Re: Cheap Legal Books !

fjmd1a@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
M.I.5¾ wrote:


Advertisements are spam.

Is that really true?

Loosely defined, I'd say "yes".

I ask, because I *might* at some point want to advertise a product or
service on uk.legal. I can't see why that would be contrary to
netiquette. I am a regular poster (and it would be relevant to the
newsgroup).

Speaking personally, I would not be offended if a regular poster, starting a new project/enterprise, were to mention that fact on a newsgroup. If the project were highly pertinent to the core subject of the newsgroup, so much the better. Also, I see nothing wrong with a poster offering a commercial service in direct response to another, bona fide, poster seeking that service.

Obviously I would be quite clear that I was advertising - the OP here
was being less than honest in trying to imply that he wasn't selling
anything. What's more his website is surpising in its pointlessness
(who would sign up)?

Exactly. By writing in the third person, it was obvious he was purporting to be a disinterested third party. This calls the trustworthiness of the company into question.

So, I am absolutely behind a lot of the invective against the OP, but
spam used to be characterised by massive cross-posting and irrelevance
(as I recall). Adverts were common when I started to use USENET nearly
20 years ago and not always unwelcome. Have things changed?

20 years ago there was only a tiny fraction of the current traffic on the internet. Nowadays, with spams being sent by the million, people are a lot less tolerant.

--
Mike
.

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