Advertising Items for Sale in the Digest
By Hal O'Rourke
I'm somewhat surprised that you are allowing advertising of items for sale in the Digest. I just assumed that it was for the exchange of information, and not for `want ads.'
I suggest there be a clear statement of policy on this issue (and then enforce the policy). My vote would be to not allow advertising as it can easily get out of hand. My one exception would be for people looking for obscure parts.
What do you other people think???
[ Editor's Note:
[
[ I'm curious about other subscriber's thoughts on this too.
[ I personally find some of the "ads" interesting, some boring,
[ some iffy in content. I have already asked a couple of people
[ to reformulate how they word or present things, and/or to reduce
[ the ratio of "ads" to "articles". I usually put the ads at the
[ bottom of the digest to make it easy for readers to "snip off"
[ the ads if they don't want to print them. Considering the
[ total number of bytes of data transmitted, they still represent
[ a small percentage of the bandwidth.
[
[ Are they annoying ? Only you can tell me (Hal I assume they
[ bother you). Perhaps they should be put on some page linked to
[ my new Web page. Perhaps subscribers should pay a fee for the
[ "service" ? Some of our subscribers don't have Web access...
[
[ I'm trying to find ways of running the Digest that minimizes
[ the amount of time I have to spend preparing it. Sometimes
[ when I read an article I feel compelled to do some reasearch.
[ Remember the PlayTime Music thing? I'm torn by saying no to
[ low-key, infrequent advertising by subscribers. I've purchased
[ things from subscribers and expect to again. I probably won't
[ be buying replica fringed brass lamps, but I have purchased CD's,
[ books, music, and parts from subscribers and probably will again.
[ Those "ads" were a service to me and at least some of the
[ other subscribers.
[
[ I predict that this thread will consume more bandwidth over the
[ next week than all the "ads" have for the last month. I look
[ forward to your comments.
[
[ Jody
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(Message sent Tue 24 Sep 1996, 22:01:27 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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