Re: Recovery from the news.
- From: Logan Shaw <lshaw-usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 07:12:09 GMT
David Gersic wrote:
On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 22:46:29 +0100, Robert Sneddon <fred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:And if you're the sort of Monk who can't be bothered to fill in Yet
Another Stupid Webform[1] to get access to a newspaper's website, then
what do you do?
Fill it in with absolutely worthless crap. 60151 is a good zip code, for example. If they're dumb enough to think I'll provide them with
real data, then they're welcome to whatever I choose to give them.
I find that 12345 is a good zip code. It corresponds to a real place,
Schenectady, NY, and as a bonus, it's a place that has a cool-sounding
name. And they can't claim that it's a bogus zip code, because people
really live there, including one person whose name I've forgotten but
who nevertheless is a (distant) relative of mine.
Unfortunately, I read somewhere not too long ago that the USPS is
phasing out or has phased out use of that zip code for some odd reason,
which strikes me as a shame. If it ever becomes a completely invalid
zip code, I shall have to fall back to 90210. (Beverly Hills, that's
where I want to be...)
On the subject of nutso people thinking they're going to get valid
data back without giving anything in return, I bought a brand spankin'
new car (for the first time ever, incidentally) a few months ago, and
now I'm getting ALL these stupid surveys in the mail. Disregarding for
a moment the question of how these people got my contact information
and seem to know exactly what type of car I bought, the interesting
thing about them is that they all seem to want me to spend 10 or 15
minutes of my time filling out a survey so that they can compile the
results and sell the information. I did the J.D. Powers & Associates
one because they were nice enough to include a crisp, new $1 bill in
the envelope. But the others have generally offered nothing. This
is really not that great a value proposition to me: I provide the
product that they make money off of, and in return I get what?
The one I got today took it a step further, though. They had a blank
at the top of the form where I could choose the charity I wanted them
to make a donation to. So I went looking for the amount of money
they'd donate if I returned the form, and that was conspicuously
absent. Instead, I found a statement that said that the total amount
of money they'd be donating to all charities is $30,000. That's nice,
but the bottom line is that if I fill out the survey, they donate
$30,000, and if I don't, they still donate $30,000, so whether I fill
it doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference, does it? So what, again,
should I spent my time? I suppose one possible motivation is if I have
a favorite charity and would like to play a zero-sum game where I fill
out a survey so that my charity can compete with the others, then maybe
I should fill it out, but I don't see why I would want to do that.
- Logan
.
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