Post by thread:Crossing the Commercial Line

{Quote hidden}>Lance, > >As I said in my post, it is a rough call, and I was not trying to rail on >you or your company. Also, my roll as PIC list "sysop" is fairly limited >and I didn't mean to preach from that podium (the IMHO at the start of the >post meant "In My Humble Opinion") > >For the record, the Internet *is* generally for commercial purposes. Very >little of the physical infrastructure of the net is non-commercial, and the >old rules of use are gone. However, certain mailing lists and newsgroups >have their own rules, which are usually "enforced" by general common sense >and previous net experience. > >As more people/companies come on the net, common sense might (hopefully) >still prevail (for example, you seem quite reasonable, and I appreciate >your coherent reply) but the experience with the net may be lacking. That >is why I was asking whether we should have a more explicit policy for the >list which all PIC list members would automatically receive when they >joined, so people would know where they stood from the outset. > >Again, I am personally interested in solutions which keep the folks from >Microchip, Parallax, et. al. (and Don Lekei ;) as active PIC list >contributors without filling subscribers (i.e. my own) mailboxes with >promotional junk email (especially when Parallax doesn't offer anything I >can use with my MAC or UNIX machines ;) > >I find when members of the industry answer questions on the net from their >postions (presumably) as experts, it makes me respect them and their >products more than any press-release/blurb. > >So Lance, I would urge you to actively participate in the PIC list when you >know something about the topic, and don't worry too much about offending >anyone. On the other hand, remember that a lot of people join the PIC list >for the technical discussion, and appreciate postings in that vein. Also, >in my case at least, your attempt to keep the posting kind of "like a >friend telling another friend about [y]our product" was less >appealing/successful than if you had just acknowledged your desire (however >well intentioned) to push your own programmer (I mean, you *are* president >of the company! and it would be kind of implausible to think that you just >*happened* to suggest the Parallax product to a friend). > >jory bell >spam_OUTjoryTakeThisOuTmit.edu > What? I can't believe that you think I have any interest whatsoever in selling programmers. Actually, of course, I do. Which makes me a bit nervous about what I say. Obviously, people are going to take what I say with a grain of salt. Since I profit from selling products, I'm certainly biased. However, I do try to write as someone who simply knows a little about PICs. I do hope we raise interest in our programmer, and I hope I didn't go too far. My comment about "a friend to a friend" was perhaps silly. However, please understand that I'm a business nerd of sorts, and the new Hobbyist Pack is one of our latest ideas (we saw growing interest for a cheaper programmer). As such, I'm excited to see how people respond. If the programmer sells well, then we did our job to satisfy their need. That's exciting! By the way, I've noticed that some people leave the previous one or two messages with their reply, so the reader can see a short history. Some people only send their reply. It seems nice to at least include the message you're responding to. What's considered normal? ------------------------ Lance Walley --------------------------- President Parallax, Inc.