What's Wrong With SPAM

(I'm not talking about the meat product.)

It is a given that any form of mass communications will be used to promote products, services, and other issues once it becomes so inexpensive it will generate enough sales to cover the cost. This has been seen in every media to date, including print, radio, billboards, postal, television, and telephone. Now it's reached E-mail, where it's called SPAM.

As with all the other advertising media, it will evolve in a predictable sequence. Right now E-mail is in a boom phase. It's easy to access, popular, and unregulated. We're already getting some of the next phase: backlash. Soon we'll start hearing jokes and allusions to SPAMmers, then the beginnings of legislation, regulation, and other legal actions as the media continues to mature.

The great pity is that this doesn't have to happen, at least not with the same prejudice as when telephone solicitors were reigned in. The problem isn't the media or the new industry. The problem is the disrespectful and unethical conduct of some of the bulk E-mailers. As with telephone solicitors, it isn't a question of if there will be regulation, but when and by whom.

I hope that the professional bulk E-mailers get together and establish a group that might be named the "Ethical Bulk E-mailers Association" (EBEmA) or the "Society for Professional Advertisement e-Mailing" (SPAM - hey, make it your word so it doesn't stay a negative term). In addition to promoting the business, they could act as a protector of persecuted mailers and a prosecutor of unethical mailers. By regulating the industry themselves, bulk E-mailers can delay, minimize and possibly avoid government intervention. They'll also be protecting their own reputations.

As a bulk E-mailer, remember that your E-mail ad is entering someone's home and using their resources. The population may be slow to act and take time to build up the necessary resolve, but once it does it is almost unstoppable and extremely vengeful. A little courtesy now will go a long way later. Just imagine what you'd want if you were on the receiving end.

• Clearly identify yourself. (If you don't want to be associated with what your hyping, we probably don't want to hear about it. Make yourself as easy to contact as you contacted us.)
• Maintain a "do not mail" list and use it. (It is very irritating if someone won't stay away when you ask them. This can also be called "stalking".)
• Keep your message short. (Compare it to junk "snail"-mail - the normal stuff isn't too bad, but would you want someone sending you the advertising from the Sunday "New York Times" every day?)
• Don't attach anything. (See the previous item.)
• Don't send to organizations (commercial, government, social, etc.). (These people can usually bring more force to bear sooner. And government agencies may be able to take direct action against you.)
• Always allow the recipient to say "no". (High-pressure tactics will make people think you're like a stereotypical bad used car salesman - and want to shut you up even faster.)
• Follow the "Golden Rule". (And I don't mean "who has the gold".)