[Dovecot] BEWARE: This list is being harvested for leads

[Douglas Mortensen]

I personally didn't mind a one-time notice from the dev's team that that are now offering paid commercial support. What if I WANTED it? I felt like it was a courtesy email from them to let me know that it's available.

If those emails continue unsolicited, then it may start to feel like spam to me, but this did not.

In general, I've actually been looking for ways to financially support good open source projects. I have worked with many & find that oftentimes, the ones with hood commercial support tend to be ones that have the manpower resources needed to quickly fix bugs, patch vulnerabilities, maintain a strong development schedule & give decent support through mailing lists & similar means.

So when I received the email, immediately I thought: "Hmm. This may come in handy down the road, and would serve two purposes by giving me an easily justifiable means to support the project".

That is all.

-
Doug Mortensen
impalanetworks.com
Sent from my Windows Phone
________________________________
From: Giles Coochey
Sent: 5/17/2012 9:33 AM
To: dovecot at dovecot.org
Subject: Re: [Dovecot] BEWARE: This list is being harvested for leads

On 17/05/2012 16:20, Dennis Guhl wrote:
> On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 10:56:50AM -0400, Charles Marcus wrote:
>> On 2012-05-17 10:20 AM, dovecot-20120517 at billmail.scconsult.com wrote:
>>> On 17 May 2012, at 9:46, Charles Marcus wrote:
>>>> Tim is working closely with Timo, and I'm sure got Timo's permission
>>>> to send that email to list subscribers.
>>> I subscribed to the Dovecot Users mailing list, not "Whatever spam
>>> Timo thinks is justifiable."
>> I'm about ready to add you to my PLONK file Bill.
>>
>> That is ridiculous... if a formal announcement about a commercial
>> support company that has Timo's blessing isn't pertinent to
>> participants on the dovecot support list, then what is?
> I did not received this mail so I can't comment on the appearance but
> I would not be happy to receive any unrequested commercial offers,
> irrelevant which form it comes along.
>
> I can understand Timo's desire to acquire as much paying customers as
> possible, but in this case he should at least have announced --
> publicly -- what he plans to do and how to opt out.
>
> Such 'ideas' are a sure way to kill all the good reputation, which is
> crucial for open source projects. And, not to forget, it can lead to
> some nasty legal problems. Such forms of email marketing are at least
> in the EU and US prohibited.
>
>> Just admit you made a silly mistake and move on...
> The only silly mistake was this answer of yours.
>
> Dennis
[sarcasm on]
No, I think we should lock Tim & Timo up and force Timo to eat lentils
while he codes his IMAP server for us. It's incredibly astounding that
he should even need to be involved in a business where he makes money
developing my free IMAP server software!!!
[sarcasm off]