BBW e-mail blasts...

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 5/3/05 at 6:54pm

so i asked CRAIG or ROB for a PM to no avail; i'm wondering now if anyone else has experienced what i did recently.

There is one free Hotmail account i use for BBW "business" that usually receives all the e-mail blasts. No problem there.

But this week, i got an e-mail blast from the site, to another addy. An e-mail address that, to my knowledge (and i'm careful about it for some professional reasons), i have only communicated on this site via PM (never entered it on a cyber form of any sort or put it in a public thread, just sent it via PM to some other BBW members i felt i could trust).

So my respectful query would be: how did BBW manage to get this less anonymous e-mail address of mine on their list? do they "cull" PM's in order to build their e-mail distribution list? just how private are the PM's?

No judgement, just curious. Any one else experience anything similar?

[ckeaton]

Posted: 5/3/05 at 7:14pm

That would be a violation of IT ethics, though not illegal...

I am willing to go out on a limb and say that you simply must have submitted it when you signed up, or perhaps an old account. If you don't have forwarding from your BWW "business" account, then I would PM Rob directly.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 5/3/05 at 7:28pm

yeah, i went through the "PM ROB directly" route with the other post. When Rob or Craig (or any other member) is not online, the only way to PM them is to search through the engine for a post of theirs. There is no way to search members by name to see their profile and click the button for a PM. It's one of the few chat or bulletin board sites without that simple feature.

Trust me, i am careful with the e-mail address that received a BBW e-mail blast this week. i DID NOT inadvertently register it on this site; i'm even a bit paranoid about it. i didn't even have that addy when i registered on BBW and started my account; i obtained it through being hired after becoming a BBW member.

If this thread doesn't gather ROB or CRAIG's attention, i'll search for their profiles attached to their posts through the search engine and PM then.

But it would be great to hear if anyone else has experienced this or something similar, to check if my personal puter hex is still in effect *wink*.

[Plum]

Posted: 5/3/05 at 7:35pm

Y'know, there's a simple way to find posts by the mods. The thumbtacked board announcements tend to be theirs.

[jjdude2000]

Posted: 5/3/05 at 7:39pm

You can always search for their name - that's how sometimes I find posts by people without a profile.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 5/3/05 at 7:41pm

thanks Plummy. And, JJDUDE, i hadn't tried searching a member name before. That might work.

[ckeaton]

Posted: 5/3/05 at 7:41pm

There simply HAS to be another explaination.

[Rob]

Posted: 5/3/05 at 11:25pm

Thanks for those that sent me this link...there's about 18 ways to contact me through the contact forms on the site, or PM of course which I recommend if you need to draw my attention to something.

Anyway, we're certainly not harvesting email addresses from PMs. Aside from the slew of ethical issues there, they're all encrypted by user, and not technically feasible without a massive uncoding of much of the site. Besides, getting more than enough spam myself, I'm a firm believe in not sending emails to those who don't ask for them.

If you've gotten one of our special offer blasts then it's had to come from registering for the site, or one of the email blasts.

If you want to contact me privately with whatever the address is, I can most probably locate the source.

Rob

[KelRel]

Posted: 5/3/05 at 11:39pm

woo hoo Rob to the rescue! This is why we love you Rob, among many other reasons

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 1:14pm

PM sent to Rob, thanks.

[ckeaton]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 1:16pm

What about the contests? I think they're run independently of the site, but if you used your "other" email for a contest, you might have gotten something. I'm sure Rob has handled it. I know how important ethics are to us IT cats...

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 1:22pm

only entered one contest, and did not use the e-mail in question. Rob will solve it, i have every confidence. i did PM him that i sincerely hoped i had not offended him by suggesting BBW have a way to locate a member profile by a member's name.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 1:44pm

Rob informs me i signed up some six months ago for "column notification" using the e-mail in question. i sincerely do not recall doing so (using that e-mail) but the cyber-record may reflect that i did. i do recall wanting to get updates on VOICEANTH's column, which i think has disappeared, but if i used my work e-mail to do so it must have been under the influence of euphoric reviews of shows i happen to have liked in NYC. In the words of Nathan Detroit..."sue me, what can you do me?"