Re: <nettime> Strategic Spam

[d|g <dave@GRAVINA.COM>]

-----> James.Ryan@telemedianetworks.com wrote:

>Just as we accept commercial messages every fifteen minutes when watching
>our favorite television programs, why not take the good spam with the bad?
>The big question is, how do we convince people that accepting the "good
>spam" with the "bad" is a means to a truly accessible low-cost
>distribution medium, the Internet equivalent of public access channels...


While i too share the urge to SPAM the world with ideas and/or news of the
latest web site i've created or amazing meme i just thought up - for purely
altruistic reasons of course - I don't - the reason why is that to put it
simply - some people find the stuff i care about as interesting as paint drying
- globalisation concerns? the environment? social justice?  boooring theyd say
- in fact this is me a few years ago - now i care more about this stuff - but i
hate SPAM - i dont need my dick to grow another 5 inches thanks very much - and
these emails piss me off (especially when i'm accessing my mail via mobile
phone links or slow modems) about as much as mine would piss off others who
care about...well whatever really. 

So - to judge these people - in my oppinion is unwarranted - and uneccesarry -
they are - for whatever reason not interested in my message - it could be that
jesus just dropped over for a cup of tea and that the Christian's are right -
and would i mind telling the world - but there are a large number of people -
who probably dont want to know this - or even care to know this - and me
assuming my righteous cause is their cause is  simply wrong.

So - while we make the value judgement that SPAM is commercial only and that
GOOD CAUSES arent SPAM - others don't.  Good cause or not - unsolicited emails
annoy - and upset people. Now if we all got into this method of pushing our
message out into the world - i think the hundreds of good causes a day I'd get
would grate on me too - i'd probably start filtering my mail looking for words
like "SAVE the PLANET" and so on.

So - hold your guns my fellow do-gooders - a great meme will get out and spread
of itself - i'm sure theres been some posts about memes and their self
replication techniques on this list before - if not i heard "The Meme machine"
is a good read on the topic.






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