Opting out of communications refers to the act of unsubscribing or declining to receive future communications. It usually involves informing the sender that you no longer wish to receive their messages by clicking a link in an email or contacting them directly.

The "Opt Out" tag in Slate is a meticulously crafted and intricately designed special tag with several complex behaviors. These behaviors have been carefully formatted to ensure consistent standardization across all institutions.

Setting/Unsetting Opt Out Tag

Set

The tag can be set through any of four ways:

1. The student receives a decision that has been set up in the admin tool as a decision that should "opt out" the student.  This is routinely used for "terminating" decisions like deny decisions, where further outreach communications with the student should cease.  It is often also used for final decisions like "enroll" or "admit/decline", as any further communications with the student at that stage will likely be transactional in nature.
2. The tag is manually set by an administrative user on the student record page.
3. The tag is manually set by a dataset upload.  (This tag is never set by default as part of any standard format.)
4. Certain email clients (e.g., Yahoo, Gmail) will issue an unsubscribe request if the message is marked as spam, which will in turn cause the tag to be set.

Unset

The tag can be unset through any of four ways:

1. The student starts an application.
2. The student submits a form (such as a request for information form) or an event registration.
3. The tag is manually unset on the student record page.
4. The tag is manually unset by a dataset upload.  (This tag is never unset by default as part of any standard format.)

Opt Out Effects

By default, Slate will exclude students from "Prospects" type queries if the "Opt Out" tag has been set. This is intentional and by design, as this tag is being set because the student has directly requested to discontinue all future communications from the organization, or indirectly because of a change in the relationship with the student (such as the student having been denied).If the "Opt Out" tag is set, and a query is run for "Applications", delivery to addresses that have unsubscribed will be skipped unless the "No Unsubscribe" option is selected. If the "No Unsubscribe" option is selected, the messages will be delivered, regardless of the "Opt Out" tag. This is intentional and by design, as you should only use the "No Unsubscribe" option for transactional communications, such as those related to a student's application or as a result of some action that a student has taken.

Opt Out Alternatives

When students follow an unsubscribe link and do not select the "All future communications" option, they are only unsubscribed from emails sent to that email address where the specified unsubscribe group is selected. This is the default option for students, and students are warned if they choose the "All future communications" option, as this can have effects beyond emails.