OK guys, I'm not friends or anything with Gene but I'm going to defend him sending unsolicited emails. And nothing unethical happened, BJ. GEESH! The man collected emails and sent what's called a CAMPAIGN message out to a very targeted audience. If you don't want it, block him or just tell him politely to remove your name from his list. It's not spam until you tell him it is, at least not to him. In 2009, I sent out weekly emails to approximately 800 people I collected from various emails, etc. that I had saved over recent years. Occasionally, I'd get a message back from someone asking to be removed. I politely acknowledged their request and immediately removed them from the mailing lists. I created a dialogue with myself and anyone who asked questions in response. Very effective. And it almost worked. I went from being a "who the hell is that?" to someone recognized across the country and fell only 51 votes short. Just because you get an unsolicited email in your inbox doesn't mean it's the end of the world. Y'all are making it sound like a crime or an inconvenience.
From:
http://spam.abuse.net/
You have probably seen an increase in the amount of "junk mail" which shows up in your email box, or on your favorite newsgroup. The activities of a small number of people are becoming a bigger problem for the Internet. We have been actively engaged in fighting spam for years. Since we presented this site to the public in 1996, we have been pleased to be referenced as one of the best anti-spam sites on the net. Help fight spam to keep the Internet useful for everyone. Take advantage of the information we've gathered to make your own experience on the Internet better.
OK guys, I'm not friends or anything with Gene but I'm going to defend him sending unsolicited emails. And nothing unethical happened, BJ. GEESH! The man collected emails and sent what's called a CAMPAIGN message out to a very targeted audience. If you don't want it, block him or just tell him politely to remove your name from his list. It's not spam until you tell him it is, at least not to him. In 2009, I sent out weekly emails to approximately 800 people I collected from various emails, etc. that I had saved over recent years. Occasionally, I'd get a message back from someone asking to be removed. I politely acknowledged their request and immediately removed them from the mailing lists. I created a dialogue with myself and anyone who asked questions in response. Very effective. And it almost worked. I went from being a "who the hell is that?" to someone recognized across the country and fell only 51 votes short. Just because you get an unsolicited email in your inbox doesn't mean it's the end of the world. Y'all are making it sound like a crime or an inconvenience.
Time for education....
http://spam.abuse.net/overview/whatisspam.shtml
What is spam?
Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services. Spam costs the sender very little to send -- most of the costs are paid for by the recipient or the carriers rather than by the sender.
Honestly, I think you could make a case for a prior relationship in that Gene is a director on a board that represents the membership of KCBS. If you are a KCBS member, he's representing you I imagine it would be difficult to say in a court of law that there was no relationship.
I would point out that he admitted that he got the email addresses from organizers and not KCBS, so therefore, in my book, he was not representing me as a director of any board... but as an individual requesting me to vote for him.... sorry, but still spam, and still lost my vote, and my wife's.....
I will post this here one time, I didn't try to get an advantage over any other candidate, I used contacts from my database in my own computer, (this means I have received an e-mail from them first) and from an organizer that I rep most of their contests, almost everyone who was contacted I have met with or coresponded with through e-mail.... there will be a few I am unsure about, most of the people who have stated that I did something underhanded to, i have an e-mail or personal knowledge of corespondence with, or have met them, I didn't go out and buy e-mail lists or get them from KCBS or look all over the internet for, i sent 2600 e-mails to those who either new me or as I said before had an in common e-mail or meeting of or with.....I hope that this clears it all up to everyone's satisfaction... I even sent many to people not involved in BBQ as most of this was sent from my regular contact list in Outlook.
I do have to say, I have a lot of respect for the others candidates running who could have slammed me on this, they were very professional and fair
Sorry if it has offended anyone....
as far as I know, I am in NC, you in CA.... to the best of my knowledge, I have NEVER contacted you to drive 4000 miles just to compete.... make this a written PUBLIC notice to remove my email address from your database, you also have gotten an email from me questioning this and as of this date, have NEVER even acknowledge it..... from last year, or this year..... so what good does it to ask to have it removed every year????
As a CIO of a college, I deal with spam issues frequently. We easily block 65% of our mail traffic as spam. But I am just curious - of those of you who were upset with receiving the email (I received it, too), how many would have been upset had that same message been delivered by snail mail?
I for one, will contact them and ask them to please remove my name, address and any contact info from their mailing list. I do this constantly and on a regular basis EVERY time I receive one.
I did not receive this eMail, but I dislike all forms of junk mail, especially compaign junk-mail. I'm even one of those jerks who takes every piece of junk mail he gets with a "receiver pays shipping" return envelope and I send it back to them as heavy and bulky as I can make it. Usually I just rip up and return to them what they sent me.
As much as I hate junk mail though, I hate spam even more. I've tried to rationalize it myself, and the best reason I've come up with is that at least when something is sent via snail-mail, the sender has to pay for it. Sending junk in eMail wastes my time and is free.
You asked....
dmp
YES.... way to go BROTHER.....
I too do this, and put others junk mail in theirs and send it to them... it called the switch and bait junk mail..... make sure you remove your contact info.... call them at their toll free number, take your time to make sure to run their bill up, then send them junk mail in return... pay back time.