Ryan Waggoner apparently has the same idea that I do: no-reply email addresses are crap.

From his article:

Think about your grandparents, or a stay-at-home mom in Kansas who orders something online once a year. These people don’t know what a “noreply” email address is. But they know that when they hit reply and ask a question, they expect to get an answer. When they don’t, they get frustrated, and that reduces their loyalty to the company in question.

Exactly right. Same thing I think about when designing something for others: All of your users are rookies.

This comic by Brad Colbrow pretty much hits the nail on the head in regards to how companies are taking advantage of their users opting into promotional emails.

For Lookit, it’s simple:

• At the bottom of every email is a message telling you why you’re getting that email, and
• a message on exactly how to unsubscribe. (Currently it’s “just reply back and say so”.)
• We don’t sell our rent our list to advertisers and have no plans to do so in the future.

It’s simple. It’s human and it’s the right way to do it.

OK, go read that comic now. It hurts that it’s so true.