[thelist] sending mail to someone youve never met before

[Steve Lewis]

Alex Beston wrote:

> ok, but if someone has a site about x and they leave their email on
> it, surely they are inviting mail?
> 
> if they are into x and you are mailing only about x surely they
> would be into that? a warm reception?
> 
> sorry to sound totally ignorate but what is an affliate site and
> how do they work? are they ways of getting around the spam problem?
I'm not going to get into this too deeply, because the ethics of
unsolicited email could quickly go off topic, and I am not sure there 
is much new ground to cover.

Personally, unless I *explicitly* request information about x /from/
/you/, I don't want you to send me email about it.

> so the problem is getting over the natural or growing tendency of
> people to delete mail when they dont know who the sender is...
I think this is really telling.  Whenever someone comes to the list 
looking for a way to circumvent mechanical and/or psychological spam 
filters, the issue resurfaces.  The real question is not how you can 
get folks to read your message, but rather is this spam?

Regardless of how you view it, don't be surprised if you get reported 
for sending unsolicited bulk emailing (UBE).  Bulk or not, it 
definately sound like 'unsolicited' email.
   http://www.imc.org/ube-def.html
   http://www.emailarms.com/faq/ube_unsolicited_bulk.html

Before there was UBE, there were cold sales calls on the phone and
door-to-door.  The principle is the same.  At least in the US, that
isn't looked upon very warmly either:

https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

-- 
Steve Lewis