Well, I disagree. There aren't that many commerical e-mails, and for us, an isolated startup company, separated from academic institutions, one of the commerical e-mails was helpful, we would not have know about the product otherwise (see I am even not going to advertise it!). All best, Penney Robbins, PhD. --- On Fri 11/01, Mario Roederer wrote: From: Mario Roederer [mailto: roederer@drmr.com] To: cyto-inbox Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2002 16:46:47 -0500 Subject: Advertising > > I agree that there have been far too many commercial-oriented emails > on the list. I appreciate the efforts of most manufacturers to > withhold from advertising on this list (plus, of course, the efforts > of Steve & Paul to filter those out). > > The list, which is an outstanding forum for exchange of information, > has been occasionally used to identify substantially new products > which can significantly impact on how we do experiments. I feel that > the Molecular Probes email of 10/30 clearly does not fall into this > category; the new product advertised was no more than a slight > modification of the existing one. Such an email should be directed > solely to the person requesting information; if that person then > collates responses and puts it back on the list then so be it. But > for manufacturers to directly respond in this way is > counter-productive to the goals of this list. > > I would like to propose a 6-month moratorium on all emails that are > no more than advertisements. Note that I write "would like > to"--because I'm not sure that this is possible. I don't want to > put > any additional onus on Steve or Paul to filter out the borderline > emails. While these may be easy to identify when they come from > manufacturers, it could just as well be considered blatant > advertising when they come from a user. > > Therefore, perhaps we can see if the commercial participants on this > list could exercise self-restraint rather than requesting a formal > censorship of advertising emails. > > Thus, if you are a manufacturer, and you are responding to somebody's > request for information, do so privately to that person ONLY. It is > up to the person requesting information to decide whether or not the > information received in response to the query warrants a summary on > the list. > > If you are not a manufacturer, and are responding to somebody's > request for specific information, please consider whether your > response (that identifies a specific product or manufacturer) is of > general enough interest to warrant the list. If it does not, then > simply send it privately to the person who requested information, and > let them decide whether to post the summary of responses. > > In general, I urge people to err on the side of caution and send > their information only to the person who requested it. Realize that > if several people want the same information, they can always request > it from the original poster! I have posted queries to the list; > people have sent me emails asking me to forward to them the > responses, which I did. > > This process can significantly cut down on emails that might be > viewed as too commercial. > > mr > _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!
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