Re: server mirroring spam
I decided to reply to this on-list, and as it was sent to me privately I've
removed the name of the sender.
On Fri, 28 Sep 2001 14:07, someone wrote:
> I had a similar reaction to Amy's posting, since it clearly doesn't
> apply here, but I don't think you needed to jump on her head like that,
> man.
>
> Peace, love and linux, right?
PLL is a nice theory, but it doesn't scale. Many (most?) people don't learn
unless it's painful (you know the phrase "oh no, not another learning
experience").
I am happy to help people, even clueless people. However I draw the line at
people who are advancing their commercial interests to our detriment (SPAM),
and of people who do things that are mathematically stupid.
As an example of the latter, I flame people who send vacation messages in
response to mailing list postings (even if the vacation messages go to the
poster not the list). This is because with 10K people on the list, if 1% of
them have such stupid vacation programs then the list becomes unusable. Thus
vacation messages in response to mailing list email are mathematically stupid
as anyone with the mathematical ability of a typical 12yo can work out that
it doesn't scale.
Messages of the nature of "you've asked a question vaguely related to my
product so I'll give you a commercial spiel" are mathematically stupid
because there are so many products that could be vaguely related.
If you want to promote a commercial product in a professional manner then the
thing to do is to provately contact the person who asked the question and
discuss their requirements. If the product seems to fit then send them an
evaluation copy. Afterwards you could then post a follow-up saying "in
regard to the question asked by user X they decided to purchase my product to
solve the problem". That saves bandwidth and provides a good professional
image.
Flaming people who blatantly do the wrong thing is necessary, nothing else
will stop them from doing it again.
--
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