Re: Making Email Spam Free

From: Jamie Schachter <marketing_at_therefinishingtouch.com>
Date: Thu 16 Nov 2000 14:58:15 -0500

I just read Trevor Johnson's very emotional tirade on
spam. I must admit, I was shaken up by statements such
as:

TREVOR JOHNSON <bpfsa_at_yahoo.com> WROTE:
> Average 700 per *day* of them. None of which
> I requested. None of which are specifically
> for me. None of which I want. None of which
> interest me at all.

As well as stat analysis such as:

TREVOR JOHNSON <bpfsa_at_yahoo.com> WROTE:
> Don't tell me to just delete them. At 700 per day,
> allow maybe 20 seconds each for a quick glance to make
> sure I'm not deleting legitimate communications, and
> those of you who condone spamming have just cost me 4
> hours a day, every day, 7 days per week, just to do
> nothing but delete them. To take a relatively small
> random sample of offenders, trace their origins and
> report their abusive behavior to their ISP's and
> hosting services now takes an average of TWELVE hours
> per day. ........

Trevor went on to describe how his mental and physical
health were threatened. His marriage was threatened.
His valuable time taken away from his small business,
of which he is the only employee. All these facts
tugged heavily at my heart strings. And emotional
metaphors between spam and murder made me feel further
pity for Trevor.

And as I read Trevor's threat to those who send out
these 700 unsolicited messages a day, I felt like
diving through my computer to help Trevor in any way I
can to fight the good fight.

That is, of course, until I got to the end of Trevor's
message, where he included his signature.

> Trevor Johnson
> http://bestprac.com
> bpfsa_at_yahoo.com

A yahoo account? This guy is complaining that his life
is crumbling due to unsolicited email, and he's using a
yahoo account?

Look folks, I'm all for trying to curb unsolicited
email (although I find junk mail and unsolicited
telemarketing much more offensive). But you have to
come to grips that you get what you pay for: Yahoo,
Hotmail, Juno, etc. are all free services. How do you
think those services are making money? They sell your
email address to email marketers, who in turn send you
junk email. Those people in turn make money because a
small fraction of those on the receiving side of the
emails do actually respond and become customers. A
vicious cycle? Probably...but once again, you almost
"opt-in" to the whole thing by utilizing a free email
service.

At work, I have an account we house ourselves, with a
private domain name. I don't give my address out to
just anybody, and my web surfing is limited. And do you
know how much unsolicited email I get? None. Zero. I
receive opt-in emailings only.

Not that I think my life would crumble if I received
more junk email. I receive a ton of junk snail mail
every day, and yet my personal and professional life go
on, I lead a happy life and my marriage thrives. I get
far too many telemarketers calling me every week, and
yet despite the burden that puts upon me, I still
manage to go on with my day to day routine.

So a few pieces of junk mail in my inbox isn't a big
deal. I have a juno account at home, and have used
hotmail before, and I simply delete those messages I
don't care to read. If it ever got too bad, I would
simply pay for my own email service, where my email
address wouldn't be given out to every porn and viagara
distributor on the Internet.

So Trevor, I urge you, before your marriage crumbles,
before your business goes under from the hours a day
you spend thoughtfully deleting your messages, before
you have to unleash the wrath of your team of legal
experts on this unsuspecting world, please, please,
please, shell out $20 a month for a subscription based
email service.

Jamie Schachter
Marketing & PR Manager
The Refinishing Touch
www.therefinishingtouch.com
marketing_at_therefinishingtouch.com





Received on Thu Nov 16 2000 - 13:58:15 CST