[oooglaaa]

If you unsubscribe every time you see a new e-mail that you’re not interested in it’ll help keep it in check.

For spammers who don’t respect unsubscribes and you’re using Gmail, you can create a filter which immediately trashes the message based on the “from” address

[BeetleB]

>If you unsubscribe every time you see a new e-mail that you’re not interested in it’ll help keep it in check.

That statement gets to the crux of the whole situation.

Why should I spend time tending an inbox, continually scanning for the unsubscribe link in any new email I receive? The sender put in almost no effort to send me that email, whereas I the recipient have to expend time getting off their list. I don't want to do that for the rest of my life. I'd rather just remove that email from my whitelist (one keystroke).

>For spammers who don’t respect unsubscribes and you’re using Gmail, you can create a filter which immediately trashes the message based on the “from” address

Same problem as above. I tried it and in the end found maintaining a blacklist (which is what you're essentially suggesting) burdensome. It's continual work for the rest of my life adding people to a blacklist. I inverted the whole thing. Let the sender work to get on my whitelist.

[oooglaaa]

Makes sense. But I’m not sure inverting is really what you’re doing. It seems to me that the people most effected by this will be people who actually want to reach you - Friends, family, work associates. They’ll have to jump through an extra hoop until they’re on your whitelist. On the other hand the spammers don’t really care if their message hits your particular inbox or not, as you’re just one of very many people they’re sending to. Still a cool solution though, and kudos to you for devising a system that works for you.

[BeetleB]

>It seems to me that the people most effected by this will be people who actually want to reach you - Friends, family, work associates. They’ll have to jump through an extra hoop until they’re on your whitelist.

Fair point. In practice it has not been a problem. If I really want to get emails from them, I can always add them myself if they do not want to go through the trouble. On the flip side, If someone I know isn't willing to spend a minute once in their life to get access to me, it does send a strong signal on how much they value knowing me.