Increasing the transparancy of the forwarding process using the {action.forward} token

[sorry, can't articulate this in database-speak similar to those in http://objectledge.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviMail]

– The issues

The recipient of a forwarded CiviMail message ("the forwardee") could consider the message unsolicited. The forwarding process is inconsistent with the double opt-in standard. Some of this concerns wording: receiving emails "cold" with unsubscribe links gives a bad impression of the sender.

Presently, a contact is created for the forwardee, containing only their email. They are not subscribed to any group, yet the contact is added to the mail job and noted as an "intended recipient" in the Delivery Summary interface.

The forwardee receives an email with unique unsubscribe and opt-out addresses - effectively, this means they can unsubscribe to a mailing to which they were never subscribed in the first place. This is superfluous, since they would not receive further mailings in any case (not being a member of any group). CiviMail already recognises this by not sending the forwardee an unsubscribe confirmation message.

– Suggested improvements

a) When forwarding a mail through CiviMail, the forwarder should initiate the "double opt-in" process on behalf of the new contact ("the forwardee"). A contact is created for the fowardee with the status "pending", subject to email confirmation by the forwardee. The "pending" status should be revealed somewhere prominent on the contact within CiviMail: perhaps an "awaiting confirmation" option in the "Delivery Summary" interface.

b) The following header could be added to the forwarded message, with some bold colours so it stands out.

---------------------------------
Hello!

{contact.email}

[of forwarder] thought you would be interesting in

{mailing.name}

from

{domain.name}

, and asked us to forward it to you.

This is a one-off, and if you do nothing we will never email you again.

If you like what you've read, and want to keep receiving mails like this, send a blank email to:

{confirm.CONTACT.SUBSCRIBE.HASH=EMAIL@FIXME.ORG}

.
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c) A threshold for automatic expiry should be set for "pending" contacts. Emails sent to a unique confirmation email after that threshold should be treated as initiating the double opt-in from scratch.

d) The message should be forwarded inline, with its original formatting, but

{action.unsubscribe}

and

{action.optout}

should somehow be nulled, since they have no function for the forwardee.

e) In the "Delivery Summary" screen:

-show number of forwardees AND the number of successful confirmations that result from it. Call this a conversion rate.
-show the original number of intended recipients in the group: this figure is currently merged with the number of forwardees.