On Nov 2, 2007, at 5:33 PM, Robert Bruninga wrote:
As you said, it was off list. And it sounds like he thought the person was intested in a Helix antenna. He has them. SO nothing wrong with that. In fact, that is a better approach than a message to ALL...
Ahh, I didn't want this to blow out of proportion on the list, I was most annoyed that the person made the offer without reading the list messages carefully enough to realize I wasn't interested in helix antennas in the first place.
I do respectfully disagree though, Bob. I'm not here to be advertised to -- got plenty of that on the Internet already or I can buy a QST which is about what, 50% ads now? Plenty of that to go around already.
If I wanted a helix antenna and he e-mailed me after carefully reading and following this list (being engaged enough to actually know what's going on in the threads), I would agree with you. There's lots of hams out there squeaking out a living off of their ham products, or just paying for their hobby... that's one thing... A plugged-in "community" member helping out... just like you said.
But getting an advertisement from someone who isn't paying attention at all, that's not appropriate. That's just an alternate way to spam. I would actually rather they did send it to the list in that case, if a particular list's rules allowed advertising.
That's my opinion, anyway.
And I wasn't meaning to make any "ad hominem attacks" -- even though that comment in and of itself was a veiled one, aimed at me, I think. (Ironic, isn't it?)
Ultimately none of the above matters at all, nor do I really care.
I was just trying to warn others that someone was trolling the list for customers, while sending it in public and not getting ankle deep in a private e-mail argument with the person that did it. Trying to keep it non-personal while also warning others that someone was trolling the list for customers.
What folks do with that information, is utterly up to them now. I don't care. I wasn't intending it as a topic of discussion, really.
We'll all have our own tolerance levels for advertising and commercial type ham radio ventures, I'm sure... which would change depending on whether or not we WANTED the item for sale, too... unless we're awfully driven by principal. :-)
Wasn't worth me even mentioning it. Sorry I did.
-- Nate Duehr, WY0X nate@natetech.com