Boulder Pledge
Are you familiar with the Boulder Pledge? It’s an important, but often overlooked, more for those who actually care about the continued usefulness of the Internet. Coined by noted film critic Roger Ebert back in 1996, it states very simply:
Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited e-mail message. Nor will I forward chain letters, petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others. This is my contribution to the survival of the online community.
If you’re not familiar with it, you should be. Further, you should also resolve to follow it. Why? Because the survival of the online community does, indeed, depend upon it.
An acquaintance sent this link along with the simple comment that this is a “really bad idea,” but I see it more as proof of the need for people to know and love the Boulder Pledge. This acquaintance had received some spam that included a link that said “click here to see how we got your email address.” So he did. What he found should shock you, and add a place not to shop for all of those Christmas goodies that you’re trying to find now.
I’ll quote the whole page since I have a feeling that they won’t be around for long:
Each day millions of jokes and cute little heart-warming stories circulate on the internet via email. Your loving friends and relatives include you on their list of people that they feel should be embraced each time they are touched by a story. Sometimes it’s more self-serving; they are sure that they’ll be smitten with ‘bad luck’ if they don’t forward the story of the puppy lost in the rain on to at least 25 friends…
Most of them forward their entire mailing list and at least 4 or 5 generations of forwarding emails along with these not-to-be-missed missives.
Well, we took all the email addresses out of a year’s worth of this well-meaning spam and put them on our list. We were careful to eliminate duplicates, so you should not receive more than one copy of our message. We won’t abuse the list – perhaps 2, and not more than 3, emails about our site at most – then we’ll delete them entirely and start saving circulated emails for the 2005 Holiday Season.
So… while the jokes might have been old and hackneyed and the stories just a little saccharine, the one great benefit of being on those email lists was that you wound up on this one. Take a look around. It’s the holiday, gift-giving season and you’re sure to find the right gift for each person on YOUR list at a price you’ll find attractive.
Thank you for your patience and have a great holiday.
The Management and Staff of
Bumble Bee’s Personalized Gifts
You see, things like this is why the Boulder Pledge exists. It protects us by encouraging proper behavior (like not forwarding all of those jokes) and by punishing improper behavior (like sending spam like they’re referring to).
MickC @ December 1, 2004