E-mail Maddness, A monster I created with a little button called "reply all" I did a networking experiment to see how many names I could accumulate in my address book. I am after all, a musician and networking, marketing, public relations etc., is the name of the game! Anyways, I started out by getting on some mailing lists from friends, chatrooms,etc., and when I got an email with a lot of address on it, I would pirate (the correct word!HA!) their list by hitting reply all, changing the subject, and sending my webpage, my band's page, etc. Well, that turned out to be a roaring success but, It did have a few drawbacks. I made some people very mad for sending them "spam", and lots of people wrote me mail to be taken off the list," how did I get on your list?", "stop hitting reply all!", etc. Well, you live and learn. Those of you out there that want to try this experiment yourself...you'll see what I mean! lol! It IS a very good way to market something or build your address book. I think people that are so uptight shouldn't send their primary email address out to multiple addresses unless they want to be spammed! They can always start an anonymous email address on yahoo, hotmail, ect.that they can expect to get lots of mail on. And you will,trust me!
Ok, that was a long time ago when I did the "experiment" and I should have learned right? Well, one day I got this email about how the FCC and congress were trying to pass a motion (or whatever!?) to charge time online like long-distance phone calls...PER MINUTE! Of course, I freaked and sent the email, including a link to the house of representatives, to EVERYONE I KNOW on one mass email!(very stupid!!) It was, after all just once. Well, next thing I know someone (not mentioning any names) was sending out their own stuff, with all of MY addresses on it! I even had my own, previously spam-free addresses on it. I asked this person to stop sending out my list and, I think he did stop but by then my list was in everyone's email! Then came everyone hitting reply-all to ask that they be taken off the list...that THEY were spreading! I now have friends who are getting all the spam that I caused by sending out one letter! I'm getting them in trouble at work! I'm losing some good friends from my address book and hopefully not from my life. So, If you bothered to read this far, I hope I can save you some hassle in your e-box!
Lessons I learned; Don't send anyone else's address out on a list unless you know that they won't get mad about spam! Never reply all unless you want email from everyone on that list, and thier list, ect. Never send out an address you want to keep private on a list, cause people WILL steal it for their own purposes, and their not all nice! Well, cyber-Friends..I'm very sorry if I caused you a bunch of spam, but it was just one letter!
If you read this far, thanks for listening! Peace everyone! And let's be nice out there!