Subject: You are the victim of the spammers.

From: William Cattey <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 09:57:40 -0500

Today I received email that looked like yet another "visit our web site 
for this great stuff" scam.  It was addressed, "Dear Professional 
Librarian", but I am not a professional librarian.

I visited your web site.  It looks like you put a lot of effort into 
your work.
You guys understand a lot about Darwin and history, but have created an 
invitation to your site that is an INSTANT turn-off!

For those of us who have lived on the internet, an email like yours 
feels just like one of those "EXCITING OFFER" telephone calls that 
instantly make us want to AVOID the sender at all costs.

The WORST way to make a good impression on the internet is to cold call 
someone with an email and say, "I've put you on my email list.  Take 
this action to get off of it."

The BEST way is to create your web site, and be patient for people to 
find it through the search engines.

It is ONLY because your site is SO good that I'm writing this letter.  
Normally I would do what we at MIT tell our students to do when we get 
email like yours:
	1. DO NOT REPLY, since the bad guys use that to identify responders 
who, rather than being unsubscribed will get more.
	2. Put darwinday.org in the blacklist that discards all correspondance 
unread.

Instead of that, I will politely say:
	Take me off your email list.
	PLEASE change how you invite people to your site.

  You have already done your reputation harm. Perhaps a change in 
approach and the passage of time will undo that damage and bring you 
the interest your site deserves.

William Cattey
Software Project Manager
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge MA

P.S.  Your disclaimer at the bottom, including a postal address is a 
nice try, but still smells like the bad guys.  You CAN'T get the class 
of viewers you seek through this means.