> Seriously? I should've added that sentence to my post for dramatic effect too.

The issues is that spam filters learn. I fucking hate spammers, too, and like you I consider unsolicited emails to be spam. But when you flag mostly-legitimate, but still unwanted, emails as spam, gmail learns the wrong thing. Suddenly really legitimate emails get flagged as spam. My domain renewal emails from my registrar recently started getting filtered to my spam box, and I suspect it's due to users flagging any unwanted email as spam.

In my opinion, the best way to deal with these unsolicited emails is to use the unsubscribe link, delete the email, and then swear at them on Twitter or find their CEO's email and send them goatse or something. Fuck 'em. That way you get your revenge, and you don't muck up the spam filter for everyone.

"In my opinion, the best way to deal with these unsolicited emails is to use the unsubscribe link, delete the email, and then swear at them on Twitter or find their CEO's email and send them goatse or something. Fuck 'em. That way you get your revenge, and you don't muck up the spam filter for everyone."

This is totally absurd. My choices are "click one button" or "do a whole lot of bullshit that sounds like a lot of annoying work".

I hope you can understand why "one button" is taken more often than "raise hell on and offline".

The real solution is to separate spam and unwanted emails. Gmail and services need to add a separate button for non-spam unwanted emails, so they can categorize and learn about usage habits effectively.

But it's horrific, insanely bad UX design to create a flawed system then blame the users for using it naturally. I'm sorry but the user is not wrong, the system is wrong. The solution isn't "user training", it's "system redesign".

If the system were designed correctly, users would naturally gravitate to the correct option without training. That's good UX. Until then, it's perfectly acceptable to use whatever tools are available to achieve the desired outcome. That's software for you.

You can (from most providers) block emails from a sender or domain as easily as flagging it as spam; however, flagging it as spam has consequences for the company that relays the messages, not the one that sends them.

You're punishing the phone company because a company you had a business relationship with can't magically read your mind that you don't want further calls, after you agreed to a couple sales calls in exchange for a product demo.

That makes you an asshole.

Actually, the part where you invent a bad strawman solely for the purpose of labeling me an asshole makes you an asshole.

You couldn't even quote me. You couldn't even use my words. You just invented a pathetic little fantasy and then attacked ME directly based on your fantasy world.

Pathetic, dude, pathetic.

You're describing a situation where you agreed to receive email, changed your mind, and then accused the sender of spamming you for not magically adjusting his behavior to your unstated whims. This is almost the definition of unreasonable behavior.

If you genuinely did not give permission to contact you, sure, go ahead and flag as spam. If you regret giving permission (maybe because you didn't really want to give it, maybe because the communication you're getting isn't what you'd hoped, whatever), the sensible thing to do is just unsubscribe.