I worked on a large UK domain sellers mail platform for a couple of years and I'd definitely consider pretty much all marketing mail as spam. The landscape has been so destroyed by tricks that it's near impossible to tell if anyone actually wanted your mail.
Examples:-
a) Opt-in unchecked. These guys are "doing it right" except they usually have this box right next to a probably completely unnecessary TOS box that's also unchecked. Anyone who isn't paying attention will just check all the boxes to get to the next stage.
b) Opt-in checked by default. Fuckers.
c) Opt-out checked by default. Praying on folks that uncheck anything with "opt" into it.
d) Opt-out unchecked by default. Praying on folks not paying attention.
Basically the only way you're not a spammer is probably if signing up for mail is seperate from the sign up process. The problem is, I think this is a proven way to generate more revenue so companies are not going to stop fiddling with it.
Examples:-
a) Opt-in unchecked. These guys are "doing it right" except they usually have this box right next to a probably completely unnecessary TOS box that's also unchecked. Anyone who isn't paying attention will just check all the boxes to get to the next stage.
b) Opt-in checked by default. Fuckers.
c) Opt-out checked by default. Praying on folks that uncheck anything with "opt" into it.
d) Opt-out unchecked by default. Praying on folks not paying attention.
Basically the only way you're not a spammer is probably if signing up for mail is seperate from the sign up process. The problem is, I think this is a proven way to generate more revenue so companies are not going to stop fiddling with it.