Feedback loop (email)

A sender and a recipient connected by a mailbox provider (MP). The feedback provider and the feedback consumer are the two formal endpoints of the feedback loop (blue arrow). Senders need to subscribe, possibly using a web form similar to the one depicted on the upper left corner, in order to become feedback consumers. Recipients typically click a spam button on a web mail page to start the process.

A feedback loop (FBL), sometimes called a complaint feedback loop, is an inter-organizational form of feedback by which a mailbox provider (MP) forwards the complaints originating from their users to the sender's organizations. MPs can receive users' complaints by placing report spam buttons on their webmail pages, or in their email client, or via help desks. The message sender's organization, often an email service provider, has to come to an agreement with each MP from which they want to collect users' complaints.[1]

Feedback loops are one of the ways for reporting spam. Whether and how to provide an FBL is a choice of the MP. End users should report abuse at their mailbox provider's reporting hub, so as to also help filtering.[2] As an alternative, competent users may send abuse complaints directly, acting as mailbox providers themselves.

  1. ^ J.D. Falk, ed. (November 2011). Complaint Feedback Loop Operational Recommendations. IETF. doi:10.17487/RFC6449. RFC 6449. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
  2. ^ John R. Levine (9 December 2009). "Adding a spam button to MUAs". mail. ASRG. Retrieved 22 April 2011.