Reply to Mary Deaton

[John Gear <catalyst -at- PACIFIER -dot- COM>]

For some strange reason this bounced when I tried to reply directly to your
account at Halcyon.  Hmmmmmmmm.

>I have a question for people on this list. I am an independent consultant
>specializing in online documentation development and help authoring training.
>My primary market is the thousands of technial writers in this country and the
>other thousands of software companies they work for. How would you rather hear
>about my Doc-To-Help classes or my courses in managing help projects?

I would like to dial up your web page if and when I *want* that info.
Outside of that, I would prefer *not* to hear about your classes at all.  In
return, I will not broadcast an ad for classes I teach or the book I'm
editing etc.
And, we can hope, the *THOUSANDS* of other firms who just know that they
have info we need will restrain themselves as well.

>Do you want me to mail you a flyer (and use trees, ink, electricity, etc. to
>do it), send you a fax (and use trees, ink, electricity, etc.), or drop a
>little piece of email on the list telling people they can contact me if they
>are interested (use minimal amount of electricity)?

>I will tell you now that as a new business I don't have the money to buy
>ads in Technical Communications, and I know not all technical writers are
members. And I am certainly not going to sit around making phone calls to
everyone: I >hate telemarketing.

Why?  Because it's invasive and turns the device *you* pay for into a
conduit for people to push their wares at you?????????????????????  Sounds
just like junk e-mail to me.

You've made the case against advertising better than I ever could.  Just
multiply your own impulses by all the software manufacturers, writers,
developers, aftermarket book writers, small business presses etc. etc. etc.
ad nauseum.  Soon this list would look just like new.business.opportunities.

What's Steven Covey's line ... "the dialogue of the deaf"?  That's the
future if we don't take a hard line against unsolicited ads outside lists
specifically created for that purpose.

Along with the "magic of the market" goes "the malignancy of the
market"--the way market-based communications media metastasize and grow
uncontrollably until all competing forms are destroyed.  (cf. Ben
Bagdikian's "The Media Monopoly" for extensive documentation.)