Mailing Lists: Unsubscribe Doesn’t Mean Forgotten

Posted on May 31, 2019December 9, 2022 by Judy L Mohr

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation for the EU) is now a few years old. As a global internet-based society, we're still trying to get our heads around the implications of the legislation. As a small business owner, I too have been trying to understand. However, over the past few years, I have noticed a few quirks about the way email mailing lists are handled, identifying some of the hidden traps within the systems. There are things that we need to be aware of from both sides of the equation.

The biggest hidden trap is associated with the right to be forgotten. Under the GDPR, if you want your email (and other contact details) to be removed and deleted from a database, you have that right. However, most people assume that just by unsubscribing to a mailing list that is what you're doing.

WRONG! Unsubscribing from a mailing list does not mean that your details have been deleted from the database. Let's delve into this particular issue based on my personal experience.

Facebook: Is it time to panic about security?

Posted on September 30, 2018December 19, 2022 by Judy L Mohr

Facebook has hit the news once again with yet another security breach. This time, the breach was a flaw in the View as... feature built into the platform to give users the ability to see their profiles and pages as another user would see them. It had to do with some combination of settings between this feature and the uploading of videos that gave some hacker access to over 50 million people's data.

News of the breach is EVERYWHERE! There is even a public statement about it on the Facebook site.

To be honest, I'm not surprised this has happened. As much as people like to pretend otherwise, the internet and social media are still new technology. Yes, sites like Facebook have been around for a while, going public in 2004. However, what Facebook looked like in 2004 is NOTHING compared to what it looks like today. Social media as a whole is dramatically different. Same too with the internet.

More and more people are joining the world of the internet. For much of the Western Society, it has become a massive part of our lives. My children are now required to sit certain school exams or submit assignments online. This is the world we now live in.

With the changes in the world, we were bound to face issues surrounding privacy and security. The question is: is it time to panic?

In a one-word answer: No. In a longer answer: No, but it is time to examine our practices and take steps to protect ourselves.

Here is a list of steps you should take to protect yourself on the internet, not just Facebook.

The Must-Have Website

Posted on September 28, 2018September 16, 2023 by Judy L Mohr

When I first started down the road towards publication myself, I did an extensive amount of research trying to understand exactly what I needed to do to make it happen. There was this one thing that kept cropping up, time and time again. Platform. Website. Website. Platform.

When I saw this constant theme of website for writers, I wanted to run screaming. There was no way I wanted to stress myself with having to do all the coding associated with having a website. And the cost... I could barely afford my internet bill. But if I wanted to make a name for myself as a writer, I was going to have to suck it up and just do it.

I was pleasantly surprised at how simple — and cheap — it all was.

I created the first iteration of my author website, with all the bells and whistles, within 30 minutes. I kid you not. And all it cost me was time. That website was FREE.

To Review or Not To Review?

Posted on June 15, 2018January 23, 2023 by Judy L Mohr

The topic of reviews has come across my feeds a lot over the past few weeks, and I find myself feeling like a broken record, giving the same advice over and over.

First, there was a discussion on Facebook where a writer taking part in a book review cooperative felt bound by the rules of the cooperative: if you can’t leave a 3-star review or higher, then you’re out of the cooperative. Let’s ignore that this is unethical and deliberately misleading. If you feel a book is only worth 1 star, then you should feel comfortable giving that book 1 star. (Not that I would, but I will come to that later.)

Then, I encountered a fellow editor who was suffering a review dilemma, where she felt that a book in question possessed glaring editorial flaws, yet she knew others who adored the book. To complicate matters, she knew the author personally. She was asking a group of editors how she should handle the book review, worried about the negative impact on her editorial business if she promoted a book that was poorly edited.

This was closely followed by discussions about Amazon’s glitch in their reviews system that was impacting ALL products on their sites: non-verified reviews were being restricted.

I’ve heard others recount their own experiences regarding reviews, and discuss tactics for Advance Reader Copies (ARCs). Meanwhile, the same advice keeps pouring out of my fingers and onto the feeds.

NEVER review a book on Amazon, Goodreads or similar sites. Instead, recommend.

Let me explain why.

Privacy is World-Wide: The Impact of GDPR

Posted on May 18, 2018September 16, 2023 by Judy L Mohr

If I was say “GDPR is here,” would you know what I was talking about? Be honest. There’s nothing to be ashamed of if you don’t.

Now for the next question: if you have heard of the GDPR, have you bothered to take the steps necessary to protect yourself? Or are you one of those who believes that because you don’t live in the EU that it doesn’t concern you? Again, be honest. It’s perfectly okay to think that.

However, believe it or not, if you are a public figure of any kind (e.g., writer, podcaster, musician, artist), then the GDPR could have huge consequences if you don’t take the steps now to protect yourself. Because of the way the internet works, there is a whole level of complexity added to the privacy of information issue that most people don’t realize or understand.

It’s time to get the picture straight.

When Newsletters and Blogs Find the Trash

Posted on March 9, 2018February 2, 2023 by Judy L Mohr

I subscribed to a range of blogs and newsletters from a variety of sources. Recently, because of the sheer number of subscriptions that I have, I've starting clearing out these emails using my smartphone. There has been a trend to my behavior, and it is formulaic.

For some emails, I just hit delete, never getting past the subject line. Other emails, I skim through to the end, and still hit delete. There are a few that I'll actually click the links and read more.

Everyone will have their own criteria for hitting the delete button, and it really can be as simple as a mood factor. However, there appears to be some things that I honestly believe are person-independent.

Maybe it's time to break this right down.

15 Seconds an Email

Posted on March 9, 2018September 8, 2022 by Judy L Mohr

Recently, I decided to run a little experiment, and recorded the results. I recorded how I reacted to certain newsletters and blog subscriptions that were delivered to my inbox.

It might sound boring, but trust me, you might find it enlightening.

17 minutes to go through 66 emails. That's an average 15 seconds an email. Of those 66 emails, only 11 survived in my inbox to be looked at later. 3 were marked as share with others, and 2 were flagged to look at in more detail. But of 66 emails, only 1 was actually read while checking emails (off screen, of course). That's not good odds for the carefully constructed message that found its way into my inbox. However, what you might find surprising is that majority of the deleted emails found the trash because the distribution list provider sent the emails in a format that I couldn't read on my iPhone.

Take a look at the sped up footage. I'm willing to bet that you go through your emails just as fast, if not faster.

Words Can Cut Like Knives

Posted on September 8, 2017December 19, 2022 by Judy L Mohr

As writers, we carefully craft our sentences to use the perfect word to say what is it that we want to say, creating the exact image in a reader’s mind. There are times when writers have been known to spend days to find those perfect words. Yet, there is one aspect of our writing lives where many writers don’t take the same care with words as they do their stories.

I’m talking about the posts that writers put on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. The rush to get the post out there can sometimes land us in situations where the words cut like knifes.