In message <v03102803b0ab583b61b2@[163.185.152.110]>, you wrote:
>Keeping it short...
>
>I don't like spam, but also have need to promote things occasionally, on
>the net.
>
>So, I thought of a possible middle ground, which I'd like to bounce off the
>folks on this list.
>
>Is it ethical/tolerable to use a "referred mail" approach? By this I mean,
>send mail to people I know, or _conservatively_ have reason to believe are
>interested in, for instance, a particular shareware product, with a request
>to forward to others they think may be interested in the product? What if
>there is a moderate, real incentive to do so, such as a point system of
>rewards for referrals?
>
>To avoid others spamming with this, I would also include a statement of
>distribution rules, to the effect that the message may not be sent
>unsolicited to large groups, or posted on lists except by permission of the
>list owner, and then only when it is relevant and useful to the recipients
>of the list.
>
>I am aware that this approach, if taken to its extreme could become
>chainmail, which I abhor as well. But it seems to me that is not the case
>if it is done right.
>
>Without going into a lot of detail, I'd like some opinions, including
>general comments and suggestions for how to provide the proper wording for
>the proper distributiion rules.
>
>Flame On!! :)
OK. You asked for it.
The rules are very simple. There is no ambiguity. There is no ``grey area''.
There is no such thing as being ``a little pregnant''. You either are or
you aren't. Likewise for being a bandwidth theif.
If you send E-mail to people who have not themselves _asked_ to have anything
from you, then you are a spammer, and you are spamming. If you spam me, or
any one of my secret spam collector addresses, then I will (a) add your
address and/or your domain name and/or your entire IP block to my blacklists
and I will also (b) work overtime to do whatever I can to get your connectivity
yanked. If that means repeated annoying phone calls to your provider or ISP
then I _will_ do that.
The time has long ago passed for being equivocal about the E-mail spam
problem. It has already gotten entirely out of control and it will get
much much worse if it isn't dealt with severely in all cases. Spammers
must be prevented from profiting in any way from their spamming. Many
ISPs I talk to about local spamming incidents from their customers try
to just shrug their shoulders and say ``He didn't know any better. He's
said he is sorry and that he won't do it again.'' I always tell them
that's not good enough and I always demand to have the accounts and/or
web pages involved terminated. Spamming must not just become an activity
that doesn't really yield any gain... It must become an activity which
actually _costs_ the perpetrator, e.g. by causing him to lose connectivity.
I always do whatever I can, in all cases I can, to make that happen. And
I will have no hesitation to do that in your case also, if you decide to
become a spammer.
P.S. Just for future reference, is `outlawnet.com' your domain, or are you
just an individual user there?
-- Ron Guilmette, Roseville, California ---------- E-Scrub Technologies, Inc.
-- Deadbolt(tm) Personal E-Mail Filter demo: http://www.e-scrub.com/deadbolt/
-- Wpoison (web harvester poisoning) - demo: http://www.e-scrub.com/wpoison/
Follow-Ups:
References:
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