Robert L. Weiner: Nonprofit Fundraising Technology Consulting » Uncategorized

LinkedIn Discussions Are Spam Magnets

Robert — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:00:05 +0000

I'm a member of several LinkedIn discussion groups, but my participation is lukewarm at best. One of the biggest problems is spam--the noise is drowning out the signal. There doesn't seem to be a way for moderators to review messages before they're posted or for participants to flag spam for review by moderators. As a result, a group I belong to that's dedicated to discussions of nonprofit social media projects includes the following off-topic messages:

Vacancy advertising on the UK's leading job boards from only £99.
Download free ebook about anxiety management
Please vote for me
Top Strategy for Strong PPC Campaign Management
Top Formula for a Strong PPC Ad copy to Max the CTR, Conversion Rate & ROAS
Best Tactics in Creating a Manageable PPC Campaign-step by step
Best Tactics in Creating a Manageable PPC Campaign-step by step
Top Strategy for a Strong PPC Keywords Generation Campaign
Lose weight with FREE online alpha therapies mixed with affirmations
What Topics to Post in Your Dating Site

I'm a forum moderator on TechSoup and we hosts spend a lot of our time reviewing messages and deciding whether they're spam (many are spammy but not quite over the line). It can be a lot of work, but it pays off in a forum that's mostly signal. Part of the solution is having decent tools for managing spam.

A hole in your license = no fly zone

Robert — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:10:49 +0000

I recently renewed my California driver's license. The clerk punched a hole in the license and gave me a paper "temporary license." I didn’t recall this procedure from my last renewal 10 years ago and assumed my old license would be valid until the printed expiration date several weeks hence. I was mildly surprised when I was asked to show the temporary license when I boarded an airplane from San Francisco to L.A. a few days later (and again when I rented a car), but didn't give it much thought. You can imagine my surprise, however, when the TSA official at LAX would not allow me to pass through security with my old license and the temporary extension. He said I needed another ID and should not have been allowed through security at SFO with just my old & temporary licenses. I dug through my bag and found that I still had my passport with me from a trip to Canada. Whew.

Is this at all rational? I understand (now) that the hole in my license meant I couldn't drive with it. But isn't the photo still me? Even weirder, the TSA guard asked if I had my social security card with me. First, who carries that? Second, it's a piece of paper I got when I was 12. There's no photo. The signature doesn't even look like it's mine.

Stop Sending Vacation Replies to Mailing Lists

Robert — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:16:16 +0000

Anyone who's a member of a listserve has spent the summer deleting vacation replies from list members. Here's my approach to preventing this: Before a vacation I used to manually visit every one of the more than 30 lists I'm on and set my status to No Mail (or unsubscribe if that was my only option). When I returned I had to do the reverse. It sounds pretty stupid when I say it. Then, since I usually wanted to see what I missed, I also had to visit the archives for each list (I was out of luck with those lists that don't have archives).

Then I wised up and created a separate email address just for my list memberships. My vacation message only replies to my main address, not the list address. When I return I can browse the list messages, or trash them all, or mix and match.