In our continuing series on the new Plaxo Alerts. In the previous article, I talked about the Member Status box. For this article, I wanted to bring attention to the new "From:" portion of Plaxo Alerts.
As members may know, a Plaxo Alert is generated and inserted into the Plaxo member's email Inbox each time the member's address book is updated by Plaxo. An update can occur whenever a member's contact responds to an Update Request or if a member's contact updates their own Plaxo card (assuming the contact is also a Plaxo member). Plaxo updates the Plaxo member's address book automatically and creates a Plaxo Alert to notify the member of what information has been changed.
In the past, some members expressed confusion over who and how the Alert was generated. We wanted to make sure we properly addressed these concerns with the new Plaxo Alerts. The From: header of the Alert now looks something like: From: Joe User via Plaxo
where "Joe User" is the name of the contact whose information was updated via Plaxo.
Since the alert was generated on behalf of the contact (ie: "Joe User") based on his update action, we wanted to make sure to include the contact's name in the From: header. But we also added "via Plaxo
But member's also told us they loved the ability to REPLY TO the contact as a result of the Plaxo Alert. For example, if you received an alert notifying you that "Joe User has a new job!", you might wish to send Joe a congratulation email on his new position. Fortunately, members are still able to accomplish this with the new Plaxo Alerts. The Reply-To: header is set to the return email address of the contact allowing the member to simply click "Reply To" within their email client and send their response.
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Thanks Stephen.
This service may be a value to some - the chronic reminders are on the level of SPAM. What are the options?
1. Validate the information
I do not want your services my friend does so why in the hell should I patronize your business
2. Block the user
The user is not the problem; the user is not the one sending these chronic reminders
3. Block all email from this service
My friend is dumb enough to use your services and I prefer she does contact me. I guess its time to CALL her and explain what a crappy service this is and its not worth a vcard.
4. Join this service
Not in your life, I work diligently to avoid joining SPAM services.
How abut adding another option, simply stop all notifications without penalizing the user.
The update request message is designed for your friend to stay in touch with you by them providing you their latest contact information (attached as a vcard to the update request message). You can also respond back to the sender and update them with your own information, but this action is entirely OPTIONAL. Also, perhaps unlike some other services, we do not require you to become a member in order to respond to your friend.
But more importantly, I think you may have a misunderstanding about how the Plaxo service works, and in particular update request messages.
Plaxo Members have complete control over when, to whom, and the personalized message content of each update request processed through Plaxo. Our service processes these messages and any responses the member may receive. In sending an update request message, Members are expected to respect the privacy of their contacts by following proper Plaxo Etiquette (http://www.plaxo.com/privacy/manners )and our Terms of Service. If a member is constantly sending update request to people who do not wish to receive them, that can be reported as abuse and our Abuse Department will follow up.
As an aside: it's unfortuante that some people are left with the impression that Plaxo is solely about getting updates through email. It's certainly understandable since this is generally how most people are initially exposed to Plaxo. But the truth is that Plaxo is about keeping people connected and updated AUTOMATICALLY. There should be no need to send email messages asking for updated information or having to manually enter in updated information, and this is what Plaxo helps people achieve.
Of course, Plaxo can only keep people connected automatically when both people are members. The update request email comes into play when a member wishes to stay in touch with a non-member. But if a non-member does not wish to receive a message from a Plaxo member sent through our service, the individual can instruct us as the service provider to block further messages sent to them. Each update request message we process includes an opt-out link where the recipient can choose to block further messages from a single member or all members.
Just wanted to drop a note. I enjoy Plaxo very much. The ability to have my contacts automatically updated by the contacts themselves is priceless. I think you guys are charging for the wrong services though. While, I could justify paying for the important features that Plaxo provides, like backup/restore and contact updating, I see little to no value in having access to my contacts via a mobile web browser. Why would I pay for that feature when my SmartPhone already has all of my contacts? Also, it doesn't seem like I could dial directly from the browser, so i would have to memorize the number and then type it into the phone.
As I said, the free features that Plaxo offers are more than worth a subscription fee, but the other features are simply redundant for any mobile phone.
Plaxo is great, I just don't see the value in the other stuff. I hope this helps.