QI run an e-mail newsletter service for some local nonprofits, and I disagree with your column advising people to label unwanted e-mail spam rather than click the unsubscribe link.
If a recipient labels one of my newsletters as spam rather than unsubscribing, it can cause their Internet service provider to block my Internet service provider. As a result, hundreds of other people who share that provider suddenly stop receiving the same e-mail newsletter.
And there's more. The Web hosting service I use to send out my newsletters also hosts many other websites, a few of which engage in spamming until they are discovered and shut down. As a result, if even a single person labels my newsletter as spam, my host can blame me for spamming, too, and shut down my e-mailing.
JOHN RISKEN, MINNEAPOLIS
AIn the online world, as in life, you are known by the company you keep. You should find a new hosting service -- one that's home to fewer spammers thus has a better reputation. That way, other Internet service providers, and your own hosting service, will block you less often.
I continue to advise consumers to label suspicious e-mail as spam rather than click "unsubscribe," which can confirm their e-mail addresses to spammers. This shouldn't affect newsletters that consumers expect to receive, only the ones that they don't.
QSince I last updated Windows, I've started getting the error message "dwm.exe-application error." I'm told this is probably a Windows Registry error, and that I need to clean the registry. What's the best program to do that? I've heard some are just scams.
LANA LUHM,
