I agree. Yesterday was my first experience with SPAM from ListServ, but it was impressive. The same message appeared several times on each of the lists I subscribe to. My first impression, I must admit, was that I'd be leaving the listserv soon if this becomes the trend.
Most of us could "opt out" of receiving any messages with "Commercial Message" in the subject line by using Inbox Assistant in MS Outlook to filter by words in the subject line. Those who would like to receive the commercial messages would simply do nothing. John Whaley > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2002 5:08 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; >[EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Vendor communications guidelines > > I would like to suggest a discussion about guidelines for vendor > communications under the various WEDI & SNIP forums. Frankly, I hate spam > more than most of you! and that's saying a lot! > > As a vendor of multiple HIPAA related products, as well as the publisher of > our own info site (www.hipaahelpnow.com), I too have products that I would > like to share from time to time. Obviously, some of these products will be > of great significance, and deserve consideration. However, I too find blind > spamming of the lists to be seriously offensive. And apparently, some just > don't get it. > > Therefore, I would like to suggest a couple of ideas to help keep this sane. > As well as propose a tooth or two. Please share your thoughts about this. > I realize that this may not pertain directly to all forums, but we are > seeing spam hit all forums, hence my reason for the broad addressing of this > message. > > Suggestions: > > 1) All commercially related email should have a subject line starting with: > COMMERCIAL MESSAGE - at least they can be easily recognized, and if you > desire, you can read or delete them. It also demonstrates a vendor > considerate enough of your time to be honest. > > 2) All commercially related email should come from a company principal, > with a real email address, where product questions or complaints can be > addressed and resolved. > > 3) Commercial email should be short and to the point, referring to a > website, rather than be 14 pages of useless text. Anyone who is interested > will look further, those who are not can glance and move on. > > 4) NO HTML commercial email. Let's not play games with cookies, spy ware, > or url tags. > > 5) NO attachments EVER! > > Now for the teeth! > > I propose to the list manager, and the WEDI webmaster & IT staff that > violators of the guidelines, have their domain excluded from all WEDI lists, > and that their info be turned over to SPAMHAUS.com as a spammer. > > I, for one, am very grateful that I have the ability to observe and learn. > Frankly I would not want these lists to turn into junk mail as so many in > other industries have. > > Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope this leads to a solution > to this problem. > > Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > ********************************************************************** > To be removed from this list, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Please note that it may take up to 72 hours to process your request. > Please note that it may take up to 72 hours to process your request. <P>The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. Posting of advertisements or other commercial use of this listserv is specifically prohibited.