Re: Looking at the U in UBE

Although I have not read the preceeding post . . .

I used to agree that e-mail should be free.  But, I no longer believe 
that.  Because, it is not.  Anyone who believes they are sending e-mail 
for free obviously forgot about the fees they paid to their ISP, 
telephone company, or cable company.

The reason that e-mail has been so inexpensive thus far is that it was 
inexpensive to operate.  Now, due to abuse, it is no longer so 
inexpensive to operate.  The cost for the operation of e-mail servers 
and the bandwidth to support them may seem insignificant to the end 
user.  But, those costs are not insignificant.

I am subscribed to this list because I believe that the sending party 
should be responsible for the e-mail they generate.  If the e-mail is 
sent for the purposes of marketing, then the marketing people (and not 
the ISP) should foot the bill for the costs of the e-mail transport and 
delivery.  If the e-mail is sent for the purposes of discussion between 
ISP customers, that falls within the realm of services for which we pay 
our ISP.

Will customers understand?  Is there a way to accomplish the goal of 
making marketing people pay for the eye-balls?  You bet.  But, not until 
something like im2000 is built . . . if for nothing more than a 
reference design. 




Here are a few interesting number for ya!

FYI -

45,000 e-mails . . . each read and disposed in 15 seconds (don't forget 
download time and the time to delete the offending messages from the 
trash) . . . consumes 187 hours of time . . . at $20 an hour . . .that 
is $3,750.00.  And, that is if you are only earning about $40,000 a 
year.  That is a little more than a month of your time.  That is real 
money.  How much do you believe your employer . . . or any employer 
would think that their employee is worth.  Well, a $20 an hour employee 
is worth roughly $75 an hour to any random company after taxes, and 
benefits.  That translates these numbers up a bit.  45,000 e-mails . . . 
each read and disposed in 15 seconds . . . consumes 187 hours of time . 
. . at $75 an hour . . .that is $14,062.50.  Now, do you really think 
that $450.00 is adequate compensation for lost time and wages. 










Casey Allen Shobe wrote:

>Any of these money-based approaches I've heard scare me, and not just a 
>little.
>
>I have 45,000 emails in this account - you propose that people would have had 
>to invest a total of $450.00 in me to let me read them, at risk of paying a 
>lot more?
>
>You're posting to a mailing list, but you seem to forget mailing lists in your 
>approach?  If the mailing list has 2000 subscribers, there's no way anyone 
>will pay $20 to send a single email, plus the risk of some people saying it's 
>not wanted.  If you say "well it's a single recipient" then who's going to be 
>in charge of deciding for the mailing list in an unmoderated case?
>
>$0.50 may be a lot to you for an unwanted mail, but it's nothing to the people 
>who make money off of sending them out.
>
>E-Mail is free and should always be free.  Any system that is not will never 
>succeed.
>
>Cheers,
>  
>