Mike Murray
The solution to this problem is to not put your e-mail address on the OBRA
membership application. That way you won't ever get anything generated from
that database. You can still stay on the OBRA list serves. There have been
previous mass e-mails sent to the OBRA database, although infrequently since
it is a bit of a PITA to send to nearly 3,000 different addresses without
using a service. I suspect it was the service aspect, i.e. use of Constant
Contact and the HTML mail format, that made Kris' message more notable. For
what it is worth, I have looked at using Constant Contact to do some large
e-mailings myself. I decided not to use them but my impression was that
they were legitimate and not one of the "buy 100,000 e-mails" type of
organizations. As an aside, I am getting around 100 spam messages a day
too. Unfortunately this stuff has turned into a fact of life. I could try
and keep my e-mail address very secret to avoid the spma but then no one
would be able to contact be by e-mail. Personally I choose to use spam
filters and the delete button. Occasionally this catches a message
inappropriately but if I had a secret address then I would be getting that
e-mail anyhow. YMMV
Mike Murray
-----Original Message-----
From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On
Behalf Of Doug Sears
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 13:44 PM
To: obra@list.obra.org
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Mark your calendars: Sat 9/15-Kruger'sKermesse Farm
Crit (on Sauvie Island)
Oh, so OBRA doesn't sell the addresses, it gives them away. Either way,
that's a problem to me. I want race organizers to be able to contact me via
announcements on the OBRA Race or OBRA Chat lists, or because I register
for their race, not on their own. There are two problems: 1. These wildcat
e-mails from promoters don't come with the [OBRA Chat] tag in the subject
line, so my mail reader doesn't route them to a separate folder, and 2. I'm
worried about spam. I currently get about 80 spams a day, and I'm going to
switch to a new address so as to leave the spam behind. I don't trust that
everyone out of a large number of race organizers are going to keep my
address private. For example, my address is now in the hands of something
called Constant Contact as a result of Kris Schamp's adding me to his list
without my permission. Is Constant Contact ethical? How would I know?
Individual e-mails to everybody in OBRA has never been the way that races
are announced, and I don't see any reason it should start to be now.
--Doug Sears
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Murray"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 11:43 AM
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Mark your calendars: Sat 9/15 -Kruger'sKermesse
Farm Crit (on Sauvie Island)
Steven Beardsley wrote:
"I don't think OBRA needs money bad enough to sell our e-mail addresses."
It is not so much of an issue of OBRA needing money or not. OBRA is not a
huge money making proposition and could certainly use more money. We do
not, however, sell e-mail addresses. This would be a dumb place to look for
money as e-mail addresses do not sell for much money. OBRA does provide
e-mail addresses to race organizers. There is no charge for this. One
would assume that people that join a bike racing organization would also
want the people that are part of that organization to be able to contact
them by e-mail. That would include those who put on bike races. If people
do not want this then they need to not include their contact information on
the application. This would also mean, of course, that they should not
complain when they are not contacted.
Mike Murray
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