At 11:48 PM 11/1/97 -0800 jay@west.net responded:
>I would far rather be shot once in the little toe with a .22 by a good
>friend acting carelessly than be shot in the head intentionally several
>times with a .357 magnum by my enemies.
>
>Come to think of it, I'd prefer not to be shot at all!
>
>Just trying to make our good friends at Livingston more careful. ;-)
Jay -
At a gut level, I know what you mean. I receive tons of UCE, most of it
having nothing to do with things I'm interested in. If I wanted to get rich
quick, I wouldn't be in the business of providing Internet services. If I
wanted to gamble, I'd go to Vegas, not an online casio, etc.
But at the same time, I also have to realize why I'm in this business, and
why we actually believe the "sales pitch" we give our business clients. As
ISPs we should all be aware that we really are in the middle of a
communications revolution. Sometimes I think we've become desensitized to
it through over-exposure, but I can honestly say that the way I do business
have changed dramatically over the last two years.
I rely on e-mail very heavily for communicating with vendors, placing
orders, and resolving customer issues. And it saves me enormous amounts of
time. E-mail has become a business tool that I can't live with out. If it
came down to a choice between giving up e-mail or my fax machine, I'd give
up the fax.
While I agree that none of us want Livingston to become a spam factory,
e-mail has become a legitimate business tool. Receiving an unsolicited
message from Livingston via e-mail isn't any different that receiving the
unsolicited snail mail brochures that come from them on a periodic basis.
If we start complaining about a targeted marketing message that is delivered
by e-mail and followed up by a phone call (which proves the message wasn't
just a random mailing), we reduce ourselves to the level of AOL users and
deny the very benefits of the Internet which we work so hard to convey to
our business customers. When it comes to business, if a company can't
prospect online or translate their Internet investment to sales dollars, why
should they pay us for the service?
Anyway, just my $0.02. I'm not questiong your right to be upset with the
message, or defending SPAM in general, but I hate to see an uproar over the
use of the 'net in a legitimate business fashion. It's no longer an elite
club, but a necesary business tool...and that's what's driving it's growth.
Damien
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