>Recently I have noticed quite a few blatantly commercial postings on
>some lists.  My understanding was that this was strictly forbidden.
>Does anyone know, or know how I can get, the "official" word on
>this for both the Internet and BITNET (CERN, EARN, etc.)?
...
s>From: Strangelove Press <[log in to unmask]>
s>Subject: How to Advertise on the Internet
...
s>o Understanding the culture of the Internet
 
I think this is the crux of it -- as the net is now, at least, as *I* know
it now, advertising is *not* *wanted*.  Ergo, anyone who intends to use the
Internet as a vast direct marketing mailing list does not *understand* the
culture.
 
This is part of a much larger picture, however -- how long that culture is
going to be as we know it.
 
The present culture of the Internet, at least that portion with which I am
familiar, was and still is formed almost exclusively by the academic
community (in a very large sense of that term, including libraries of
various types).  As more and more people join the net, including those
outside that larger academic community, we'll be seeing some very profound
changes.
 
I rather suspect one reaction of many listowners is going to be "closing"
their lists (i.e. subscription requests handled manually by listowner -- if
I have the wrong technical term, sorry, I *shall* eventually learn!) to
avoid being overwhelmed by people who really don't know what the lists are
about.  A purely scholarly list on mediaeval literature and history, for
example, would probably not be very keen on having numerous postings on
Society for Creative Anachronism events and heated discussions on how best
to fashion helmets out of old freon tanks (which is what they were doing
the brief period I was in the SCA), however interesting those might be,
much less having the list used for pieces of fiction ("fluff") set in
mediaeval or quasi-mediaeval times.
 
The use of the Internet for direct marketing by commercial interests would
simply be another incentive for closed lists.
 
However, change *is* going to come, will ye nill ye, and it might be as
well to do some thinking ahead of time on how you want to handle it.
 
s>o How to create your own animated graphics for electronic
s>    mail business acards
 
Otherwise known as how to mess up the terminals of people whose systems
cannot handle those graphics :-(
 
Not to mention the effects of increased e-traffic and the overloads it will
put on the recipients' diskspace.  Which, in turn, will mean more bounced
messages for the listowners as list-mail is refused for quota reasons.
 
The list whereof I am co-listowner, ARCANA, is already closed to avoid
unwanted intrusions, as it were, and we have several times been glad of it
already.  Unless a listmember becomes a funnel for the adverts in question,
we'll be free of them ... and free of that listmember in pretty short
order, too, I'll guarantee that ;->
 
How to stop those adverts from coming to individual addresses is another
question, though -- unlisted e-mail addresses?!  If enough people simply
return unwanted and unsolicited adverts to sender, however, the point might
just get across.
 
>        Douglas Winship    Austin, Texas    [log in to unmask]
 
Mario Rups
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