UK Astronomy Buy & Sell

Mark McIntyre wrote in message . ..


First of all, let me point out that I did'nt receive any email and I'm
not singling out anyone in the astro community here. I have the same
reaction to mail from C programmers, bikers, bankers, and recruitment
agents. all of which are areas of interest to me either professionally
or amateurishly (IYSWIM...!).

Chris this probably all sounds terribly paranoid to you. I however
take the view that my email is private, for my use and the use of my
friends or colleagues to whom I've granted permission.
--
Mark McIntyre

I suppose it's a free country Mark. g
I look at the internet and e-mail system from the opposite end of
your dark tunnel. I'm looking towards the brilliantly lit end.
Probably at flames!
After a lifetime of excessive charges for any form of communication.
Not to mention the severe restrictions placed on that communication.
Particularly time, size, lack of images (beyond the black and white
library photocopier).
I now consider e-mails to be a new form of expression. The freedom to
send high quality images to anyone in the world is enormous fun.
Yesterday I sent an image of Danish timber framed houses round a
village pond to someone who lives in the Arizona desert! Our only
common interest was music & solar power in this case. I e-mailed him
to thank him for a medieval piece he arranged (as a Midi file) on his
website. Asking where I might find the score. Fortunately he didn't
report me to his ISP for this awful indiscretion!

As to spam: I never had more than the occasional one or two a week
until I upset someone on s.a.a. Another own goal, as usual. My inbox
now looks like a sausage factory. The poor IE filters are more
confused than I am. Most of the good stuff ends in the junkbox and the
spam goes straight through into the inbox. Thank god I didn't tell the
filters to kill anything.
I consider what you call 'private spam' a chance to talk to somebody
on the other side of the world. I consider commercial spam a long
overdue lack of interest by the US government in cracking down on yet
another form of indigenous commercial scum. Which may eventually lead
to severe restraints on our internet activities. Which can only please
the present paranoid American government. It makes security sifting
all our messages so much easier. 'Spam' is far too nice a word. It
should be renamed! "Bush's scrotal sweat droplets" or something
similarly catching. g

I still consider Paul's attempt to introduce a new free ads system as
a real breakthrough in this style of service. Yes ChrisH has done
extremely well in providing this service up to now. But (and I mean no
disrespect whatsoever) his way of doing things is slow. Lacks images
and the ability to correct or change anything within a short time
period. His previous daily update is becoming more like twice a week.
Though this is probably an exaggeration (or even unfair). His ads list
is always the first thing I read in the morning. Lately it's like
reading last weeks news. Sorry Chris.

Let's take a hypothetical example. You advertise a number of things
on AstroAds. The price is mistakenly set far too low on a popular
item. The ads browsers (and resellers) deluge the vendor with e-mails
and phone calls. The item was sold (reluctantly) to the first
telephone contact at well under the normal second hand price. He even
demanded free postage! No interest whatsoever in the other bits and
pieces. Yet the deluge continues for the popular item. ChrisH isn't
updating for a few days. When he does. The same item is mysteriously
selling for the usual second hand price. But is in a long list from
someone in Glasgow....g

Paul's UK Astronomy Buy & Sell (I wish I could remember that long
name) empowers sellers and helps buyers obtain a fair bargain. Quickly
and efficiently. With "bells on". g I just wish he and ChrisH would
get together. We'd get a shorter name, instant ads (with images) and
ChrisH wouldn't have to spend so much time & effort supporting ads
that have not been removed by "eternally grateful" vendors!

http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/index.php

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~chrish/aa-ads.htm

Chris.B

On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 19:00:51 +0100, in uk.sci.astronomy , "Roger
Steer" wrote:

Please allow me to say a couple of things:

feel free.

'in my book ANY unsolicited email from people I don't know, whether
associated with something I'm interested in or not, is spam' - GROW UP AND
GET A LIFE!

*shrug*. You may be ok with cold calls from people you don't know
trying to setll you things. I'm not. I have a life thanks, and at 37
its a bit late to grow up.

'people who type in capital letter are 'shouting' and are rude' - grow up
and get a life!

Shouting is rude. Do you frequently do rude things?

Don't bother to reply to this posting, it won't be seen by me. This last
pathetic exchange between you all has been the final straw and I am
unsubscribing from uk.sci.astronomy today.

shame.


