Why shouldn't I use the "Report Spam" or "Junk" button?

If people dont want the mail to come to their inbox, "Spam" button is the easiest and fastest way! Instead of the hassle of unsubscibing, just hit "Spam". Definetly easier, and I don't care who gets their legit mail or not.

I have heard that if you click "unsubscribe" then that will allow a host of other "sites" to send you garbage you never asked for. I've been told that if you just simply delete the email and not open it, the sender will not know if it's a legitimate email address or not. Is this true?

Chris: by using the spam button for email you asked for, you are making the spam problem worse for youself and for everyone.

Kristy: that's true **for unsolicited mail**. If you ASKED to be added to a mailing list - if YOU SIGNED UP FOR IT - then unsubscribe is the proper way to stop receiving it.

Chris and Kristy exemplify the two types of people who hit the "spam" button for non-spam letters.

First, on Chris's end, he claims he does it because it's easier, end of story, and he doesn't care who it inconveniences. Since Leo has to be nice, I'll go ahead and call him a selfish jerk. But he's also clueless about this being effective.

I've gotten spam from a specific source, reported it, and kept getting spam from that source. I eventually had to add a custom filter to manually blacklist that sender on my account. That's happened more than once.

The big mail providers do not necessarily act quickly on individual spam reports. It can take a while for a newsletter publisher or lower-volume spammer to get blocked. In the meantime, you keep getting their mail.

So if you're using it as an alternative to the "unsubscribe" process, you could keep getting it for weeks. It's faster and easier to unsubscribe.

On Kristy's end, she doesn't understand the difference between spam and non-spam mail. With evil spammers who got your e-mail address off a CD or guessed it, following their unsubscribe option is bad because you're confirming your e-mail address is valid, and they can now sell it as being verified as reaching a person and reaching someone who reads their spam.

BUT, if you signed up via double opt-in, the sender already know your address is good because you signed up and then confirmed the sign-up by mail. Unsubscribing from a list where you signed up will not get you on any new spam lists. It's also going to be faster and more effective than hitting the spam/junk button at Yahoo or Hotmail.

- Greg

If its easier why should I do it any other way. This is MY Inbox here. If I dont want a email from a specific sender, I really dont want it. The spam button tells the ISP "no more"

Because if it's not really spam, you ARE hurting others, and you ARE making the spam problem worse.

Chris really doesn't have any ethics....

Or maybe I didn't have the right to say the first sentence without considering the circumstances. Maybe Chris is troubled by lots of spam - a probable reason for his selfish attitude...

On the other hand if he is someone getting medium to low amount of mail, then I take back my second paragraph, and reinstate my first line :)

Call me names and judge my character?
My ISP sends me mail all the time saying to use Spam button, to make the Internet a better place. And after contacting Yahoo, they say that reporting mail will stop it from your inbox, and not other users.

I do want to be clear and reiterate what the article says, that some folks appear to be missing:

Use the spam button for spam.

DON'T use the spam button if the email is NOT spam. Especially if the email is something you requested, like a newsletter subscription.

Yahoo, in particular, is VERY problematic for legitimate on-line publishers these days. If they're telling you to use the spam button even when the mail isn't really spam, I can see why.