Back in July of 2005, I suggested An Email Blacklist of Technology PR Agencies and caught a lot of flack for it. Not surprising, really.
Then in November of 2005, I followed up with PR Spam to Bloggers Continues and couldn't decide what to do about it. Calling out a single person or agency at a time is time consuming and not really a good way to spend my time.
Just a few days ago, Chris Anderson took the bold step of publishing a list of all the email address he's blacklisting because of PR spam. In fact, Sorry PR People: You're Blocked does a nice job of explaining how many of us feel about the random solicitations and cries for attention we receive:
So fair warning: I only want two kinds of email: those from people I know, and those from people who have taken the time to find out what I'm interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that (I love those emails; indeed, that's why my email address is public).
Well said, Chris.
He's taking a very hard line on this and I'm tempted to follow the same model. I will, of course, hit the "Report Spam" button in Gmail before blocking a particular sender. If enough of us do this, it just might help a little bit.
Posted by jzawodn at October 31, 2007 12:20 PM
I agree 100%.I have always said that to my wife.The press and most of America thrive on the unfortunes of others.People will sit and watch for hours if something bad happens.But a feel good story just has no interest.They are to boring.