--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
CLC readme: http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/bchambless0/welcome_to_clc.html


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On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 19:00:51 +0100, in uk.sci.astronomy , "Roger
Steer" wrote:

Please allow me to say a couple of things:

feel free.

'in my book ANY unsolicited email from people I don't know, whether
associated with something I'm interested in or not, is spam' - GROW UP AND
GET A LIFE!

*shrug*. You may be ok with cold calls from people you don't know
trying to setll you things. I'm not. I have a life thanks, and at 37
its a bit late to grow up.

'people who type in capital letter are 'shouting' and are rude' - grow up
and get a life!

Shouting is rude. Do you frequently do rude things?

Don't bother to reply to this posting, it won't be seen by me. This last
pathetic exchange between you all has been the final straw and I am
unsubscribing from uk.sci.astronomy today.

shame.


--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
CLC readme: http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/bchambless0/welcome_to_clc.html


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"Roger Steer" wrote in message ...

Please allow me to say a couple of things:

Don't bother to reply to this posting, it won't be seen by me. This last
pathetic exchange between you all has been the final straw and I am
unsubscribing from uk.sci.astronomy today. Yahoo groups - preferably
moderated - have a detectable signal to noise ratio. I suggest that those
who mistakenly thought this newsgroup was about astronomy, follow suit.

Roger Steer

Whether you read this or not Roger: I'll say it anyway.

A shame that you let one rather argumentative thread put you off this
newsgroup. Do all the other astro related threads count for nothing?
You may not agree with the things said. But they were said with
emotion and conviction by those who posted. Opinions vary on most
subjects. The difficulty of holding a heated debate in slow motion. By
posting e-mails to a Google NG is not to be underestimated. Things
said freely in face to face conversation do not translate well to the
NG text format. What produces a wry grin in the pub comes across as
pompous, highly critical or a lunatic rage in text form.
Interpretation is usually in the eye of the heholder. Humour,
particlarly irony is usually completely lost on the reader. Capitals
and smilies are not the subtle facial expressions of two amateur
astronomers. In violent disagreement over some detail. But still
capable of having an intelligent chat behind the observatory.

Chris.B

"Roger Steer" wrote in message ...

Please allow me to say a couple of things:

Don't bother to reply to this posting, it won't be seen by me. This last
pathetic exchange between you all has been the final straw and I am
unsubscribing from uk.sci.astronomy today. Yahoo groups - preferably
moderated - have a detectable signal to noise ratio. I suggest that those
who mistakenly thought this newsgroup was about astronomy, follow suit.

Roger Steer

Whether you read this or not Roger: I'll say it anyway.

A shame that you let one rather argumentative thread put you off this
newsgroup. Do all the other astro related threads count for nothing?
You may not agree with the things said. But they were said with
emotion and conviction by those who posted. Opinions vary on most
subjects. The difficulty of holding a heated debate in slow motion. By
posting e-mails to a Google NG is not to be underestimated. Things
said freely in face to face conversation do not translate well to the
NG text format. What produces a wry grin in the pub comes across as
pompous, highly critical or a lunatic rage in text form.
Interpretation is usually in the eye of the heholder. Humour,
particlarly irony is usually completely lost on the reader. Capitals
and smilies are not the subtle facial expressions of two amateur
astronomers. In violent disagreement over some detail. But still
capable of having an intelligent chat behind the observatory.

Chris.B

On 14 Jul 2003 12:15:42 -0700, in uk.sci.astronomy ,
(Chris.B) wrote:

I look at the internet and e-mail system from the opposite end of
your dark tunnel. I'm looking towards the brilliantly lit end.

My "dark tunnel" is the one where I receive, at my office email
address, even after spam filtering, around 20 spam mails per day, not
to mention the hundreds more that are prefiltered by our filters. At
home I've got it down to a managable 1-2 per day, after spamcop has
filtered the other 100 or so out.

Probably at flames!

grin !

I now consider e-mails to be a new form of expression. The freedom to
send high quality images to anyone in the world is enormous fun.

Indeed, but do you do this to complete strangers?

Yesterday I sent an image of Danish timber framed houses round a
village pond to someone who lives in the Arizona desert! Our only
common interest was music & solar power in this case.

Evidently you /do/ do do this to complete strangers. I have to tell
you, if you did it to me I'd be very very cross.

