[bederoso]

I have the impression that he's trying to glamorize spam. I suppose it also depends on the concept you have of what's spam.

For me, if I receive a marketing e-mail from a company that I never made direct contact with, that's spam. I don't care if they have a "commercial agreement" and got my e-mail from a "legitimate" vendor; if I haven't specifically subscribed for updates from you, you're spamming me, and I will not care about your "content".

He makes a point of saying that this is a marketing strategy and that we should not be outraged because someone is trying to sell us something. But this is similar to someone knocking on your door to sell stuff; it's no illegal, but it's annoying and I hate you for doing that. I like my personal e-mail to be personal, and I hate having to filter out the garbage I never subscribed to.

If I want to buy something, I'll go and search for it, or I'll ask someone about it, but I will not look in my e-mail to see if I ever got an e-mail from someone saying they sell it.

[tptacek]

You've misunderstood him. He's not suggesting that you buy email addresses from vendors; he's suggesting that you establish the relationship that opts in email addresses yourself. There is obviously nothing spammy about allowing people to subscribe to your mailing list.

[markkanof]

It's not really the same as someone knocking on my door. It's much less intrusive and it's something I can deal with on my own time.

When someone knocks on my door it's usually around dinner time, and just because of my general demographics it's probably also not likely to be something I am interested in. I have no interest in buying cleaning products (and giving my credit card information) from some random person who walked up to my house.

I do however have an interest in new clothing styles from a store I shop at frequently or as in Patrick's example new learning materials he is putting out. Also, email can be dealt with when I am ready to deal with it and it's pretty easy to just click delete, delete, delete. I personally find it much harder to turn away (although I will do it) a desperate looking person standing on my doorstep.

[LanceJones]

You're making quite an assumption here... that you're consciously aware of all the decisions you make in a day -- purchase decisions or otherwise. You're saying everything you own or have ever owned was the result of you proactively seeking out each item. This comes across as very naive.

[wglb]

As I understand it, spam is unsolicited email. He will email you if and only if you ask him to.