Posted by Jim Erhardt on November 28, 2011 at 1:10 PM
I thought I would take this opportunity to address questions about NPN emails from the NPN/OPG Store.
First and foremost, we do NOT sell member personal information/email addresses to anyone!
Earlier this year, after much conversation with Chris Klapheke, whose Outdoor Photo Gear operation is well known and respected in the nature photography community, we decided to set up a collaboration; in exchange for some on-site promotion, Chris would supply discounts to NPN members in the following ways;
1. Whenever someone joins or renews their membership to NPN, they get a discount code for use on OPG
2. Monthly, exclusive specials are offered to NPN members in the Group Buy Forum
The NPN email System
To protect our members' email addresses from being harvested, we use a server-based email system. When you click the email icon on a post, you never see the actual email address.
Once a month, a NPN/OPG email is created that includes links to the NPN site. That email is then sent to me and as the NPN Administration, I forward it through the NPN email system. Even with OPG, we do NOT share our member email addresses!
Occasionally, Chris has a special email he would like to send to NPN members. He creates the email and then sends it to me, and me alone. After reviewing the email and making sure it offers tangible benefits to NPN members, I then forward the email to members through the NPN mail system.
Did I mention that we do NOT share these email addresses with anyone, not even Chris at OPG?
As stated before, if you do not want to receive those emails, you can go to your Preferences screen and uncheck the "email from NPN administration" box. This will NOT prevent email being sent from other members to you via your email icon. We rarely use this utility for any other purpose so you won't miss much else if you elect to opt-out of NPN Administration email. Any other purpose we might use it for - such as announcing an expected server outage - is also posted in the main discussion forum.
Of course, if these emails offend you but you don't want to opt-out of them from the Preferences screen, you could also filter them from reaching your inbox using a spam utility or simply not open them.
In summary;
1. As part of your NPN membership, we look for opportunities to partner with other companies to offer discounts to NPN members on products/services that are of value to nature photographers. We get requests every month from NPN members for more opportunities like these, most notably for camera gear insurance (which is something we hope to be able to offer).
2. We ONLY partner with reputable companies who I personally trust and who value their good name/reputation as much as we value ours. Outdoor Photo Gear, Puget Systems and F-Stop have certainly proven to meet these criteria.
3. We do NOT sell member personal information to anyone! Our business model is simply this - to offer as much value to nature photographers as we can, and always look for ways to offer more.
I know it is easy these days to be cynical, to assume the worst in everyone. I know I can state here in writing that maintaining our reputation and offering the best possible value for your membership dollar is job one, yet some will choose to be cynical and not believe it. This is truly regrettable, but I guess unavoidable in today's political climate of mistrust, dissention and polarization.
Though public discussion of any NPN policy is welcome, we ask that you contact us first for clarification on any issue that may concern you. If you ever have any questions about NPN policy, please feel free to contact me directly and I will be happy to help in any way I can! When posts are made that (1) contain false information and (2) are harmful to the NPN community, we reserve the right to close or delete such threads.
I hope this clarifies the issue, and my apologies for having to address it.
Update
We will no longer use the NPN email system to send "promotional" or general-interest email.
In order to maintain communication with the NPN membership on issues of interest, we have created a NPN News bulletin board - full info in the NPN News & Updates thread. Please take a moment to view that post!
For those who wish to continue receiving the monthly NPN/OPG Newsletter or other promotional info from the NPN/OPG Store, you can sign up to receive it here. A link to the newsletter and other promotional announcements will also be provided on the NPN News board.
We hope you find this latest change useful and more acceptable!
Discussion
0 repliesFirst and foremost, we do NOT sell member personal information/email addresses to anyone!
Earlier this year, after much conversation with Chris Klapheke, whose Outdoor Photo Gear operation is well known and respected in the nature photography community, we decided to set up a collaboration; in exchange for some on-site promotion, Chris would supply discounts to NPN members in the following ways;
1. Whenever someone joins or renews their membership to NPN, they get a discount code for use on OPG
2. Monthly, exclusive specials are offered to NPN members in the Group Buy Forum
The NPN email System
To protect our members' email addresses from being harvested, we use a server-based email system. When you click the email icon on a post, you never see the actual email address.
Once a month, a NPN/OPG email is created that includes links to the NPN site. That email is then sent to me and as the NPN Administration, I forward it through the NPN email system. Even with OPG, we do NOT share our member email addresses!
Occasionally, Chris has a special email he would like to send to NPN members. He creates the email and then sends it to me, and me alone. After reviewing the email and making sure it offers tangible benefits to NPN members, I then forward the email to members through the NPN mail system.
Did I mention that we do NOT share these email addresses with anyone, not even Chris at OPG?
As stated before, if you do not want to receive those emails, you can go to your Preferences screen and uncheck the "email from NPN administration" box. This will NOT prevent email being sent from other members to you via your email icon. We rarely use this utility for any other purpose so you won't miss much else if you elect to opt-out of NPN Administration email. Any other purpose we might use it for - such as announcing an expected server outage - is also posted in the main discussion forum.
Of course, if these emails offend you but you don't want to opt-out of them from the Preferences screen, you could also filter them from reaching your inbox using a spam utility or simply not open them.
In summary;
1. As part of your NPN membership, we look for opportunities to partner with other companies to offer discounts to NPN members on products/services that are of value to nature photographers. We get requests every month from NPN members for more opportunities like these, most notably for camera gear insurance (which is something we hope to be able to offer).
2. We ONLY partner with reputable companies who I personally trust and who value their good name/reputation as much as we value ours. Outdoor Photo Gear, Puget Systems and F-Stop have certainly proven to meet these criteria.
3. We do NOT sell member personal information to anyone! Our business model is simply this - to offer as much value to nature photographers as we can, and always look for ways to offer more.
I know it is easy these days to be cynical, to assume the worst in everyone. I know I can state here in writing that maintaining our reputation and offering the best possible value for your membership dollar is job one, yet some will choose to be cynical and not believe it. This is truly regrettable, but I guess unavoidable in today's political climate of mistrust, dissention and polarization.
Though public discussion of any NPN policy is welcome, we ask that you contact us first for clarification on any issue that may concern you. If you ever have any questions about NPN policy, please feel free to contact me directly and I will be happy to help in any way I can! When posts are made that (1) contain false information and (2) are harmful to the NPN community, we reserve the right to close or delete such threads.
I hope this clarifies the issue, and my apologies for having to address it.
Update
We will no longer use the NPN email system to send "promotional" or general-interest email.
In order to maintain communication with the NPN membership on issues of interest, we have created a NPN News bulletin board - full info in the NPN News & Updates thread. Please take a moment to view that post!
For those who wish to continue receiving the monthly NPN/OPG Newsletter or other promotional info from the NPN/OPG Store, you can sign up to receive it here. A link to the newsletter and other promotional announcements will also be provided on the NPN News board.
We hope you find this latest change useful and more acceptable!