I e-mailed him
to thank him for a medieval piece he arranged (as a Midi file) on his
website. Asking where I might find the score. Fortunately he didn't
report me to his ISP for this awful indiscretion

Nor would I have, the first or even the second time. If you'd
persisted in sending me pictures of danish houses, then I'd have had
no hesitation in reporting you.

Its *my* email address, not a bl**dy drop-in centre for weirdos... :-)

I consider what you call 'private spam' a chance to talk to somebody
on the other side of the world.

difference between you and me is that I don't *like* complete
strangers walking up to me and trying to chat to me about whatever
interests them. I'm a private person, and I value my privacy even more
in today's global world of instant comms. Its already pretty hard to
have privacy, what what with my mobile (required to carry by my
office), pager (ditto), fax mch spewing garbage, email full of spam
and worse, website under constant attach etc etc. *sigh*

I still consider Paul's attempt to introduce a new free ads system as
a real breakthrough in this style of service.

I have now and never had a problem with that.

--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
CLC readme: http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/bchambless0/welcome_to_clc.html


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On 14 Jul 2003 12:15:42 -0700, in uk.sci.astronomy ,
(Chris.B) wrote:

I look at the internet and e-mail system from the opposite end of
your dark tunnel. I'm looking towards the brilliantly lit end.

My "dark tunnel" is the one where I receive, at my office email
address, even after spam filtering, around 20 spam mails per day, not
to mention the hundreds more that are prefiltered by our filters. At
home I've got it down to a managable 1-2 per day, after spamcop has
filtered the other 100 or so out.

Probably at flames!

grin !

I now consider e-mails to be a new form of expression. The freedom to
send high quality images to anyone in the world is enormous fun.

Indeed, but do you do this to complete strangers?

Yesterday I sent an image of Danish timber framed houses round a
village pond to someone who lives in the Arizona desert! Our only
common interest was music & solar power in this case.

Evidently you /do/ do do this to complete strangers. I have to tell
you, if you did it to me I'd be very very cross.

I e-mailed him
to thank him for a medieval piece he arranged (as a Midi file) on his
website. Asking where I might find the score. Fortunately he didn't
report me to his ISP for this awful indiscretion

Nor would I have, the first or even the second time. If you'd
persisted in sending me pictures of danish houses, then I'd have had
no hesitation in reporting you.

Its *my* email address, not a bl**dy drop-in centre for weirdos... :-)

I consider what you call 'private spam' a chance to talk to somebody
on the other side of the world.

difference between you and me is that I don't *like* complete
strangers walking up to me and trying to chat to me about whatever
interests them. I'm a private person, and I value my privacy even more
in today's global world of instant comms. Its already pretty hard to
have privacy, what what with my mobile (required to carry by my
office), pager (ditto), fax mch spewing garbage, email full of spam
and worse, website under constant attach etc etc. *sigh*

I still consider Paul's attempt to introduce a new free ads system as
a real breakthrough in this style of service.

I have now and never had a problem with that.

--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
CLC readme: http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/bchambless0/welcome_to_clc.html


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In article , Stephen Tonkin
writes
Chris.B wrote:

snip
There's spam and there's spam. Somebody selling something irrelevant is
an ever increasing irritant. A free advertising service for used astro
equipment is not.

Except that it's unnecessary. We already have one very good one, a few

snip

Oh, I see - and you decide what's necessary or not, right?
--
J Taylor

In article , Stephen Tonkin
writes
Chris.B wrote:

snip
There's spam and there's spam. Somebody selling something irrelevant is
an ever increasing irritant. A free advertising service for used astro
equipment is not.

Except that it's unnecessary. We already have one very good one, a few

snip

Oh, I see - and you decide what's necessary or not, right?
--
J Taylor

On 14 Jul 2003 15:06:34 -0700, in uk.sci.astronomy ,
(Chris.B) wrote:

The difficulty of holding a heated debate in slow motion. By
posting e-mails to a Google NG is not to be underestimated.

Chris, an aside: I realise that english may not be your first
language, but you do use capitalisation and fullstops very oddly. The
above is a single sentence, and does not need a full stop before the
word "By".

It makes your posts read like Haikus..... :-)
(maybe thats the intent....???)




--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
CLC readme: http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/bchambless0/welcome_to_clc.html


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