[Dundee] LUG submissions from Mars - Open Letter

[Duncan Gauld]

Hi,

Good point.

It was intended to be an (occasional) digest from the Aberdeen group but
getting that all sorted seems to have proved to be more of a harassment than
.. well you get the picture.

I will see that the Aberdeen digests are cancelled.

Duncan



----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven A. McIntosh" <steven@mcintosh-group.com>
To: <dundee@mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Saturday, November 09, 2002 8:54 AM
Subject: [Dundee] LUG submissions from Mars - Open Letter


> Dear all
>
> I was horrified when I opened my e-mail client and found bandwidth hogged
by
> e-mails that I had not requested.  Yes you all know the feeling SPAM had
> arrived in my box.  Was it trying to sell me something?  Was it trying to
con
> me?  No! it was trying to inform me on a subject which is close to my
heart.
>
> LINUX
>
> Whilst it is superficially a good idea to disseminate knowledge, you have
to
> be a willing party to this sharing or it becomes an infringement.
>
> Let me try to explain.
>
> Let us assume that it is felt by the democratic majority that it is a good
> idea to get digests from other LUG's.  It appears we have Aberdeen, what
> next, Falkirk, Scottish, Edinburgh.  Is that enough, what about the rest
in
> Scotland, what about England, the UK, Europe, The WORLD ?
>
> What then as we drown in information and have to spend all day down
loading
> the latest epistle from Abu Dhabi ?
>
> But I digress.
>
> In order for something to be of benefit you have to give the people in
> receipt of this benefit the choice.  What choice do we have, when the next
> digest from The Mars Linux User Group drops through our open e-mail letter
> boxes.
>
> Can you refuse it, yes of course, but that requires work, and eventually
the
> deny file gets so big it gets ugly, I don't like ugly, which is kinda
ironic.
>
> So you follow a link to unsubscribe, only to find out that you are not
> actually a member. So what next. There is only one course of action,
> unsubscribe from the LUG that you joined in the first place.
>
> I don't like the options.
>
> It funny that this situation is here as it reminds me very much of a
recent
> court case, where people had to use a certain browser because they used a
> certain OS. Does this mean that we have to get all news because we wan't
> local news and MEETINGS (Dundee or Perth).
>
> Don't let us ANTI-TRUST you Dundee, find some way of offering a choice to
> receive these digests so they become a benefit rather than an
infringement.
>
> Regards
>
> Steven
>
>
> --
>
>
> Steven A. McIntosh
> Learn-and-Pass
> 27 Glenfarg Terrace
> Perth
> Perthshire
> PH2 0AP
> Tel / Fax : +44 (0)1738 561 023
> E-mail: steven@learn-and-pass.com
> Web: www.learn-and-pass.com
>
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