On 27 Sep 2000, 16:08, Michael C. Berch wrote:
> Ouch! I do not know Margaret personally, but John Levine has been
> a longtime member of our community of list managers, and has provided
> valuable advice and resources over the years.
>
> News about books by our members, pertaining to list management, are
> certainly welcome on List-Managers. If your NerdNosh book is about
> list management (or reasonably related topics), by all means feel free
> to tell us about it here!
>
> In neither case does that mean posting a message every week on how to
> buy it, but announcements, discussion, solicitation of comments, etc.,
> are certainly appropriate for List-Managers.
As listowner of this list, that would certainly be your prerogative,
but I would not allow this on my lists -- even if the product or
service was topical to the list. In my opinion a discussion mailing
list is for discussing issues topical to the list rather than to be a
marketplace for our wares, be they related to the list topics or not.
There was a mailing list that I previously owned where the world's
leading authority of one of the major topics of my list posted up to
the list and in his .sig there was a solicitation to purchase his book.
In turn, I wrote him a "No No Nanette" cease and desist letter and he
acquiesced and abided by my decision. I later gave the book my own
personal recommendation to the members of the list. The difference
here was that I had nothing to gain, monetarily or otherwise. On the
other hand he did and thus that was in violation of my list rules. I
later got an autographed copy of his book and turned around and
purchased three of those books for colleagues and another of his books
for myself.
Neither I know Margaret personally...at least not that I can remember.
As you note, her book is clearly along the lines of the scope and topic
of this list, but make no mistake, she is using us to promote her book.
Were I paying for this list out of my own pocket, it would trouble me
to know someone was exploiting my hard work and labor for their
personal gain. I tend to view this as theft and thus prohibit these
kinds of activities on my lists. I fervently believe that e-commerce
belongs on the web and not in e-mail, and in particular not in e-mail
discussion forums.
In any event, for the purposes of discussion, I would be interested in
how Ms. Young herself would deal with a similar case on a list to which
she owned or moderated. Is there a chapter in her book that touches
upon this situation? Does the book address personal solicitations by
subscribers in discussion mailing lists? How does she advise us to
handle the so-called spammer or commercial solicitor on her lists? I
would be interested in hearing her opinion.
Alan
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
