The questions readers ask about operator messages
Twelve questions, answered in the order they tend to arrive: the opt-out that does not stop everything, the messages that must be sent, the evidence for delivery, the window a notice has to beat, and the case where nothing arrived at all.
- questions
- 12
- kinds
- 5
- columns
- 6 of them on this page
- samples
- 8
Most questions resolve into one of six columns: what the message is, who it came from, what it changes, what it proves, when it had to arrive, and where it is kept. The table below sorts the twelve questions by column, and each answer says which sample it rests on.
The six columns a question falls into
| Column | Question | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| what it is | which kinds exist, and which must be sent | A and J |
| who it came from | the sender, the account and the address used | E and G |
| what it changes | the three effects a message has alone | J |
| what it proves | sent, arrived and read as three counts | F |
| when it had to arrive | the window, less the arrival time | I |
| where it is kept | nine fields of twelve, and the three dropped | E |
| six columns | twelve questions, each resting on a sample | 8 samples |
- Sort the question into a column before looking for an answer.
- Name the sample with the answer, so the figure can be re-derived.
- Check the kind of message first, because it decides what the rest of the answer can be.
The questions, in full
Why do messages keep arriving after I have opted out?
Because the opt-out covers marketing and nothing else. On the samples marketing is 12 of 50 messages, or 24.0%; the remaining 38 are receipts, service notes, security alerts and legal notices, which the terms permit without consent and which the account cannot be operated without.
Which messages must an operator send me?
Four of the five kinds are treated as necessary: receipts of what happened, service notes about the account, security alerts when something changes, and legal notices where a term or a window is affected. Only marketing requires consent, and only marketing can be stopped.
How is a message sent different from a message delivered?
They are separate events with separate counts: 50 sent against 48 evidenced as arriving, and 21 evidenced as read. The gap between the first two is almost entirely the paper channel, which leaves no arrival evidence at all.
What evidence is there that I received a message?
Three kinds, held in different places: the operator’s send log, which covers everything it sent; a delivery receipt, which covers 48 of 50; and a read receipt, which covers 21 of 50. The reader’s own copy of the message is the only artefact they hold directly.
Why does a notice give so little time?
Because the window is measured from arrival, not from the decision. A two-day window posted on the day it is written arrives 2 days 6 hours later - 0.25 days after the change it announces - so the channel, not the window, decides whether the time exists.
Which channel should my notices arrive on?
One that leaves a durable copy and reports arrival. On the samples email arrives in 0.9 seconds and is evidenced; the in-app inbox is instant but needs a sign-in; push can be dismissed unseen; SMS truncates; post takes 2 days 6 hours and has no arrival evidence.
Can I stop the receipts as well as the offers?
Not in practice. A receipt records something that has already happened, so stopping it removes the record and not the event. On the samples 30 of 50 messages are receipts and 12 are marketing; the switch reaches only the second number.
What does the operator keep about the messages it sends?
On the samples, nine of twelve fields: time, channel, kind, template reference, the address used, delivery status, opened, clicked and bounced. The rendered text, where the reader was, and what the reader did next are not kept.
What happens if I change my email address?
The change takes about a day to take effect, and anything sent inside that window goes to the old address - about 1.7 messages on the samples, 0.4 of them marketing. The change is also the step an attacker would want, so it produces its own notifications.
Is a message from the operator an advertisement?
Only the marketing kind is promotional. A receipt, a service note, an alert and a legal notice are about the account itself, and only the marketing kind is paid for by a budget a reader can influence by opting out.
What should I do if a notice never arrived?
Record the change and the date you noticed it, collect the messages received around that date, and ask for the date the notice was sent and the channel used. A dated answer is checkable; a log can show a send but not an absence.
What does a message actually change on its own?
Three of eight effects tested: it informs the reader, it evidences that a notice was given, and it can start a period. Changing a term, moving money, closing an account, reversing a decision and creating a right all need something else.