randulo’s unblog

Disappointed. Saddened.
I just received an email from the stepfather of a dear friend. I've been
in contact with this guy casually, never met him, but we've exchanged a
few mails from time to time, including a few stupid jokes as newbies are
wont to send out. (Why? Because it's there?) Today I got a nasty Obama
family smear attempt forwarded to a long visible CC list of people. This
is so wrong on so many levels I have to talk about it.
 
First, what to do?

Tell him? Tell my friend? No, I'll tell you and it
may save someone else from having this saddening experience. I can't see
confronting him as good nor do I want to put my friend in the middle.
 
On CC'ed forwarded emails with all addresses visible

One word: DON'T. Please do not send my email
to a bunch of people I don't know, especially political or religious
stuff that may be the opposite of my own opinions. THINK about why this
is a bad idea. Would you send me a negative review of a wine you know I
love just to piss me off? No one would do that. Why would someone think
it's reasonable to do it for religious or political reasons? In fact,
why would you send a negative anything to anyone?
 
Be positive! Make the world better, not bitter.
 
On the US president. RESPECT the fact that we had an election with
results that are certainly more clear than the last two. RESPECT the
fact that whatever you may think about the current administration, I may
have voted for them as is my right. Rights are not for the eye of the
beholder you know, we all have them, at the time of this writing.
 
Wine people would never think of applying these tactics to their
friends, or for that matter even their enemies. If you want to drink
White Zin, I wouldn't waste my time sending you silly things about it.
It's your decision.
 
Disgruntled voters, please get over yourselves.

There are elections  every four years. Get ready for the next one, do what you can to win,
that's what the system is there for. Please don't insult my intelligence
by sending blatant mud-slinging messages to me about the current
administration. I would never, ever, under any circumstances send you
such messages or poke you in any way about this. I am always ready to
talk, in person, about any of these things. Emails are like bombs you
throw over a wall, they don't encourage discussions. Uncool, uncouth, rude.

Proselytism  (wikipedia definition)

One word, STOP. When people come up to me on the street
about their religious beliefs, my first response is a smile, a gentle
shaking of the head (no) and a "no thanks". LEAVE IT THAT. Why are you
poking at this, saying "but it will only take a minute, I just have a
question"? This is dishonest, like an MLM party where you're invited to
share some thought about "good eating" and get there to find it's a sell
me to sell you party.
 
I had a violent reaction to someone a few years ago regarding social
networking , which I saw at the time as a bunch of people giving
conferences about social media and selling each other lessons on how to
sell people social media. I was wrong then, but look what's happened.
 
"Social media" has become inundated with MLM like schemes, people
Tweeting about getting 22,000 followers in just two days for $199.
 
Wow I feel better and covered several life experiences at the same time.
I'll just forward subsequent emails from this person to
http://spamcop.net and be done with it.

I wrote someone to meet about a future project for a customer. The
dollar value of a project we are looking at would be around $140K.
The email I got back wasn't very enticing. It had a heavy PDF attached
with nothing I didn't already know about the company. What's important
is what comes next:
 
I wrote asking to meet, as we're in the same city. No answer. My
partner met this person subsequently and the guy confirmed getting my
message.
 
Zoom forward several weeks. Today, I received a mass mailing to my
address with news from this company. I replied asking him remove my
address from the mailing list and that subsequent mailings would be
reported as spam. Here's what he answered:
 
"I was thinking you would be interested by this newsletter. If you
don't wish to receive this newsletter anymore, you can unsubscribe
directly."
 
Bzzzzzzz BAD answer. I replied that one doesn't opt out of UBE which
is Unsolicited Bulk Email (aka spam) and when I ask to be removed, you
don't make me jump through hoops to be removed from a list I never
asked to be put on.
 
He then answered beginning with "I am the General Director of Vin......a"
 
I do not wish further discourse with this person, but here's what my thought is:
 
As General Director of a company, you just pissed on being a part of a
$140,000 deal with name more prestigious than any in your PDF.
 
One: Admit you're wrong, it doesn't cost you anything. Almost any
error is savable (except if it involves atomic energy)
 
Two: Don't bandy about your title to people, it means nothing to me.
You probably made it up anyway.
 
Three: What part of UNSOLICITED do you not get? Bad enough to send
this crap out, but never ask me to opt out of something I did not opt
into.
 
I feel like we're back in 1998.