[muglo] an end to dumbness




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On Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008,  doug rogers <dougsamu@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote
> If I could moderate just a single thread  this [dumb sales pitches] would be 
> it.

Me too. I'd be bouncing back all the posts that had nothing to do with the 
stated subject, telling the posters to re-post, if they liked, with new subject 
lines.

> I suggest  we all be not so quick to take offense.

I agree. I wasn't offended by Mostly Digital's dumb sales pitches, just 
inconvenienced. My purpose in repeating my replies to them on MUGLO's list was 
to help get MD's attention and perhaps spark like-minded comments from other 
members, which  would give MD added reason to reconsider their program.

I didn't get the sense that Andy was taking offence either, in pointing out 
that MD offered me the option of unsubscribing from the company's e-mail list. 
Choice is good, as he said. He even went to the trouble of adding a 
smiley-face. 

> I would suggest that the first poster was unwise in naming the company.

I disagree. The message was as much to MD as to MUGLO. Complaining about some 
company's dumb ads without specifying what company would be pointless. 

> Unsubscribing from an advertising infomation list is easy to do. Or it  
should be.

It is. Even if I hadn't known before how to unsubscribe from MD's posts, I 
would now, thanks to Andy's message. The thing is, I don't want to unsubscribe 
from their posts, or at least not all of them. I've been buying stuff from 
Mostly Digital since the day they opened. I like buying stuff from them. I like 
the store, I like the staff, and if I sometimes don't like the prices, well, 
it's usually worth a few extra dollars to be dealing with a place that has the 
actual goods on display and with people who know what they're talking about. So 
I'm actually pleased to get e-mails about sales, seminars, new products and 
such.

What doesn't please me is having my in-box cluttered, after any new purchase 
there, with ads for products clearly antithetical to what I've just purchased. 
If I regularly buy cartridges for a given printer, why offer me cartridges for 
some different one? If I've ditched a 512MG memory chip for a bigger one, why 
offer me another 512?

I had assumed that these dumb ads (each of which now has been re-sent three 
times) were generated automatically by a computer, and that the non-dumb ones 
(for the  sales, seminars, new products and such) were deliberately produced 
with some human thought behind each one, tailored to specific situations. I had 
wanted to be dropped from the list for the former, but not from that for the 
latter. It now appears there is only one 'unsubscribe' link, to stop everything 
from MD. That's disappointing. 

> Targetted advertising should be possible in this computer age. It's  
> possible to build intelligent spam filters. It should be possible to  
> build intelligent advertising if you have the database.

It's certainly possible to build intelligent spam filters, but Rogers' Yahoo  
service precludes individual users doing much in that line, especially Mac 
users. What I'm hoping for is that Mostly Digital, which does have both the 
database and a smart staff with the necessary expertise, will tweak their 
e-mail advertising program so that sales are followed up by sensible 
solicitations, not silly ones. If I've just bought Filemaker Pro, don't waste 
my time by offering me AppleWorks.  If I've just bought an HP Scanjet 8270, 
don't bother me about Paperports. If there's something clearly useful to tout, 
on the other hand, fire away, and welcome.

As thing stand at the moment, I'm left to choose between stopping everything 
from MD or putting up with the dumb stuff for the sake of the non-dumb. I'm 
still undecided.  

> There is no seniority heirarchy over the quality of ideas.

Couldn't agree more. Newcomers to the   MUGLO list may be far from novices to 
the Mac community.  Not that it should make any difference.


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