself is pretty confusing and uninformative -- it doesn't make it clear that "opting out" means NO MORE EMAIL. I would suggest that the settings of this page be configurable so that the title and wording can be customized. If this is too much of an upgrade, the following wording would be preferable, IMO:

Page header: Opt out of future e-mails

Page content: If you press CONTINUE, the record associated with e-mail address <b>{contact.email}</b> will be marked "DO NOT E-MAIL" and future messages will not be received. [If you only want to change your e-mail address, you can <a href="/user/">do that here</a>.]

Buttons: CONTINUE, CANCEL

Is there a standard way to create a patch? I've never done this, although I've applied others' patches via command line. Developer documentation doesn't seem to have anything on this that I can find ...

Re: the spam issue - it makes sense to be cautious, but (...and maybe I'm missing something here...) it seems to me User #1 should own the ultimate responsibility re: permissioning, configuration, oversight of admins, etc.  If CiviMail is accessible by a user who abuses it to dispatch spam, the lack of an unsubscribe link is the least of the site's problems, IMHO.

M.E. That is a clever use of webform. I may pursue something similar on our site in the future, in which case I could provide a patch. But it's not the #1 priority at the moment.

This thread has been quiet for a while -- but I've been thinking about the same topic.

I've got a webform that allows people to opt in and out of mailing lists (many thanks colemanw for your wonderful webform integration -- easy to use even for a newbie like me!).

And, I just figured out that I can modify the "optout" template.  So, I'm thinking of just redirecting them to the webform from a modified template and then they can control their email settings from there.  It's involves an unnecessary step, but at least it prevents students (who have already signed up for this program and really do need to get some of the emails) from opting out entirely.

One thing I would love to do, but am not sure how, would be to provide a link that would log them into their drupal account (which is linked, obviously to their civi account).  Any thoughts on how to create that token?

No, I have not played with checksums -- but now you've given me something else to look into!  Thanks.