Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending my first ESPC semi-annual meeting. I was scheduled to talk on a panel  about list hygiene with a couple vendors. Because some folks didn’t make it, I also sat on the panel talking about blocklists.

It was a fun day. I got to meet and talk with some colleagues I haven’t seen in an age. And I met some new faces and had interesting interactions.

One bonus from the day is I really got the chance to talk with some of the list hygiene vendors that were on the panel with me. Afterwards, we spent a good hour just discussing the space and the players in it. I learned a lot from that conversation. Previously, I’d kept the list hygiene vendors at arms length. My experiences with them and with their products weren’t very positive. My experience has primarily been with clients who have used these services and not gotten what they thought they were paying for. I have also seen some internet-abusive behavior from a few. Many years ago a few of the companies approached me for deliverability advice as they were running into consistent blocking.

All of these things led me to the conclusion that it was a part of the email space I didn’t want much to do with.

Yesterday, though, I learned that there were vendors in the space that focused very much on being a net benefit to the overall network. Both Webbula and Kickbox, who were on the panel with me, have policies and processes designed to make it unattractive for spammers to sign up for their services. We did agree there were problems with some of the vendors in the space, but I realized that some is not all.

It was a good meeting, I’m glad I went.