EMUSIC Playlist

[brad at mechanica.com]

wbf at aloft.micro.lucent.com (William_B_Fox) was saying...

>About every other week, I receive a request to be removed from the
>EMUSIC Playlist distribution list.  Unfortunately, I can't honor those
>requests individually for people who get my playlists via one of these
>email list services:
>	new-age-radio	space-music	synth-l
>	emusic-l	analog heaven	ambient
>	mirage		synth-diy	sgroup
>	xpansions	vectory

Question: Why not simply add these names to your OWN mailing list? All
it takes is a simple audit request of the mailing list. It's perfectly
simple; I know,' cause the (other) spammers seem to have no problem
doing so.

Then, you COULD honor these requests. Problem solved, and there'd be
no need for these bi-monthly apologies.

>Holt on thar, Babaloo!  Many of you know me as a current or former
>contributing member. 

As a subscriber to synth-diy for more than a year, I've contributed
very little to the list - so everyone is welcome to take my comments
for what they might be worth...

>  You might want to know that I'm not just spamming
>a bunch of lists.  I've targeted lists where there is not only a high
>probability of space music fans being on the lists, but a high
>probability of space artists being on these lists....

Every spam in my mailbox begins and/or ends with words to this effect.
"Your name was chosen from a list of people who have shown an interest
in the following..."

Spam is spam. 

Your weekly list is little more than a nuisance to me, as it takes but
a second to tap the "delete" key the instant I see "WDIY" in the body.
However, I should think you'd think through the following (ahem)
excuses a little better:

>1.  bring musicians who are in the listening area out of hiding

Fine: change the DISTRIBUTION header to LOCAL. WDIY is a thousand
miles from me; reading a playlist for a show I'll never hear is about
as annoying as listening to a catfight at 3AM.

>2.  inform my list friends what I'm up to

You're pushing the envelope with the "friends" part; one sure way to
AVOID making friends is to regularly spam mailing lists.

>3.  promote space music on lists having members who are most likely to
>    be listening to or even making space music.

Unless you can include realaudio files (and supply me a cheap ISDN
line) your playlist does no such thing. It is SELF promotion, pure and
simple.

>4.  I'm letting artists know that there is an outlet for their music.

If you'd audit the mailing lists every week you could simply spam the
NEW members of these distribution lists. Those that were interested
could inquire, and those that weren't could tap the "delete" key ONCE,
without being pestered every week. 

>5.  I'm letting space music fans know about artists and CDs of which they
>    may otherwise be unaware.

See my response to (3), above.

>6.  I'm encouraging would be artists to release product.

I hardly see how. When will "you people" learn that SPAM is a bad, BAD
thing? At best it's a mild annoyance - at worse it drives people AWAY
(as it has done me). If I were a campaign worker, the first thing I'd
do is get a list of email addresses of my competitors supporters, and
start spamming away with "friendly words" FROM my competitor. That'd
be SURE to drive many of'em into my camp - or at least AWAY from my
opponents.

>I hope that you see these as positive things and that you'll be able to
>tolerate seeing my playlists once a week.  Thank you for your kind
>indulgence.

Bill, I can go on tolerating them just fine; as I said: they're a
minor irritation. I would just think you'd see these "requests" for
what really they are indicating, and you'd think things through a
little better. In my opnion (and obviously, that of a few others)
you're potentially doing yourself, WDIY, and "space music people" more
harm than good.