Re: OT: vendor contacts after list posting

[John Kristoff <jtk () DEPAUL EDU>]

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 10:51:56 -0500
David Boyer <David () BVU EDU> wrote:

> For what it's worth, not long after making this posting I was contacted by
> Bradford Networks about their NAC products. I'm not sure how everyone else
> feels, but it's a real turn off for me when vendors troll these constituent
> group discussions to generate sales leads.

Agreed and it may fall under the spirit of the "Promotional Messages and
Advertising" guidelines for this list.  Hopefully the moderators will
chime in and clarify.

> Maybe this is common practice and I'm just being naive. Any thoughts?

Only by spammers.  You have some options:

  o  delete and ignore, perhaps for a sour opinion of the represented
     organization
  o  complain publicly (you choose this)
  o  complain to vendor (marginally useful in my experience)

and my favorite, if they send you a large attachment, which is just
a PDF brochure of something they're trying to get you interested in,
don't get made get even... send them back the "I see you're interested
in bvu.edu, we have an excellent range of programs, this 10 MB attachment
is our course schedule, in it you will find contact information for fall registration..." :-)

John