advertising?

[Stephen Birkett]

The advertising issue is a difficult one. I still maintain it's easy
to delete an unwanted *non-commercial* ad without reading it...the
frequent cute personal messages are much harder to identify than the
occasional ad we see on pianotech. I always have to read them
first in case I might miss some interesting content.

Don't agree with the comment about the list not being a
democracy...it's up to the list owners how democratic a list is. I'm
not clear where the pianotech owners lie on the issue of
democracy...perhaps they could clarify for us. I can think of one
list to which I subscribe...musical intrument restoration and
conservation (not mentioning any names)...that I would liken to
Stalin's Russia. There should be prizes for getting a message posted
there.

> [snip]...Harpsichord list. Since one cannot go to harpsichord
> dealer and buy a
> harpsichord

There are harpsichord dealers, both east and west...and some in
Canada.

> - one usually must either order one or buy one from a present
> owner - the announcement of one being available is actually a valuable
> bit of information to the early keyboard community. So is the
> availability of a unique instrument from an owner/musician.
> A piano technician, with seven old urights, however, is for all intents
> and purposes a dealer....
>
The posted ad actually involved some quite unusual intruments,
inluding 4 pre-1840 pianos...not just a bunch of junk to be unloaded.
So the argument above would certainly apply to the ad we're all
talking about. I, for one, was interested in the unique items that
were being offered...I believe there were other enquiries also. So
the posting must have been interesting to at least some of the
subscribers.

> This is a mailing list. Which means that whatever gets posted here goes
> directly into peoples' e-mail boxes. Some subscribers pay by the message.
> Or by volume. Others have very limited disk space. It is simply unfair to
> shove advertising into their mailboxes.
>
Good point. But, anyone who joins a list without digest mailing, must
expect to receive many messages which go straight to the delete
bin...I'm pleased to receive a couple of really interesting posts at
the expense of 20 deleted ones. If I had to pay per message I'd go to
digest mailing or not gripe about the junk...it's an individual
choice. Why pick on the occasional classified ad? I'm sure there are
people out there who have no interest in questioning the use of
cross-stringing in modern pianos...and others who are bored silly by
all my fortepiano posts. But I know from responses that there are
also people on pianotech who *are* interested in these things.
That's really the function of this kind of discussion group: to
promote both ideas for discussion and provide information. The key
here is to ensure that all postings are clearly identifiable in the
subject line. Then use `del' freely.

[Disclaimer: The signature block below contains 0% advertising...and
100% information.]


Stephen Birkett (Fortepianos)
Authentic Reproductions of 18th and 19th Century Pianos
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
tel: 519-885-2228
fax: 519-763-4686