Subject: Re: P. v.d. Valk : Commercial Postings

From: [email-masked] (Joel Polowin)
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 96 11:56:41 -0400

> From: [email-masked]
> Date: Sun, 2 Jun 96 19:44:11 EDT
> 
> I intend to include my email address at bottom, and someone might contact
> me and ask what my company does.  To single out a specific individual
> (in a positive sense), I have found the postings of Joel Polowin to be 
> consisently polite, educated, and informative (hi, Joel!).  As it happens,
> Joel works for a company that might be considered a competitor of the one
> I work for.  His postings have given me a very positive opinion of him and
> (by extension) his company.  A positive opinion of a company is certainly
> a good thing for that company, financially, and so by the restrictive definition
> above, all of Joel's postings to the CCL list would be prohibited.

Thanks for the kind words, Jonathan.  I've enjoyed your contributions as
well.  I think that the basic thing is to follow a simple rule of "put in
at least as much as you're taking out".  Obviously, most people don't really
want to see most advertising -- *I* certainly don't.  So in a forum for
academic discussion, a "good" message is one that helps people to do their
work: "Try the method of [literature reference]."  A slightly less "good"
message would be "Try the method of [reference]; we use this in our package,
contact me for details."  Still less positive is "Our software does that;
contact me... "  And then there's the next step down, which involves long
advertisement postings.
 
Someone who's seen to post useful information regularly is likely to have
his/her posts read.  Someone who is seen only to post advertisements is
likely to be ignored, and to generate a certain amount of ill feeling.

> I think these current rules [for CCL] are very reasonable.  I also think
> that the VAST
> majority of posts to the CCL list (or at least those that make it out to the
> subscribers -- there's no accounting for Krazy Kevin, Jeff Slaton, and the
> like) follow the rules.  I think it would be a shame to change the rules
> of the CCL list regarding commercial messages.

I tend to agree, though (obviously) we're biased.  On the CCL, and in other
forums where I *don't* represent a commercial interest, I don't particularly
mind seeing *brief* on-topic commercial messages, either announcing new
products or responding to information requests.  My patience decreases
rapidly with message length and with posting frequency.  Again, it's a
matter of perception: "Is this person making a positive contribution to the
discussion, or just using it as a medium for free advertising?"

Joel
 
------------
Joel Polowin, Ph.D.   Manager, Scientific Support
Email to: [email-masked] 

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