Shelly has left the building.
Again, for your perusal, please jaunter through back issues while this page is being updated.
December
November
October
September
August
July
Rock me, Amedaus
So now another whole week has come and gone. My excitement at getting my inbox down to a manageable number has far exceeded my limits. Again. This is why I think email sucks big fat hairy balls. You get daunted, daily, with requests, junk, personal crap, mailing lists, ISP notices. The list goes on and on and on. Even though I have weaned myself off of majority of the high traffic lists I was on, I still get a lot of mail. Most of it is personal now, however, the big trend seems to be in advertisements that are tied in with messages from a company.
For instance, I had recently downloaded a newer version of Real Player (hello person from progressive networks who checks out my site. I see you ;). I had already filled out the request form for them several times. But when I had declined to fill out the form again save my email information, I got bombarded by them via email about how the new G2 Plus would rock my world and blah blah blah. I went back through the registration (yet again for the 100th time) and found (hidden discretely of course) the option to NOT be notified of new events.
See, this is what I don’t get. If someone, like me for instance, has removed a particular program from their system for whatever reason and then has to reinstall it, there should be an option that indicates that “yes, i’ve downloaded this software before and yes, i’m well aware of the benefits of the program is.” I shouldn’t have to be reminded, via email no less, about all the great things that Real Player is. If I didn’t think it was such a great program to begin with, I wouldn’t have downloaded it.
The other option is when I subscribe to information from major vendors (Barnes & Nobel, New York Times, etc) and I -want- to have email sent to me with updates and news articles. I had subscribed to these services several years ago using then, a major account. The account no longer exists. All that does exist is an alias that was placed for me on the system that forwards my mail to an existing account. When I receive information from a company, and it has been several years since my original subscription, how the hell am I supposed to remember that I was subscribed in the first place? That makes no sense! Why keep the visitors coming back if you can’t even bother keeping them informed of new information on your page? If 7 new people are getting on the Internet every -second-, what is the statistic of someone getting a new account without fowarding their email? Probably just as high. Swapping ISP’s these days is like swapping your underwear. People that you once chit-chatted with no longer exist as they have moved on and haven’t even bothered to tell you. I can only imagine the number of bounce messages they receive in the process.
The last annoying thing is when companies email you -constantly- and use third party software to do it. An example is reason.com. I was interested in their website, I signed up to be notified of updates via MindIt! services and I was also interested in the paper version of the magazine. But I started receiving several emails PER DAY telling me that MindIt! had detected a change in Reason’s website. When I would go back and check, nothing had been changed saved for design of the website itself. No new content was provided. This irked me. So I immediately removed myself from their “reminder service” and then cancelled my subscription to the paper version. It wasn’t worth the hassle of getting all this crap on a daily basis.
Maybe it’s just me, but while I like the idea of having my information sent to me via email, I shouldn’t have to be treated like a dimwit, nor should I have to deal with a ton and a half of worthless email. I am (shock shock) an adult and I’m well aware of the choices that I make as when i subscribe to services. I shouldn’t have to be treated like a 2 year old at a fairgrounds when the barker is hawking fish in a bowl when I damn well know that the damn thing is going to die in two days.
The Chewbaka defense: It just does not make sense.
Or perhaps I’m too anal. I’ll let the jury sit out on this one.