[MUD-Dev] META/ADMIN: Re: ADMIN: Advertising on MUD-Dev

[Mike Sellers <mike#bignetwork,com>]

At 08:11 PM 8/9/98 +0200, Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote:
>...
>I don't have trouble with the persons, although I would make them
>responsible for whatever content they bring to my mailbox. Advertisements
>inclusive. What I am having trouble with is machines that forces others to
>keep up with crap. It is an immoral freewheeling "you can't prevent my noise
>without spending time and attention on me" approach to life.  Besides I have
>yet to see anything connected to saturated advertisement which has been
>anywhere near useful.  That stuff is generally connected to stuff which
>people don't find valuable enough to pay for, but which they will keep up
>with if they feel that they get it for free, unfortunately the receivers of

>such emails don't even get to decide (although they have the opportunity to
>flame).

I think maybe you're confusing two separate things here.  The first is spam
-- email that you didn't request promoting something you probably don't
want.  No one here is saying that's a good thing.  

The second is in-email adverts, what JC starting asking about banning here.
 I'm not a huge fan of these either, though I'd say its a fair trade for
obtaining free email.  If enough people cease believing that this is a fair
trade, then it will cease being a viable business.  OTOH, Hotmail was sold
to Microsoft for nearly $400M (maybe an order or two of magnitude more than
has been made on all muds combined?), so I don't think this is going to go
away.  And contrary to your last point, that in-email adverts aren't worth
very much, I can tell you that they actually work quite well: we use them
in some of our specialty email (recipe-a-day, that sort of thing), and they
get a tremendously positive response with no apparent customer backlash.  

>All intrusion on my private sphere and it's immediate conceptual
>surroundings is immoral.  Any machine which requests my attention is evil,
>unless it does so on my command.  

Well, that's your opinion -- but you're part of a tiny minority that feels
that way.  (BTW, can I assume then that you do not have an alarm clock or
automatic coffee maker or telephone ringer or doorbell or a car with
automatic transmission, since each of these would be immoral and evil by
the above standard?)


--

Mike Sellers       Chief Creative Officer       The Big Network
mike#bignetwork,com                   www.bignetwork.com

                       Fun  Is  Good