Dela Quist, CEO of Alchemy Worx, a U.K.-based agency focused on email, is one of the most thoughtful (and entertaining) people in the email business. He was on a panel at our recent customer conference in London. One of my favorite Dela skills is coining new phrases. And, once again he came through.

People who don't respond to their email for long periods of time recently have become referred to as "emotionally unsubscribed." That is, they are no longer interested in the email, but haven't bothered to unsubscribe. Dela has a different twist on this that, frankly, makes a lot more sense to me. In many (if not most) cases, people do want to receive the email, but they don't care about the content at this particular point in time. He believes that recipients find it too difficult to unsubscribe and then re-subscribe. So they simply remain subscribed, but with every intention of being more interested in the content in the future.

So, there you have it... "unemotionally subscribed."