[thelist] RE: sending mail to someone you've never met

[M. Seyon]

Message from ANDREA STREIGHT (10/1/2004 01:52 AM)

>Here's an embarrassing problem I just encountered recently: someone emails
>me about an article of mine they read and enjoyed. They request a form
>mentioned in the article. I send that form, plus several more, just to be
>generous and helpful. I ask permission to send sporadic land mail
>newsletters. They give me permission.
>
>Then later I send them a gmail invitation. I get an email from the person
>telling me to refrain from sending such messages to them in the future.

Two things popped out at me here Andrea.
1. I didn't see you mention that you obtained permission to send them email.
2. What relevance did the gmail invite have to your previous relationship?

>To my mind, the gmail invite was not commercial.

It's not commercial to you, but it is to google. Google's entire business 
model seems to be largely built on selling advertising, of varying types - 
AdSense, paid listings, etc. Every additional person they sign up to gmail 
is more targeted advertising they can sell.

>Why would Google distribute gmail invites if sending them out to friends or
>clients or peers is spam?

Who said anything about it being spam? People send out those "If you don't 
send this to 10 people in 10 minutes your refrigerator will get a virus and 
your dog will turn blue" messages all the time. They're not spam but 
they're annoying as heck to some people.

>Anyone have a comment on this?

I personally wouldn't send gmail invites, or any other type of invite to a 
client unless I'd actually developed a close relationship with them. Not 
just that but I'd probably email them first and ask them if they'd heard of 
it and if they were interested in receiving one.

regards.
-marc

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