Re: legitimate unsolicited commercial e-mail vs spam

From: Matt Magri <matt_at_netmeg.net>
Date: Fri 5 Nov 1999 11:44:13 -0500

HAVAH HOPE WROTE:
> Is what you are saying is that if I represent a commercial
> enterprise there is no way for me to contact a site owner
> without spamming?

No, he's not saying that at all. After all, I don't think
anyone would consider your calling them up or sending them a
letter to be spam.

> What if I think that their site would really benefit from
> knowing about my site?

That, for better or for worse, is the excuse that every
spammer uses, too. There's just no way to allow your
exemption without allowing it for everyone. It should be
noted, however, that people are a lot more tolerant about
unsolicited contact which doesn't involve selling them
something, especially if the contact isn't some automated
message.

> I am not talking about a mass e-mailing here I am
> suggesting that there needs to be *some* socially
> acceptable way for a commercial enterprise to contact a
> site owner without being totally passive.

I don't see why there -has- to be some way to do it via
email (as opposed to phone or mail). The economics, culture,
and human interface is sufficiently different for each of
those methods of communications that they can't all be
treated as interchangeable. If you want to be able to do
"cold calls" via email, tho, you first have to figure out a
way for people to positively acknowledge that they are
willing to devote the resources to receiving your ads, then
you have to get everyone to use it.

There are a lot of ways you could do the first part. You
could identify an address (like "advertisements" or
something like that) that a site which could set up if they
wanted "targeted ads". How you would keep it out of the
hands of the spam machines is not clear. Or you could push
to have various web design guidelines encourage designers to
include an address for vendors, etc. Once again, keeping it
out of the hands of "bad UCErs" is tricky. Another approach
is for people to sign up addresses to receive ads on various
subjects (like at www.chooseyourmail.com, etc.). Then
advertisers would approach the clearinghouse with the ads.
The nicest part of that is that the clearinghouse doesn't
release the actual addresses, so they can separate the
legitimate senders from the spam machines.

Anyway, the real challenge is the second part, where you
convince everyone to use the scheme of your choice. All I
ask is that you don't do it via spamming... ;-)

Matt
--
Matt Magri
Netmeg Internet




Received on Fri Nov 05 1999 - 10:44:13 CST