So, I made a blunder today. But let’s go back twenty-something years to start.
I was in love with Victorinox Swiss Army Knives from the mid 1980s. One of the (many) reasons I was looking forward to going to Switzerland with my family was my ability to purchase, in Switzerland, one of my beloved knives.
Today, I get an email from slickdeals.net advertising — what else — a top-of-the-line, $80+ Swiss Army Knife for under $35. The sale is one of their “Gold Box Lightning Sales”, which means it has a duration of minutes to hours. So I go to GMail and send out a quick email to, oh, just about everyone, telling them about the sale.
Then the proverbial X hits the Y.
It’s kind of funny to me, now, in a rather embarrassed way, the first time I’ve been reasonably accused of spamming. But yes, that’s what happened — everything from pure jest to someone seriously threatening to block my emails.
I can’t really claim any extenuating circumstances, so let this be a warning to you: if you see an awesome deal, even if you think everyone you know might be interested in it, spammers have ruined it for the rest of us, and sending out a mass email to all your friends might not be the best route to go.
Anyway, I ordered my knife, and I hope some other people were able to order knives of their own — if you’re not already Leatherman devotees or something.
And if you got the email and hated it, I’m really sorry.
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My girlfriend was looking over my shoulder when I got the email you said, and she thought it was automated spam (the bad kind). I knew better, because I recognized the ‘From:’ header. In whuffie terms, it got you a -1 from me, but you had some whuffie built up being a longtime reader of your blog, so the damage wasn’t too drastic.
This reminded me of the time I sent an email to the class list for the first-year Math course in university. There were a few hundred people on the list, and I made the mistake of asking the whole list if there any more of those funny math jokes coming our way. I felt the pain of a friend telling that wasn’t cool, so I’m cool with the email you sent out as long as you feel the pain and don’t do it again.
(Besides, I’m in the market for a knife with a smaller toolset. Too much “girth” on the one you were pointing out!)
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