[nojs]

> This isn't the first time I've faced such an issue, whenever this happens, I lose all my subscribers

That does not strike me as believable - do you really not have the list elsewhere, and does every provider who shuts down not give you the option to get your list out?

[thibaut_barrere]

In the case of TinyLetter, this is what happened to me: I didn't receive any email notifications before the shutdown (I verified multiple times). I reached out to Mailchimp and they deleted everything (https://x.com/thibaut_barrere/status/1771931157564727468).

Am I responsible for backups ultimately? Absolutely. Will I trust Mailchimp in the future for my own projects? Not very likely.

[fshbbdssbbgdd]

Wonder if they really don’t have any retention at all. Maybe it would magically become available if they got a letter from a lawyer.

[thibaut_barrere]

Yes, some form of organisational soft-delete is more than likely.

> We're afraid the TinyLetter data is no longer available

could perfectly mean: the backups we keep for one year are encrypted in case of legal trouble, but we require a legal action internally before them to be worth reaching out.

[pembrook]

It sounds like you weren’t sending very frequently, if you logged in anytime over those 5 months there was a banner letting you know it was getting shut down.

If it makes you feel better, deliverability people will tell you a list that’s been sitting with no sends for a year or more quickly becomes worthless due to list rot (abandoned emails, expired domains, job switchers, people who forgot you exist and will mark spam/unsub, etc).

When you send to an old untouched list, it can tank your domain rep in Gmail since the algo sees tons of bounces/unsubscribes/negative signals. They basically assume you’re a spammer. So it probably would have been a PITA to warm that list again anyways. It’s shitty that gmail incentivizes bulk senders to be annoying and send a lot, but it is what it is.

[pstrateman]

That actually sounds very likely.

I've never had an email delivery company return any communication at all once they have decided you're bad. (0% spam report rate, 0.01% bounce rate)

[nativeit]

I think you’re referring to a different event (having an account suspended or banned) than the parent comment, who’s questioning the notion that one wouldn’t have a subscriber list in a CSV or Google Sheet outside of the account, and/or in the event that a service closes up shop, that they would not extend an effort to allow users to export their data.

[pstrateman]

It's a general comment on the professionalism of the bulk email delivery industry, namely there is none.

Don't expect them to support a free service they decided to shutdown in anyway.

[dmje]

That's still not answering the question though. I don't know of any bulk email provider who doesn't allow you to export and import your lists via an open format like csv.

[iamacyborg]

> It's a general comment on the professionalism of the bulk email delivery industry, namely there is none.

I strongly disagree. I’ve had the chance to speak with numerous deliverability folks who work at esp’s over the years and they’ve all for the most part been incredibly professional and helpful.