🚀 go-pugleaf

Peter Salesses wrote:
>
> Listserv owners,
>
> I really must protest this obvious
> commercial use of the list.  When I signed on
> it was for the purpose of growing
> professionally.  Having to view additional
> requests for purchases of a company's product
> is unfair and unwarranted.
> Peter Salesses
>
> Ludwig Otto. wrote:
>
> > I thought that you might be interested in our annual Christmas special.
 Since
> > 1987 we have been offering one issue, one time, free classified advertising
 in
> > our quarterly journals at Christmas time.  ...

A few thoughts occur to me concerning this...

(1) AECT-L is not moderated (and is likely to stay that way,
        I imagine, unless AECT finds some abuse-loving person
        willing to serve as moderator), so all subscribers can
        probably expect to see occasional junk email here.
(2) The "commercial use of the list" didn't really offer anything
        for sale, but rather offered a free-of-charge service
        (free advertising).
(3) Although the journal titles listed didn't have any connection
        to educational technology that was obvious to me, some of
        them may contain papers of value to AECT members.  I do
        think that the publisher could focus the announcements
        a bit better, however.
(4) One way to grow professionally is to become aware of
        commercial products and services that may be of value
        in one's work.  Commercial announcements are a way to
        do this.  I've seen several announcements of conferences
        which I assume are intended to make money (as well as to
        inform attendees, foster exchange of ideas, etc.).  This
        does not, IMHO, make the announcements inappropriate for
        AECT-L.  They are inappropriate, though, if they have
        nothing to do with the interests of AECT-L members.
(5) That which helps you grow professionally may not be the same
        as what helps someone else.  Is it "fair" to insist that
        only what you want to see should be on AECT-L?  (I agree
        that the journal posting was a bit far-fetched, but nowhere
        near as bad as some of the junk, political and otherwise,
        that I've seen on other Listservs.)
(6) You may be able to set your email program to filter out all
        postings from sources you don't like.  If not, you can
        still zap them manually -- it takes only a moment -- and
        not have to read them.  If the noise level gets too high,
        you can unsubscribe from AECT-L, though I hope you don't
        need to do that.  You can also send nasty notes directly
        to the person who posted what you don't like, rather than
        posting to AECT-L, if you wish.

--

                      -- Vincent Johns