On Oct 24, 2005, at 1:06 PM, Derek Burrows Reise wrote:
I recently got a message from "People for Independent Parks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> /snip/ I've been wondering how this group got my email address. I certainly hope they aren't mining emails off this listserve (that would be unethical).
I am not particularly sympathetic to PIP and tend to be more sympathetic to the Parks Reform folks, but have to wonder about the charge that "mining" e-mail addresses from this List is "unethical."
It's not contrary to the rules -- I checked the Group Rules and cannot find either an explicit or an implicit prohibition of doing so. If we think the mining of e-mail addresses is wrong (if that's what PIP actually did), then it should be expressly prohibited.
I'm unaware of any commonly accepted set of Internet "ethics" that speak to this either. It seems to fit in a gray area since the content of the post is somewhat related to the forum content -- unlike e-mails promoting growth enhancement, discount prescription drugs and similar spam. I think it would be better for PIP to include an opt-out provision (if they didn't, in fact, do so) and would have probably asked for an "opt-in" before sending the list of endorsed candidates. But I don't see any major harm in their post.
Seems to me that we sometimes forget how easy it is to hit the delete button -- especially when the post comes from a group with which we have a disagreement.
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