Unsubscribes, bounces, and complaints
Every email carries an unsubscribe link in the footer, plus the one-click unsubscribe header modern inboxes show as their own button. Both work instantly, no login, no "are you sure" maze—an easy exit is what keeps unhappy readers from hitting "mark as spam" instead.
There's a middle path too: with the reader preference center set up, the unsubscribe page offers "get fewer emails instead"—a reader can drop to just the emails they want rather than leaving entirely.
The suppression list
When a reader unsubscribes, bounces, or complains, they go on the audience's suppression list—the do-not-mail ledger every send is checked against. The recipient count you confirm before sending has already subtracted it.
Three kinds of suppression, with different rules:
- Unsubscribed—the reader opted out. If they genuinely change their mind, they can re-subscribe themselves through one of your signup forms; that new consent reactivates them. You can't flip them back by hand, and that's deliberate—"they probably didn't mean it" is how platforms get senders blocklisted.
- Bounced ("cleaned")—the address is dead. Mailing it again only hurts your reputation, so these are locked.
- Complained—the reader marked your mail as spam. This is the strongest signal there is, and these are locked hardest. No tool here will ever mail a complainer again.
Where they show up
They don't sit in your contact list any more. The Contacts page opens on Your list—the contacts you can send to today—and everyone else lives in one Inactive tab beside it, which breaks down by reason when you open it. Nothing is deleted or hidden; it's just no longer counted as your audience. Searching from everyone in there finds anybody, whatever their status.
Suppression is per-audience
Each audience keeps its own list—an unsubscribe from one pen name doesn't touch another. (That's also why importing your full export, unsubscribes included, matters: it teaches this audience's list who already opted out. See the import guide.)