List-Unsubscribe Header for Gmail, Hotmail and others

[willyhoops]

There is a thread in this forum about the List-Unsubscribe standard outlined at www.list-unsubscribe.com which requires a header embedded into the email specifying an unsubscribe email address, and which when present gives the user an easy to use unsubscribe button in Gmail and Hotmail and others.

The List-Unsubscribe header is said to be an important feature because if the user clicks spam on the email, Gmail and Hotmail etc will properly unsubscribe rather than silently marking the mail as spam. This helps to preserve the reputation of the sender and reduces traffic and provides feedback on the effect of messages.

The main forum thread about this feature is here: http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=24474&p=91989&hilit=unsubscribe+header#p91989

It dates back to 2009 and talks about a custom mod, but other threads seem to suggest this feature is now built in. I can’t figure out whether this feature exists by default or is a mod, and how to set it up. For example, does the bounce process check for these unsubscribe response email messages manually or do we need to setup a cron job?

Please help, many thanks…

[duncanc]

That processing is not in the stable 2.10.x releases.

The dev version does allow the list-unsubscribe header to be sent. Also I think processing of the unsubscribe responses but not sure how that works.

[willyhoops]

Thank you for replying so promptly, I look forward to seeing this important feature in the next release.

Meanwhile I did some research on the web and found this page:

http://www.alangeorge-photography.com/listCode_008.php

Shown below are all the code modifications required to include the List-Unsubscribe header in your eMails based on the original phpList forum contributors work (cs & btushar).

These modifications are designed for phplist 2.10.19 which is the current version as of March 2013, and have been tested on my production environment on a hosted server.

What this code lacks is the process that reads the unsubscribed mailbox and processes the messages automatically. Therefore anyone who uses this mod should manually check for unsubscribed messages and manually block any addresses found.

Note: Alan George offers Web Design & Other Services

[AlanGeorge]

Many thanks for the plug WillyHoops much appreciated. However the missing code is on the page just not available for download within the 7zip file.
Basically I tried the processunsubscribe.php and unless I missed something it did not work (for me). Looking at the code it appears to be cloned from processbounces.php and requires a Cron user that has been configured to handle bounces, so for me the code has not been completed by the original sources.
My small adjustment to the original hack of placing the Unsubscribe header in the email also re-instates the Precedance Bulk header and adds a Reply-To header which can now be configuered in config.php (email details) and toggled on and off.
The link in WillyHoops will get you to the page....

Alan