[thelist] Is this too harsh? :-)

[KGIII]

First things first, let me state that I am new to the list and this is my
very first post but I think I can manage, following is interspersed and
sniped.

> First, you are not making a business proposal to RedConcepts.NET, you
> sent me a brochure. This puts you well into our definition of SPAM since
> we did not solicit your business.

Simply put UCE (though an effective campaign) is not typically welcome and
not a very good practice. I own and operate a web site promotional company,
I would fire affiliates should that come to my attention.


> Second, you sent HTML email. This is something we find offensive and
> rude. Rest assured that this detail on its own removes your product from
> our consideration. Our bandwidth and patience cost money, and we don't
> have the time to sift through markup that is irrelevant to the message.
> Your sales-pitch could just as well have been achieved through plain
> text. Frankly I find the need to use HTML a tad insulting, since it
> seems to assume that RedConcepts.NET does not posess the brainpower to
> comprehend regular text.

HTML e-mail is prettier :) But I can certainly agree as at home I live in
the sticks and get (on a good day with rituals to ill to mention here)
33,333 though it is generally 28,000. No, broadband is not available except
via satellite and I am working on it.

> Third, after visiting your website I am not convinced that dealing with
> your business is in our best interest. Mass search engine submissions
> can be interpreted as a hackjob and can actually cause us to be
> blackballed if we are percieved as spammers ourselves.

Of note, you can use mass search engine submission tools if you want to as
long as you are aware of what you are doing with them. The better ones (to
avoid any advertising of any kind as I said I am new to the list and didn't
even plan to post but it seems you touch on all subjects and this one is my
field) will allow you to submit to sub-catagories at Yahoo, DMOZ and the
like. The key is to know which catagory to put the site into, never submit
more often then once every 15 days (should really be 30 to 45 days) to the
same site, and to insure your site is optimized with a health balence of
meta content in the page body, description, and title. The key is to
purchase the higher end software and to ignore the lesser material
available.

> Fourth, unless you are soliciting RedConcepts.NET for a project it would
> not be advisable for your mail to find itself in our mailbox as we'll
> consider that agressive spamming, the consequences of which will be
> submission to an RBL and notification of your ISP.

Unfortunately according to the 105th United States congress (I live there, I
am not sure about the rest of you) UCE is legal provided they include an
"functional way to 'opt-out' of [said mailings] within a timely manor." I
suppose I have to say I am glad it is legal but it can be frustrating at
times especially because I know that there are plenty of marketing venues
which do not require spamming to get results.

> Fifth, if we felt that we needed more exposure don't you think we'd have
> sought you out? Well now you don't have to wonder. This is one customer
> who will not seek you out.

Most excellent, people like him give people like me a bad name.

> Remember, this is in no way personal, it is merely business.
> </copy>
>
> Your friendly neighborhood anti-spammer,
>
> Samir M. Nassar
> RedConcepts.NET - Open Source, Public Service
> http://www.redconcepts.net
>

All in all your were congenial, up-front, honest, neither vulger nor rude.
It was not too harsh and with luck will deter the internet marketer from
offering products to you in the future, though I doubt that it will prevent
them from doing the same to another person down the road. I have seen
scripts that will enable you to fool e-mail harvesters into going into a
giant loop and spoil the database :) I can not imagine me actaully using one
however as I use all the e-mails as a source to do some data mining...
Might as well make the most out of a bad thing.

Galen Gregory,
Galaxian Enterprises LTD
http://galaxain.fateback.com