Date:	Fri, 22 Dec 1995 05:31:11 -1000
From:	sasaki@netop3.harvard.edu (Marty Sasaki)
Message-Id: <4beivv$fqs@netope.harvard.edu>
Organization: Harvard University - OIT/NSD
Subject: Commercial stuff on the net...


First the disclaimer:

	"Sasaki Kites and Flying Toys", makes and sells kites and other
	flying toys. My opinions may therefore be biased.

I support the creation of rec.kites.marketplace. It would be useful
for announcements of new kites, kite reviews, and kites for sale. It
would keep rec.kites open for more general things and if someone was
interested in selling or buying something, then they could read
rec.kites.marketplace.

I would probably read both groups anyway, (I read both
rec.music.makers.markerplace and rec.bicycles.marketplace) but those
who don't want to wade through all of the messages or pay for
downloading "uninteresting messages" can choose. If the new group gets
created, then I'll start up another mailing list for those rec.kites
readers who don't have news feeds or prefer to read their stuff via
mail.

Someone sees a new kite and tries it out and has a blast with it and
wants to tell the world how great this new thing is. It is hard to
contain this enthusiasm and I'm happy to see this happen, whether the
kite is one of mine or someone else's creation. Of course I'm a bit
jealous when it's someone else's kite, because that someone else has
just received a bit of advertising. When it is my kite, I'm the
beneficiary and I smile a bit.

As a kite manufacturer it is hard to resist responding to every kite
review with a "try one of my kites...", or "for something different,
you might try a Katana Freestyle."

It's a good thing that manufacturers do resist. There are lots of
folks on the net with commercial kite interests. With about 15 seconds
of thought, I came up with 10 manufacturers who read and contribute to
rec.kites, and this doesn't include sponsored flyers, or just
enthusiastic non-sponsored flyers. If we all responded to every review
with our own counter review, or found someone to give us a testimonial
when another kite testimonial was given, rec.kites would be flooded
with commercial stuff.

While there is no law about this happening, I think that this would be
a bad thing and when asked about it, I recommend folks to use
restraint and to make it clear what their affiliations and biases are.

We should all be thankful that folks are willing to invest time and
money in rec.kites. I have benefited a great deal by reading this
forum.

We can also be thankful that rec.kites isn't bombarded with chain
letters, pyramid schemes, advertisements for all sorts of services
and products, or discussions about non-kite things. One of the groups
that I read, alt.boomerang, has been flooded with such postings...
-- 
Marty Sasaki            Harvard University         Sasaki Kites and Flying Toys
sasaki@harvard.edu      Network Services Division  90 Melrose Street
617-496-4320            10 Ware Street             Arlington, MA 02174
                        Cambridge, MA 02138-4002   phone/fax: 617-646-1925



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