In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>I belong to a barter network...
>...
>They've recently been bought out by a national company and the
>obnoxiousness factor has gone up several notches.
Just in case it ain't already obvious to everybody, let me just say that
the `obnoxiousness factor' has gone up several notches throughout the
Internet in the past few years.
This can be attributed to several factors, but two in particular seem
important.
First, there is the `gold rush' mentality. Rightly or wrongly, advertisers,
i.e. anyone who wants to `push' something, have come to view the Internet
the same way that people in the oil business view Alaska's north slope,
i.e. a great new natural resource to be `mined' ruthlessly until it's
exhausted.
Second, as any psychologist will tell you, the bigger the crowd, the less
people feel that they are (or should be) accountable. And the Internet
now represents a VERY big crowd. Large crowds lend an aura of anonymity.
You might be tempted to dance with a lampshade on your head at a huge
frat party attended by a couple of hundred people, but you would never do
it at a small dinner party of a dozen people.
>So...
>
>Given that they are running a mailing list (announcement only) for their
>customers, is my assessment of their choices off the mark?
No. They are being `push mentality' bozos.
>Do note that
>they send this newsletter to all of their customers for whom they have an
>email address (and now their fees are lower if you give them an email
>address)...
Hehe.
Recently, the Albertson's supermarket near me got bought/exchanged, and now
it is a Ralph's supermarket.
Ralph's is doing essentially the same thing... they have crappy prices on
everything _unless_ you show them your red `Ralph's card'. Of course, they
then use your card number (together with checkout scanner data) to insure
that all of your purchases are tabulated. So Ralph's knows if you are rou-
tinely buying condoms or baby wipes or whatever.
But I got the better of them, and their system, and I'm pretty proud of it.
It was simple actually. When they first took over the store, they were
handing out the red cards, and with each one they would also hand you a
form to fill out, upon which you are SUPPOSED to fill in your name, address,
phone number, e-mail address, etc., etc.
I kept the red card and threw away the form. I've been using the card ever
since to get the lower prices. Nobody has ever called me on it, so I guess
that their software isn't sophisticated enough yet to alert the checkout
clerks that there is no actual personal data on file for that card number...
which is fine by me.
Somewhere in some obscure mainframe, there is a detailed record of the
purchasing habits of a man without a name, address, etc., etc. :-)
>Anyway, validation would be nice.
Validated.
As data mining and the `push mentality' become more and more invasive,
there's going to be a progressively bigger and bigger backlash. It's
starting already:
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_07/b3668065.htm
