At 12:02 18/12/96 -0000, Chris Beckett wrote:
>I don't dislike marketing spam - it depends on how well targeted it is.
>But overall I think the benefit outweighs the downside, and I also think
>that the academic community would benefit from not isolating themselves
>from the wider Internet community. Commercial Internet sites value input
>from academics - we at Blackwell's certainly do - and are continually
>looking for sharp and energetic Internet application developers and
>marketing people. I'm in the market for two right now.
>So overall I'd rather get the junk mail and delete it than not get it.
>Sometimes there is something useful.
IMHO:
That's fine but what to you maybe of benefit is extremely annoying to the
home user who is supporting someone elses marketing budget via their ISP
subscription and phone bill. It also drives people away from using Internet
services for academic inquiry. Most academics that I speak to feel this
practice is abuse and it certainly puts them off using UseNet news now. It
would be a pity if academics began to feel the same about email and were
isolated from the 'rest of the Internet community' as I believe they form a
huge chunk of Blackwell's market... Perhaps they would not be the only ones
to lose out?
If I want to know about Blackwell's services then I would visit your web
site. If you want to advertise on the web then that's fine, put up a banner
on Yahoo and develop a useful site (which you will have to pay for..).
(Blackwells site is an excellent site and a fine example of commercial use
:-) )
There are SpamBots out there that will harvest your details, sell them to
anyone willing to pay (including porn merchants) and subscribe you to lists
that you never wanted to join. When you mail requesting to be taken off the
list, the engine uses that message to authenticate your details and
subscribes you to more lists.
Junk snail mail is irritating to most of us, but at least we are not paying
for the postage..
Unfortunately marketing experts has so far neglected to notice that using
these methods only serves to alienate the most important people to them,
their customers.
****************************************
Paul Hollands <[log in to unmask]> Internet Information Officer
Loughborough University UK 01509 222373
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/info/training/
Direct marketing via email is NOT welcome.
Use of my email address for direct marketing is in breach of JANET
acceptable use.
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