[Zope] Should we really be seen as a bunch of spammers?

[Chris Withers]

Hi Pete,

Peter Sokolowski wrote:
> 
> Chris I apologise for trying to offer you a system that can be of benefit to
> you and your company, but obviously you can not see the benefit of this.

I can see the benefits, I can't, however, understand your marketing tactics.
I've been well aware of Bizar software for some time and had been considering
your product for a project. So, you didn't need to send me a lump of HTML spam
to try and ease money out of my pocket. It's degrading, you take what for all I
know could have been a first class product and lower it to the level of a cheap
porn site by your method of advertising.

> To let you know our product is very extensively used in the ZOPE community
> and will be by The Zope Corporation them selves. They see the merits and
> benefits of the product and fully support and endorse it.  They helped a
> great deal with the developments and OZ-Zope have even built their own store
> with it.  

That's good news :-) I'm sure a case study on zope.org or information on your
site could have told me that when I went looking. I'm fairly sure you didn't
actually include that information in your spam, which is strange. 

> I don't know what exactly has ticked you off, obviously you were
> having a bad day.  

Well, let me be entirely explicit. I have an extreme aversion to unsolicited
marketing communications such as junk mail, coldcalling and spam, especially
when they are damaging to the industry which currently forms my primary revenue
stream. As a form of marketing, spam simply doesn't work and as a national
account manager, I'm sure you know that reputation and referal will get you a
lot further in most cases.

> Probably because your company is going under you refuse
> to look at any system using your beloved ZOPE to help you increase profits.

Quite the opposite. Zope is at a big crossroads right now. We have Zope 3 in
development and a backing company whose stated aim is to grow Zope 10x over the
next year. It can go one of two ways; if we can all work together with integrity
I reckon we can make Zope into a world class product and very lucrative market.
If we let ourselves cheapen what is currently a shining light in the open source
world then it may end up being just another crappy little system that people are
forever trying to replace or ignore completely.

> I have no problem being told to fuck-off but your attitude sucks and you
> should get a life.  

I am more than happy with my life, thankyou ;-) As for my attitude, yes, it is a
problem since I really should stop handing out free business advise to
competitors :-(

> I will also post your response email to the zope mailing
> list, so that people can see first had what a wanker you are and I will make
> sure I also on send your response to Zope Corp them selves.

Well, I see you chose to back down on that so I thought I'd do it for you :-)

> You were given the option to unsubscribe from our list, 

Now that's the kind of thing that REALLY pisses me off. Why should I have to do
ANYTHING to stop recieving junk email? I certainly didn't ask for it, why should
I have to ask for it to stop?!

<more abuse from Pete snipped>

> I would be happy to continue this conversation over the phone, but I am sure
> that to are too gutless to go down that path, as you feel safe protected by
> your computer screen.

Well, were I in Australia I would happily continue it face to face ;-) As for
the phone call, I would, but to be entirely honest, I'm not going to spend the
cost of an international phone call in providing you with free consulting on how
best to market your product. Should you be interested in some consulting, do get
in touch, I'm sure we can arrange something :-)

cheers,

Chris

PS: If anyone is interesting in either the initial piece of spam or my response
to it, please let me know and I'll forward them off list...