From: bengtl@maths.lth.se (Bengt Larsson)
Subject: Re: Advertising on Net: how can we stop it?
Organization: Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 19:40:17 GMT

In article <1992Dec13.205731.18469@pegasus.com> tleylan@pegasus.com (Tom Leylan) writes:
>bengtl@maths.lth.se (Bengt Larsson) writes:
>
>>     If a couple of people agree to exchange "noise" on a mutual basis,
>>     why shouldn't they complain when you use their links to make 
>>     money on?
>
>Bengt... you must be practicising for some college debate or something
>where you just use your mouth and not you head.

>Where did I ever say that _I_ wanted to make money on this ?  

Oh come on, it's the general "you" I use. What was this about college
debates.

>I want to
>_save_ money on this.  I gave a dozen examples in this and previous
>threads that implied that somebody (I'm somebody also) would benefit
>from learning of a place to get a good deal on a modem or a printer or
>the software solution to some programming problem.

Naturally. It saves money for the advertiser, and for those who
want the information in the ads. For the others, it costs money and time.

In a paper magazine everyone benefits from the ads.

  1. The advertisers benefit, obviously. They get customers.
  2. The publisher benefits from the advertising revenue.
  3. Those who want to read the ads benefit, also obviously.
  4. Those who don't want the ads get the magazine 4-5 times
     cheaper than they otherwise would have.

Therefore, all are happy. On Usenet...

>Speaking of not answering questions.  Did you figure out yet how the
>cost of transmitting .GIF files isn't borne by simply the sender and
>the receiver ?  If you send completely worthless messages across the
>net the costs are accumulated by all machines along the path.

Of course it is. What about it? If the message content is according to the
charter of the group, then it's OK. The sites inbetween chose to
participate.

>>So why not I use my group and you use yours?
>
>Because the "Dell ripped me off" message was posted in comp.sys.ibm.pc
>and misc.lang and alt.forsale.computers and misc.politics.perot and
>alt.bizarre.

That would be a rather common message in an IBM PC .misc group,
yes. But it has always been, on Usenet. Those transporting the group
know it already. So?

>You see, if the original poster posted the message in the appropriate
>trash can the problem wouldn't exist.

Naturally. Except that i expect "appropriate group" for an advertiser
to be "a group with many potential customers in", regardless of
charter.

>How can avoid it when it is posted in the newsgroups I read... 

My dear Tom, that's the problem with any information posted in an
inappropriate group. I'm sure not condoning it. I've flamed people
occasionally to "take this garbarge to alt.religion.computers" etc.

>>There'll probably always be people who say "Duh. I want. Here. Now."
>
>Well there you are Bengt summing up your position in one line what was
>all the nonsense prior to this designed to do, confuse the reader ?

This coming from someone going off to Sudan when the topic becomes too
difficult? Get real.

-- 
Bengt Larsson - bengtl@maths.lth.se

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