I work for an Internet company which provides services to a number of large and medium-sized ISPs. These people have legitimate reasons to send email to their customers, and that's what this script does. These people are asked *when they sign up* whether or not they want the email, and no, the question isn't buried at the foot of the page where you can't see it. The reason I'm optimising the script is because these people *complain* when they don't get it on time!
Previously, I worked for a political-lobbying organisation which also sent an email to 25,000 members each week. This wasn't spam: it was an essential part of the campaign these people were orchestrating. What I'm getting at here is this: there are legitimate reasons to send large quantities of emails to people, and the glib assumption that I'm sending spam is unfounded and, I must confess, very offensive.
If I had been engaged in spamming, I would have disguised the question. I didn't, because I have nothing to hide. It didn't occur to me (OK, I'm too trusting) that anyone would think that I was doing anything anti-social. I didn't preface the question with "this isn't a spam script" because, even if I had, I'm sure you'd all be here now saying "Oh yes it is! Why else would you do this sort of thing?" Same discussion, different route.
Does this mean there are some things which can't be discussed here? It seems so. I'll make sure I don't post anything about sending email in future, because that would be irrefutable proof that I'm spamming.
The script works as-is. I had hoped for a better insight into this problem, and that the discussion might help others -- which is what this place is for, right?? I would be grateful if anyone with the appropriate special powers could delete the question, because I think I've just wasted a good deal of my time, and yours too.
In reply to Some thoughts about this.
by yojimbo
in thread Sorting a list by frequency of items
by yojimbo
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