[750] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
re: operators are standing by...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lyle Seaman)
Wed May 29 10:04:36 1991
From: lws@capybara.comm.wang.com (Lyle Seaman)
To: com-priv@psi.com, craig@sics.se
Date: Wed, 29 May 91 9:30:07 EDT
Question: Will for-profit providers establish different rate classes for
different priority mail? If low-priority mail is cheaper, high-volume
mailers will probably choose it, providing users with the same sort of
filter mechanism I can use on my paper mail.
E-mail interfaces can also filter out mail based on any number of
characteristics of that mail, so perhaps your concerns are merely a
user interface issue.
Perhaps service providers could contractually require advertising,
press releases and other publicity to carry a special tag, which
would identify it to your email interface. Providers which do
so will be more popular in a competetive market, assuming your
concerns are shared (and I think they are). But how could users
bring pressure on other providers to behave similarly? This is
a problem.
*SOME* directed advertising (as opposed to broadcast advertising)
can be genuinely helpful and cost-effective. Posting to a newsgroup
(eg) is undoubtedly a cheaper means of advertising, as nearly the
entire cost is born by the collective recipients. But email to a
carefully selected set of people ensures that it is seen by those
to whom it is relevant, and not by those to whom it is irrelevant.
What irritates me and you, I think, is advertising which is blasted
out, in a shotgun approach to marketing, to everyone in easy range.
It's most likely irrelevant to everyone who sees it.
