How You Can Support UKC and UKH

© UKC News

In May this year there are changes happening that affect the way we deal with the privacy of our users. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) becomes law on 25 May 2018. At UKClimbing Ltd. we fully support the ethos behind GDPR, which intends to protect the data privacy of EU citizens and improve organisations' understanding of it - more information here. We feel it's important to inform users about this change and also explain how you can help us to provide the best possible content and features on our website.

To comply with GDPR we need to completely recreate our email database with an opt-in option for subscribers, and a date stamp of your decision when you make it. This affects the UKC and UKH newsletters, which have been sent out once a week for many years to a huge database of email addresses. We are aware that not necessarily everyone in this database wanted, or read, this email, but we did have an astonishingly good open rate of nearly 50% (most marketing emails are around 20% to 25% open rate at best). We are doing okay at building the numbers back up onto the new GDPR-approved system, but we are still someway short of the numbers we have had previously.

Please consider opting in to receive one of our newsletters and opening it once a week. We don't ask much but this is a really easy way for you to support the site.

Many of you will have noticed the subscribe/unsubscribe message that has been appearing on the UKC and UKH home page and the weekly newsletter. This is so that we can establish which users want to opt-in to receive the newsletter email in compliance with GDPR. If you opt-in, then we will continue to send you the email. Nothing else will change and we won't use the list of subscribed email addresses for any purpose other than the weekly newsletters. If you opt-out, you will not receive any newsletter emails and we won't contact you again. These decisions are time-stamped on your user profile (a requirement under GDPR).

Main photo: Alan James in El Chorro  © UKC News
Main photo: Alan James in El Chorro

Now here's the bit where you can help

Please consider opting in to receive one of our newsletters and opening it once a week. We don't ask much but this is a really easy way for you to support the site.

The UKC and UKH newsletter is one of the most important communication tools we have. It enables us to inform you of new content as well as being a vital asset for us in appealing to advertisers, which in turn keeps the site free of charge for users.

We realise that spam emails are a modern scourge and many of us strive to keep unwanted emails to a minimum. We'd like to think that the UKC and UKH weekly emails aren't 'unwanted' since they are a potted version of the main content we have had on the web sites for the last week, and these are web sites that many of you visit on a daily basis.

If you have already answered this question and opted in, then thanks very much, your support is very welcome.

If you haven't yet filled in our opt-in/out form for the newsletter then please consider doing so and we would really appreciate it if you opted in to receive the weekly newsletter from one or both UKC and UKH. (As an aside, if you use the site regularly and haven't logged in as a registered user then this too is something that is incredibly beneficial to us - please consider registering).

If you have opted out from the newsletter then please could we ask you to reconsider. It is extremely helpful to us if you make your email address available for our weekly newsletter and open it. We will only ever send you one UKC and/or UKH newsletter a week and this is something that every user could help with for relatively little effort and, you never know, you might actually spot something in the newsletters that you had missed on the site.

Thanks

Alan James, Director UKClimbing Limited

UKC/UKH Newsletter Confirmation


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11 Apr, 2018

This seems to be a really odd request, or at least a poorly explained one.

How exactly does subscribing to and opening the newsletter help UKC?

I log into UKC daily (as I'm sure many other users do) and read pretty much all of the articles and stories. I can therefore see no reason to subscribe to a newsletter which gives just me a summary of things I've already read.

 Surely accessing the site directly is an equally valid way of getting all the latest news, so why the desperate cry for everyone to subscribe to a newsletter as well? It has the feel of someone trying to justify their job (of producing the newsletter).

How does reading the newsletter support the site any more than accessing directly?

 

On an slightly related matter: "we won't use the email address for any purpose other than the weekly newsletters" does this mean you won't send us email notifications if we win competitions? I'd always assumed I'd be notified if I ever won and therefore wouldn't need to remember to check the results pages after each one closes.

 

11 Apr, 2018

Sorry you feel it isn't clear.

You seem to be looking at it from a 'how does this benefit me' point of view though. What we want people to know is that it really does benefit us if you are subscribed and open the newsletters, so that is why we are keen for you to do it. Even if you just see stuff you already knew about, it is a way you can help the site.

The reason it benefits us is that it means we can tell the advertisers that support the site that people are receiving the newsletter and the proportion that are opening it. These figures are obviously important to an advertiser who has paid for a position in the newsletter. 

Alan

 

11 Apr, 2018

No it doesn't mean that. Perhaps that isn't clear since obviously we already have your email address. What that should say is "we won't use this subscribed list to send you anything other than the weekly newsletter.

Alan

11 Apr, 2018

Can you not use the statistics about the number of articles read and discussed online in much the same way?

11 Apr, 2018

Of course we do, and they are very impressive. But the newsletter has become a very important and popular way to contact our readers, so it is the specific stats surrounding this that are of crucial importance.

The majority of people who read the newsletter are probably occasional visitors who find it useful and probably won't be reading this thread. The main aim of this news item is to appeal to those regular users who have unsubscribed and to ask them to consider subscribing.

It doesn't seem to be a big ask to me.

Alan

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