Whose Domain is it Anyway?
I wonder sometimes if the trends and activities that people exhibit on-line would translate into acceptable behaviours in the ‘real world’. Let’s just think of a few, shall we?
a. Would you go up to a shop window on the High Street and post your own business’ fliers on their windows without permission, or worse still graffiti their windows to get your name heard and ‘out there’?
b. Would you then try to persistently sell the same shop completely unrelated products to the lines they are displaying in the window?
c. Would you do any of the above without the permission of the store manager or possibly even an Area Manager or the CEO?
I truly suspect not. There are perfectly valid ways of getting your name ‘out there’ that don’t intrude on other people trying to do the same thing.
Why then do we have such activities as:-
a. Persistent junk mail (which untargeted, unsolicited mail is rightly described as) trying to sell us products I do not need, want nor have the time or money to purchase?
b. Persistent attempts to post on this blog or other websites adverts and links to completely unrelated products to those that our legitimate business is offering?
c. Attempting to do the above without asking our business whether this is okay?
People’s and business’ websites are not the public domain and whoever’s site you are posting on they have the absolute legitimate right to refuse to publish your adverts. The same goes here at mOxby Design.
If you want to post junk on ANYONE’s website, because I’m not just defending my own corner here, consider this:-
You come home from work one day to find you can’t open your door due to posters advocating the destruction of rainforests for the furtherance of the urbanisation of planet Earth. You work for Greenpeace and those posters have been seen by countless members of the public who are now shocked at your sudden change of stance. You haven’t had a chance to defend yourself but people are now puzzled because there is an inconsistency of message.
That’s why webmasters around the globe have the right to refuse to publish any non-related or too obviously self-proclaiming ‘reply’ to your topic. If your message doesn’t fit with where you are posting it, then don’t post it.
You wouldn’t do it in the ‘real world’, so why do it on our shop front? Ours happens to be a website rather than on the high street, but that shouldn’t change the respect we should all be showing each other, should it?
