What is Spam?

One persons Spam anothers Sirloin

[Sarah Atkinson]

Dictionary Defines it as:
1. unsolicited e-mail
2. To send (a message) indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups.
3. a disruptive, esp. commercial message posted on a computer network or sent as e-mail.

I send out mass e-mails(subscribed lists)and post products for sale on web sites targeting the sale of goods. It's almost humorous the wide range of responses I get. "Things from Die you Spammer" to "Wow thanks that's just what I'm looking for"

I personally find from both a seller and a consumer point of view that e-mail based advertisement is a good thing. It's Green, cheap, and Easy to use as a consumer. Plus as a Advertiser you can get better feedback from the consumer allowing you to make changes to improve parts for Consumers. My favorites E-mail ads that I subscribe to are TigerDirect, American Girl(I have a little girl), and Lumber Liquidators.

Just wandering what your guys take from either marketer or Consumer is.

[ronin]

Yes, but that's a normal part of the daily routine for most people. RSS has a long way to go before it reaches that level.

Yes, you're right. But email became a normal part of people's daily routine because other people were sending them stuff which they needed to read and it was only available on email. (And that was cool, because spam wasn't such an issue - email was just something people used to contact each other).

Imagine if there was something you needed to read and it was only available on eSubscription. You'd learn how to eSubscribe pretty quickly, right?

(Not that there's anything to learn - it's arguably a much bigger step to go from nothing to learning how to use an email client than it is going from the latter to learning how to use an RSS client).

I know I'm banging the drum a little bit here but I really, really don't like the way that senders of commercial email have more control over what ends up in my email inbox than I do, when it's my inbox. Yes, I know I could set up my email to receive from whitelist-only addresses, but that renders email mostly useless. I imagine eSubscription (I'd love it if that term caught on) would solve all this "handing over control to unwelcome marketeers" at a stroke.

[Quadrille]

I imagine eSubscription (I'd love it if that term caught on) would solve all this "handing over control to unwelcome marketeers" at a stroke.

Not quite at a stroke - but I agree.

"eSubscription" isn't the answer, however. e-sub may be, but I suspect there's a better term out there; and it matters, because catching the public imagination is half the battle with any innovation.

[MatthewHSE]

I hear you ronin, and I also like RSS as a user. I'm just saying that commercial email isn't going away anytime soon for the reasons I've mentioned. Once RSS gets more widespread, then my objections will no longer be valid. But a marketer's job is to sell a product, not get the public to take up new technologies. That's a job for all us geeks in the world! ;)