gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) (12/19/87)
Various people seem to be objecting to shareware being distributed over the Usenet. I have a different complaint with the chat posting: he says that people who contribute will get updates via a mailing list; "Make sure to include a path from ihnp4". The prevailing ethic about doing business over the Usenet seems to be that it's OK to make initial contacts with customers via uucp mail links, but once you are in touch, if you do any significant amount of traffic, you should set up a direct uucp link or otherwise avoid using third parties' phones to transact your commercial business. (This is not to say that a vendor can't contribute to technical discussions about their own products, but that actual sales & marketing shouldn't be done via third party uucp or usenet links.) It looks like the author of this "chat" was going to relay his commercial announcements, for customers who have paid him for the software, through ihnp4. I find this a lot more of a no-no than posting shareware. Here's the relevant portion of his README: > The suggested donation for this package is $29.00 per executing CPU. In > return for your donation, your name will be added to an electronic mailing > list -- and you will receive, via email, notices of updates and improvements > which you may obtain from us at no additional cost. Please mail your > donations to... > Make sure to include a path for Email from ihnp4. > Confirmation of your contribution will be returned via > Email in order to check the path back to you. -- {pyramid,ptsfa,amdahl,sun,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu gnu@toad.com "Watch me change my world..." -- Liquid Theatre
phil@amdcad.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) (12/19/87)
In article <3670@hoptoad.uucp> gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: >The prevailing ethic about doing business over the Usenet seems to be >that it's OK to make initial contacts with customers via uucp mail >links, but once you are in touch, if you do any significant amount of >traffic, you should set up a direct uucp link or otherwise avoid using >third parties' phones to transact your commercial business. (This is Unless you are paying that third party a fee for the service, like UUNET. -- Let's go to the mall and see how long people will wait for our parking space! Phil Ngai, {ucbvax,decwrl,allegra}!amdcad!phil or amdcad!phil@decwrl.dec.com
tif@cpe.UUCP (12/30/87)
Written 8:59 pm Dec 18, 1987 by hoptoad.UUCP!gnu in cpe:comp.sources.d > The suggested donation for this package is $29.00 per executing CPU. In > return for your donation, your name will be added to an electronic mailing > list -- and you will receive, via email, notices of updates and improvements > which you may obtain from us at no additional cost. I'm curious: If I send $5.00 will I get on the mailing list? Paul Chamberlain Computer Product Engineering, Tandy Corp. ihnp4!sys1!cpe!tif