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From: bzs@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: net.jobs,net.news.group
Subject: Re: Job Opening
Message-ID: <839@bu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 4-Jan-86 22:45:33 EST
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.839
Posted: Sat Jan  4 22:45:33 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 6-Jan-86 03:28:42 EST
References: <156@mdee.UUCP> <2673@umcp-cs.UUCP>, <749@decuac.UUCP>
Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci.
Lines: 81
Xref: watmath net.jobs:1728 net.news.group:4915

Article 1.

>From: tlr@umcp-cs.UUCP (Terry L. Ridder)
>Organization: The Terry L. Ridder Family
>
>In response to the referenced posting, I am asking that the net
>be polled as to whether postings of this nature should be allowed
>to continue.
>
>The poster of the article is using the net for a *FREE* ride which
>it is not. Why should Companys, Universities, and private individuals
>pay for MDEE's advertising cost. The net is not *FREE* it does cost
>money to keep it running.

Article 2.

>From: avolio@decuac.UUCP (Frederick M. Avolio)
>Organization: ULTRIX Applications Center, MD
>
>Sheesh.  What's the big difference? "Why should Companys, Universities,
>and private individuals pay for" *anyone's* "advertising cost?" Why should
>they pay for reviews about books or movies?

A while ago I remember posting an article claiming that it seemed that
commercial concerns were often (not always, of course I get a reply from
one lone individual out there who says "not me") playing apologists for
commercial uses of the net while non-commercial users were flaming about
such uses.

Seems like we have a good one here.

I for one am quite rabidly against the commercialization of this net.

A review is not an advertisement (ask how much the movie paid to
be reviewed in your local newspaper, hopefully nothing, anything else
would be a scandal), gimme a break, you are stretching the term beyond
limit. I suppose this note is an advertisement for Dictionaries
because it is in English (more or less.) Just because someone may happen
to benefit (eg. a good product review) is not proof of an advertisement
(this is so silly I don't know why I even argue.)

I doubt one would like to play Philadelphia lawyer (old idiom, hairsplitter)
with someone like that. No, I doubt we could come up with hard and fast
rules that apply like a mathematical formula for what is commercial and
what is not.

Yes, I agree it's hard to see how a job offer is going to be completely
non-commercial when obviously only companies usually hire people on this
net (I doubt anyone will get too much luck with domestic help wanteds here.)
I suspect the rule will have to be (and has been) relaxed quite a bit
for net.jobs so the example above may be bad (Fred may even be right tho
he has a weird way of reasoning it out.)

I would offer one possible rule of thumb with products other than jobs
(is a job a product?): If new ones will be manufactured/obtained and
distributed by you to fill demand, then it probably doesn't belong on
the net. That is, me selling my car is ok, GM selling their cars
isn't...simple, no? Me selling my PC is ok, an IBM dealer hawking PCs
is not, etc. I am sure some bean-counter out there will find an exception
to this but I rely on people's good judgement to go with the spirit and
not the letter of such a rule (if it were adopted.) Of course this all
presumes a financial transaction first.

I am seeing more and more violations of this unofficial rule, as I said
before, I think the companies out there are getting *real* hungry for
the opportunity and some are starting to burst forth.

As a bottom line argument, isn't there a legal reason why we have to
be careful about such things? I seem to remember one of the net-gods
explaining something about the FCC reclassifying life as we know it
if they adjudge commercialism and we will all have to start seeing
an ad every 7 mail messages of which 3 must be I Love Lucy re-runs :-)

I'm serious, I think a lot of the commercial folks out there don't under-
stand in their lust for profits that they can sink the ship for a little
free advertising.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University

This is not an ad for Boston University, in fact, it may have a negative
effect....