i do not usually anger. and never easily. but i am stewing in a pissed off mood at the moment. bad experiences on usenet today. i had forgotten how leashed dogs bark at mailmen. idiots. so eager to piss on a public doorway and pretend they have the right to deny entrance.
you ever try to do something nice for someone only to have them spit at you as if you just shat in their living room? that’s the feeling. and i swear, it does nothing so much as make you wish you had diarrhea so you could show them the difference.
not even sure if any of you know what usenet is, but you might call it the grand-daddy of forums. somewhat. it’s a bit of old school, underground that still manages to hobble along even though it’s archives are forever being bought and sold like street corner head candy and most who inhabit it are in similar manner those shakey, flakey addicts you see staggering up the street at night, fiver in the hand, looking to score.
(though i suppose it’s likely much more than a fiver these days, eh?)
the company i work for specializes in personalized publicity. the woman who owns and has built it is something of a legend in the industry, though not likely you’ve ever heard of her if you’re a regular joe or jane like me.
she got it in her head that it would be a nice thing to do to run a series of articles over a mailing list and let whomever wants to learn about the industry sign up and have access to them. pretty tight stuff, since you usually can’t get this kind of information without paying for it (and paying through the nose at that).
so ok, we craft a piece that explains what we’re doing, and why. we make a point of pointing out that we’re not looking to sell anything to anyone, but if someone happens to remember us later in life, that’s cool.
we make a point of saying the way we have it figured, the ‘do it yourselfers’ out there can take this information and run with it. and that’s something that makes this woman (and myself) smile.
so. i carefully pull a listing of groups that some of our clients have recommended (as they know who is there and have knowledge of what percentage of the place has sighed for wishing this stuff was available).
it isn’t your average list. some groups you’d not expect to see… but since we’re referred to them, i include them.
well. in typical fashion, the equivilant of the yard dogs set up their barking. cries of ‘spam’ and ‘advertising’ and whatnot ensue. it ticks me off since the piece clearly states otherwise.
but it ticks me off more because the folks doing the yelping are folks who really should know better… but i suppose when you’ve got publisher money backing you or a fat enough wallet to afford this kind of information, you don’t much care about the rest of the world. convenient, that.
old habits die hard, and i let fly with a few choice words myself before remembering that usenet jerks get that way by spending too much time thinking everyone loves the sound of their voice… and most times, it’s the lurkers who care and they’ll never post because after all, who ever really wants to have to interact with the yard trash?
so. i let it slide. but, as usual, ghetto junkies can’t do that, can they?
i wake up this morning and i have an email from my provider. apparently someone thought it would be real cute to accuse me of putting a trojan on the newsgroup. utterly false, of course, but it’s not an unusual tactic on the part of the usenet crack society. after all, if you can’t bully someone into doing what you want, you can just lie, right?
and they wonder why i don’t usually bother with usenet anymore.
oh, then there was the email from an old friend whose still active there… expressing her understanding but no less implying that somehow, saying you’re willing to give away good information is a bad thing. telling me i should apologize to everyone and hope they don’t hold it against me.
yeah. right. what color IS the sky in their world, i wonder? truly.
the funny part is, most of those yard dogs are struggling with publicity themselves. most are single title authors who shuffle dutifully along the publisher assembly line and bow for every crumb and politely say, ‘thank you sir, may i have another?’ and have for as long as i can remember…. as i too, am a usenet veteran and yes, i do remember those names.
the end result? well, nothing really. the notion of giving “an in” to the people i used to know kind of shriveled up and died. it’s like growing up in the ghetto and returning after becoming affluent… you think they’ll be glad to see you, but they’re too busy being angry because you got out and they didn’t.
as if it was magic. or chance. or anything other than fucking back breaking hard work.
i remember when usenet was a good place to be. it’s become quite a cesspool it seems. sad, that.
the difference between stupidity and ignorance is that ignorance never got the chance to learn. stupidity did, and thought it knew better.
usenet is filled with stupidity. and what ignorance is there will, i suppose, remain as it is… since, at least in this case, we’ve decided to take insight from the old axiom about pearls before swine and offer this set of free information to people who have both the brains and the insight to be glad to receive it.