hi i was bored i threw this together... in like 15 minutes, been a while so forgive the real lack of angst and anger... --- "du0d. Let's be friends" By: y (juuri@well.com) USENET. Fun. Exciting and New. Come aboard some company is trying to rape you! It was of course something that couldn't be avoided... that is USENET advertising. With the influx of society as a whole we not only get the combined intellects of the world we get all of the faults it has as well. The problem I have is not really the Ads themselves. It is the turn they have recently been taking; friendship ?! Email is a very personal thing, even when on a mailing list crammed with hundreds of people it still feels like the email is coming to you or you are part of the conversation. USENET feels much the same way. Because of this some "sly" advertisers are using a new gimmick to try and sell their products. Instead of blatant advertisements they present themselves as "friends" of the reader who is "doing a favor" or passing on some "secret info". Take some of the following examples: "Hey here is that website I was telling you about..." "I had the same problem, they answered it at this " "FOR MY FRIENDS ONLY! " Those are a few of the more obvious examples and anyone who can think for themselves should be able to spot them, right? Well of course they should and the advertisers know this so they are getting even sneakier. A new technique employed is the moronic question/answer method. In this simple con turned Internet, someone uses an account and asks a dumb question... in response some one replies with a seemingly innocent third party product that fixes the problem of the first person. This is just one of the new tricks used by Internet advertisers. So why the fuss? Why do I care? Why should you care? Well because unlike the rest of the world advertising on the net is in it's childhood. Like a child we, as the parents of the net, can mold and shape the way it develops. Enabling us to have a medium of communication that isn't brandished with a corporate logo or slogan at every turn. Of course you can do nothing and have another television that insults you at every opportunity or you can put forth just a small amount of effort and make a real difference...