>From: "Sergio Montes" <montes@postoffice.utas.edu.au>
>If any of you has bought recently one of the better computer magazines such
>as BYTE,PC ,etc. you have a very good idea of what our british car group
>list is going to look like...the interesting bits would be swamped under a
>mountain of beautifully produced ads,it would take a year to read and
>digest each issue. It is almost impossible now to read the excellent
>articles buried somewhere in these magazines, when their contents are
>separated by pages and pages of ads.
Note that unlike those magazines, the bc-list is not a profit-making
organization. It does not go out and try to sell ads. In fact, the consensus
appears to be no ads will be allowed. If a vendor oversteps the bounds and
doesn't heed warnings, we (as a group) can kick them off or filter their
postings. I would assume that won't be needed.
Many of the vendors can provide useful technical information. We
can also find out about things like new reproductions being available, and
other items of interest.
I also really doubt we'll be swamped by vendors anytime soon,
especially small ones. I suspect that it will be a while before even the
other "big guys" (Moss, VB, etc) even consider getting on the list.
Remember, we aren't handing list administration over to the vendors.
We _can_ always change the policies if a problem develops.
BTW, what we might want to do would be to start a parallel list for
sales/advertisements. That keeps them out of the regular list, while allowing
those who are interested (like I might be) to receive the information. This
would not prohibit non-advertisement postings to the normal bc list.
On a more general note, why is there so much paranoia on the net
about businesses using it? There's almost a pavlovian reaction in some
people to the slightest mention of "business". I started to write a diatribe,
but it's out of place here so I'll muzzle it.
Randell Jesup
|