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From: vcerf@NRI.RESTON.VA.US
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.dev-environ
Subject: Re: Advertizing on the Internet
Message-ID: <9104182035.aa14698@NRI.NRI.Reston.VA.US>
Date: 19 Apr 91 00:35:43 GMT
References: <9104151809.AA03794@rhino.ncsl.nist.gov>
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I am going to take advantage of the several lists involved in this exchange
to suggest to all of you a modus operandi in dealing with "advertising"
versus "informing." If a mailing list is set up and the members are informed
when they join that the list is either intended for or will be subject to
unsolicited product announcements, then the prospective list member has
the option to decide whether to subscribe. Quite apart from any appropriate
use rules which may apply to the various underlying networks supporting
the Internet, it seems to me that list usage ought to be in conformance
with list member ground rules. So far as I am aware, isode was not set up
for the purpose of tracking commercial products. I suggest that if there
are members of isode who would find this helpful, a new list be created
for that purpose and that prospective members be advised of this.

There will surely be times on isode and other lists where a question
about available solutions to a problem appears on the list and the
answer involves a commercially available product. At that point, 
the vendor of the product has the option to respond privately to
the party in question. A third-party who does not profit from 
mentioning existing commercial products could probably respond to
the list for information purposes without raising questions, but
would be well-advised to keep the response terse and to suggest 
that interested parties deal with vendors off the list.

Hope this is of some help.

Vint