Well, I'd like to tell Google 'that dog don't hunt' because I'm really frustrated with them. For the past several posts, as I've done my usual 'notification' gmail telling individual readers there's a new post, gmail has balked at delivering the gmails. You've probably noticed when you get the gmail saying 'new blog entry' from me, you and me are the only two gmail addresses shown. So, I have about 130 people in a 'group' in my personal gmail account who are blog readers. I send out the notices BCC, so nobody else's email address is shared. Google's rationale is they are trying to stop bulk emails which are spam. Ok - good thing, but now I've got to figure out a way to get around this annoying 'fix' they've put into their gmail program. The long and short of this is you are going to get a personal email from me asking you to respond back if you want to continue getting the blog posting notification.
From what I can figure, gmail group mailing list needs to fit certain criteria: Be under 100 people, or not automatically go to 'spam' in any receiving email account. I know I have problems with being sent to Spam (kind of like getting sent to the corner, isn't it?) because I have a weird email address that doesn't include my name. I actually have that gmail account, but I don't use it. Ok, maybe another approach - use that gmail account to send out blog post notifications. Something to think about.
My current fix is to send out individual emails to people who I wonder whether or not they read the blog, and ask them to respond if they still want to be on the notification list. Now, I have people who have never responded or commented a single time to a single blog. Keep in mind I've written 403 entries. You'd think they'd have SOMETHING to say at least once, but that's just me. I never pass up an opportunity to talk. However, I know of at least ten people I'm sure who read the blog who've never had a thing to say. So, I'm tightening up my automatic notification list of people. Believe me, I've had thoughts of, "I wonder if so and so is dead?"
Then, this whole Google/gmail thing started me thinking..... Yes, usually dangerous the way my mind works. First, do you realize that gmail is becoming like "Kleenex" - the name an awful lot of people use when they mean email. I've never heard anyone say, "Give me a paper handkerchief anymore than someone asking for my electronic address. I've heard lots of people say, hey, text me your gmail/email account. Ironic, isn't it? Send me your electronic mail account address electronically (and don't forget wireless) over my telephone. Hmm....can you just imagine Ben Franklin trying to figure out the meaning of that sentence?
Then, there's this whole snail mail/email thing. First, the term 'snail mail' goes all the way back to the 1840's when a Philadelphia newspaper used the term snail mail to refer to the overland stage mail delivery vs. that newfangled telegraph. Russell Baker, long time New York Times humor columnist, referred to 'snail mail' in a 1969 column lambasting the post office who had raised their stamp rate to $.06! Oh, how I long for those stamp rates since I sometimes feel I'm the only person on the planet who still uses stamps. Well, except for my friend, Paula.
Electronic mail, to give it the Sunday Go to Meeting name, has only been with us since 1971 when Ray Tomlinson, a computer scientist at BNN Technologies at Cambridge, wanted to send a message from one teletype machine to another teletype machine (in the same room) on Arpanet (the pre-internet used only by scientists). He's the one who picked the @ sign as part of the address since that symbol wasn't really used in the computer programming of the time. Tomlinson doesn't even remember the first message. Pity. I was hoping for the equivalent of the Alexander Graham Bell first message on the telephone ("Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."). If you don't know what a teletype machine is - go google it. The ultimate corporate success: your company's name is a verb.
So, back to gmail. Google has a great product. I suspect the limiting of group gmail is more about trying to sell 'business gmail accounts' since it makes them more $$ than it is about spam. And, as we all know, it's always about the money.
