Re: domain name list

From: Brad Jensen <brad_at_elstore.com>
Date: Fri 11 Aug 2000 00:52:32 -0500

TOM G LANMAN <Tonyflea_at_aol.com> WROTE:
> Why do we even give the topic of Spam the time of day?
> If you SPAM me I will report you if I can and, if not,
> you are gone anyway. I waste valuable time on
> reporting on SPAMMERS who just aren't going to get
> caught anyway. I am trying and voicing my disgust for
> these intrusions of privacy in every sense of the
> word. I cannot believe I have just read someone's
> ideas about the harmlessness of these deeds. Brad,
> you stand with very few and for an already defeated
> cause I am afraid.

Great - how about opt-in spams? I just got added to two
lists I never asked for today - probablky because of my
web page contents.

They act like you signed up, when at the most you
visited their web page, and often not that;

example:

Fastweb.com

this one, I signed up for one list, they kindly put me
on at least three others:

 <NEWSWire/400_at_list.as400network.com>

so they can sell high cost ads to you

here's another

>>
Dear Brad,
Here's your copy of 1to1 Opportunities, a supplement
distributed by Peppers and Rogers Group twice a month
as part of INSIDE 1to1. Don't forget to enter below to
win a Palm Vx. We'll give away five Palms during
August!
<<

another
>>
The staff at eAcceleration welcomes you to our new
articles and subscription. We thank you for your
patronage and will endeavor to bring you content that
will be informative and innovative.
<<

So the spam I'm getting these days is opt-in lists
pretending I am already a member. Then they sell my
view to you guys , and you are now paying for spam.
They are hoping that there will be enough interest on
my part not to cancel the list, and sometimes it works.
So now I have repetetive spam, that is costing you the
ad guys money, and a heck of a lot more than the
hundredths of a cent that a onetime spam costs.
Something like ten thousand times.

They add a couple of thousand guys a day, 1/3 or more
stay on for a while, and you guys pay ten to thrity
cents a name. While patting yourselves on the back for
not spamming. I guess its not spam if you don't know
you are doing it.

Next there will be an audit bureau to convince everyone
that it is all on the up-and-up, paid for by the list
owners, of course.

I was born on a day, but it wasn't yesterday.

You get a spam like this, and you think, did I sign up
for that? Particularly if it is worded to imply that I
asked them to send it to me. If the email flatters me
by telling me I am a part of a select group, or it has
the name of a page I think I have visited, I generally
leave it going for a while.

And you guys pay for it, or your clients do.

Stop and think how many opt-in lists there are, with
how many members. Do you really think that many people
are begging for repetitive emails? Not!

I think targeted unsolicited email is sensible,
responsible, and ethical. Just like direct mail and
business to business telemarketing. The fact that the
recipent doesn't acknowledge the government and
commercial subsidies that have made his email possible,
doesn't make the situation any different.

And pretending that opt-in email is pure and saintly
(while it just happens to line your pockets in a way
free email does not) is just self-delusion or
disengenuous.

"Let the chumnps pay for it!"

Basically what you are teaching me by example is that I
should go ahead and do my unsolicited email, but make
it look like an opt-in list. That's what the big guys
are doing. Beter yet, I should create an opt-in list
and sell you all ad space on it.

How many of you have found yourself on a list you
haven't asked for? How many have screamed -spam- and
tried to get the list sender de-ISPed?

I think

Brad Jensen brad_at_elstore.com
President
Electronic Storage Corporation Tulsa OK USA
918-664-7276
LaserVault Report Retrieval & Data Mining
www.Laservault.com




Received on Fri Aug 11 2000 - 00:52:32 CDT