Memberlist Options...

**SHATOUSHKA** · January 31st, 2003, 07:25 PM

isn't that spamming?
i mean... aren't you soliciting people that have
not come to you?

**Alex** · February 1st, 2003, 04:44 AM

Check out the memberlist option. You can search via a multitude of ways, and find people with similar or disimilar likes.

You can check who is in an area via geography or via their likes. I have a film being shown in Buffalo on Friday, the 31st of January at the 4th annual Global Super-8 fest.

I went to memberlist and typed in search by location, typed in Buffalo, and 58 members came up.

I either e-mailed or PM'd everyone on the list about the film festival tonight. A certain amount of e-mails came back, and perhaps very few if any of the people can make it to the event, I won't know until after the event if it made any kind of impact, but it was fun making being a third party link for a function on the other side of the country.

But if you have an important event coming up that you want to share with others with similar interests, don't forget the memberlist option.

**Alex** · February 1st, 2003, 05:33 AM

Then why have a members list at all?

**SHATOUSHKA** · February 1st, 2003, 06:47 AM

the last time i used the memberlist was to help
someone on the admin. forum.

still... its a question i think worthy enough to
ask from 1quickSI... in as far as the differences
between PMing 10+ people for a festival or
PMing 10+ people for pyramid schemes.

**Alex** · February 1st, 2003, 07:33 AM

The first problem to consider is the word spamming by definition. There is spamming, there is also not spamming, and then there is a whole big gray area in the middle that has no name attached to it.

As a result, I can give you a whole bunch of reason's by which what I did is either not spamming, or is "positive spamming", but the problem is once the word spamming is injected into the discussion, the discussion is over, because any mention of the word spamming is pretty much a bad thing.

So, even if I prove that what I did was "positive spamming", it still is spamming. Which means a label wins out over the underlying purpose.

There are 78,000 registered members on hostboard, I e-mailed approximately 50 of them.
I did it one by one, and I used a specific criteria related to the fact that they all lived in the area of where the festival was to be held.

In my e-mail I invited anyone who actually went to the festival to post their reaction to the festival on my forum, good, bad or whatever.

In essence, I did not want them just to attend, but to know that they were welcome to share what they witnessed if they had gone.

As it stands right now, most people interact on Hostboard out of a shared mutual interest, or because members have met online and decide they like each other enough to continue to interact.

In my opinion, those are both fine reasons, but should they be the only reasons in which Hostboard members interact?

Members can choose NOT to fill out the e-mail address on their profile, if they desire. In theory, if one did not want to be "spammed", not putting down the e-mail for others to see would solve that problem.

Another issue is how often do the people I found on the memberlist get e-mailed by me. At present time, perhaps never again, or perhaps next year before next year's festival.

Is a once a year e-mailing about an event that is geographically desireable, spamming?

Perhaps the biggest issue here is does someone have to respond and say please don't e-mail me anymore. I've heard that on the internet in general, responding to spam e-mail can put you on an "active" list of e-mail addresses that is then sold other spammers, by responding you prove your e-mail is accessible, and this can cause larger problems.

But I would say there is one big difference, here on Hostboard, if someone is e-mailed by another Hostboard member (and I did identify myself as a Hostboard member), and they respond and say please don't e-mail me again...

If the person e-mailing does it again, they can be reported to Hostboard ADM, whereas on the internet, that would be next to impossible.

So it looks like there are several failsafes in place to prevent this form being a problem.

And frankly, it took me close to two hours to do, and I did not enjoy that.

**SHATOUSHKA** · February 1st, 2003, 08:04 AM

well i agree that there is alot of grey area...
which is why i think something clear should be said.

i think that what best defines spamming is intrusive,
obnoxious, off/random-topic, repeated messages
thay simply aren't warranted. this could easily
be argued, i'm sure.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor=""><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by: Super-8mm in the DigitalAge:

If the person e-mailing does it again, they can be reported to Hostboard ADM, whereas on the internet, that would be next to impossible.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

no.
it is relatively easy to retrieve an IP addy
from email... and, in essence, report the abuse
to the host.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor=""><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by: Super-8mm in the DigitalAge:

And frankly, it took me close to two hours to do, and I did not enjoy that.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

why not copy the email addies onto notepad and
then c/p the list onto your email addy bar collectively
along with some generic body wording?

woulda prolly taken you 15 minutes [img]tongue.gif[/img]

**Alex** · February 1st, 2003, 08:15 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor=""><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by shatzy:
well i agree that there is alot of grey area...
which is why i think something clear should be said.

i think that what best defines spamming is intrusive,
obnoxious, off/random-topic, repeated messages
thay simply aren't warranted. this could easily
be argued, i'm sure.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor=""><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by: Super-8mm in the DigitalAge:

If the person e-mailing does it again, they can be reported to Hostboard ADM, whereas on the internet, that would be next to impossible.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

no.
it is relatively easy to retrieve an IP addy
from email... and, in essence, report the abuse
to the host.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor=""><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by: Super-8mm in the DigitalAge:

And frankly, it took me close to two hours to do, and I did not enjoy that.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

why not copy the email addies onto notepad and
then c/p the list onto your email addy bar collectively
along with some generic body wording?

woulda prolly taken you 15 minutes [img]tongue.gif[/img] </font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

I cut and pasted. But you have to jump back and forth between e-mail and the list. It just takes time.

The fastest I did (for brief spurts was one a minute.)

Have you ever reported a spammer? I haven't.

Based on the criteria you used to describe what spamming is, I don't think what I did equates to your description of spamming.

Although, by encouraging that others Hostboard members use the memberlist.....

Although spamming was the farthest thing from my mind when I made this topic post.