From: Kennita Watson (kwatson@netcom.com)
Date: Thu Dec 19 1996 - 07:26:26 MST
Paul Wakfer wrote:
>How about *using* the chain letter approach to reward people for propagating an
>important idea or other piece of information which we find highly valuable to
>spread (say, my Prometheus Project information). It would work this way. I
>start the letter which contains the information which I which to propagate and
>at the bottom states, that if you cross off the first name on the list, add
>your own to the bottom, and send me the name that was at the top of the list. I
>will pay that person (say between $0.50 and $1.00) for each time that I receive
>his name. Apart from the fact that most people (especially the ones that I
>would want to attract) are *so* against chain letters that they would not even
>begin to read it (unless they don't realize until the end that it is a chain
>letter), what do readers think of this idea?
>
(ARGH)
*Apart* from that? What about your reputation? But that aside, I don't
think it will work. Also, if I'm not mistaken, at about the word "pay" it
stopped being merely obnoxious and started being illegal. To miscellaneous
government agencies, the US Postal Service among them, I think
"chain letter" + "money" = "pyramid scheme" (lambast my specifics if you
like, but _I_ wouldn't try it). I certainly wasted time (not much
money, fortunately) on such things in my young and foolish days, when
I knew less about both statistics and social psych.
Or, in short, "Bad idea! No donut!"
Kennita
Kennita Watson | The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,
kwatson@netcom.com| but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do
| members of the same family grow up under the same roof.
| -- Richard Bach, _Illusions_
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