WOT Rankings, How-To Geek Newsletter & You - Stay Informed
Recent Concerns Regarding How-To Geek Newsletter and WOT
We have received reports from numerous readers over the past several days indicating that the Web of Trust (WOT) is displaying a warning message associated with the How-To Geek Newsletter. This assessment is inaccurate, and the issue has now been addressed.
Understanding the Situation
The Web of Trust is a browser add-on available for Firefox and Internet Explorer. It functions by evaluating links on webpages and alerting users to potentially harmful or suspicious destinations. Unfortunately, the WOT system was incorrectly flagging links contained within the How-To Geek Newsletter.
However, it’s important to note that this misclassification does not stem from our website itself. A review of the How-To Geek’s WOT scorecard reveals positive green ratings and even a commendation, creating a discrepancy with the newsletter warnings.
Identifying the Root Cause
The source of the problem lies with our email delivery service, Aweber. With over 18,000 subscribers, our servers are unable to manage the volume of daily email distribution. Therefore, we utilize Aweber to handle this task.
Specifically, the domain clicks.aweber.com has been receiving unfavorable ratings on WOT. We had previously enabled click tracking within the daily emails to monitor link engagement and understand reader preferences. This tracking feature was contributing to the negative WOT assessment.
To resolve this, we have disabled click tracking in the emails. This change will be implemented with tomorrow’s newsletter, and we anticipate the WOT warnings will no longer appear.
Ongoing Communication and WOT's Value
We have contacted Aweber regarding this issue, and they have assured us they are working to rectify the situation on their end as well.
Generally, I consider WOT to be a valuable tool for assessing website trustworthiness. The collective feedback from users can provide helpful insights. However, inaccurate ratings can occur due to malicious or misguided submissions.
Incorrectly labeling legitimate sites as spam diminishes the usefulness of the service for all users. Consider Aweber’s double-opt-in process as an example:
- Users must intentionally subscribe to the newsletter.
- Subscribers are required to confirm their subscription via a second step.
After completing this two-step process, marking the newsletter as spam is inappropriate. Furthermore, every Aweber-delivered newsletter includes a readily available unsubscribe link. Utilizing the unsubscribe function is the correct course of action instead of reporting as spam.