icnmgrjill
09-19-2006, 09:58 AM
Last weekend, another IC website (cystitispatientsurvey.com) had what I consider to be a catastrophic software failure. They were trying to implement new software for a newsletter and actually ended up setting up a discussion group that resulted in hundreds of SPAMS/EMAILS being sent to IC patients on the web. There were several challenges with this.:bonk:
#1 - Many people who received the first email explaining that it was a test mail apparently deleted it without reading that it was a test and who it was from.
#2 - Some replied saying "Why are you sending this to me?"
#3 - Then others, after more than a few dozen replies were sent to the entire list, decided that they needed someone to blame... and they chose the IC Network and myself... despite the fact that that original email clearly showed that it came from another website. :mad:
Some guessed that the ICN server had been hacked. It wasn't. Some guessed that I had sold email addresses to spammers. I didn't. One person thought that it was revenge for an email she sent some time back complaining about some of the recipes in our online cookbook. Absurd because I don't even remember that email.
So, when I came into my office yesterday morning, I was swamped with emails telling me to stop spamming everyone. People were very angry :cussing: and as I checked it out, it was clear that the emails all originated from this other website that is run by a patient who has been funding, out of her own pocket, a long term survey of cystitis and bladder conditions. This was OBVIOUS if anyone just looked at the email that it came from which used her web address.
Glitches happen. God knows we've had our own through the years. But what deeply offends me is that some people picked an easy target rather than doing the obvious... going to the website and looking at it. :loco: As a result, I feel that the ICN was libelled unfairly and inappropriately.
I've been in touch with that site owner and have shared with her why her software did what it did (It's notoriously bad which is why I've never used it)... and also to ask for a public apology for the comments made about the ICN and me personally on that list.
To that one person who chose to enter my name into the fray, your "guess" about the source of the email showed a lack of judgement and common sense. If you had just read that first email and/or looked at the email address listed on each of those emails, you would have seen that this never came from the ICN. I'm very offended that you would blame this on me... and make the assumptions that you made which have libeled our site and work.
We need to grow up here. :tsk: We're working with very ill patients and none of us would be doing this work if we didn't care. I operate with a firm set of values that my parents taught me and when those values are questioned, it upsets me... especially when I'm not involved in the incident at all.
Jill
#1 - Many people who received the first email explaining that it was a test mail apparently deleted it without reading that it was a test and who it was from.
#2 - Some replied saying "Why are you sending this to me?"
#3 - Then others, after more than a few dozen replies were sent to the entire list, decided that they needed someone to blame... and they chose the IC Network and myself... despite the fact that that original email clearly showed that it came from another website. :mad:
Some guessed that the ICN server had been hacked. It wasn't. Some guessed that I had sold email addresses to spammers. I didn't. One person thought that it was revenge for an email she sent some time back complaining about some of the recipes in our online cookbook. Absurd because I don't even remember that email.
So, when I came into my office yesterday morning, I was swamped with emails telling me to stop spamming everyone. People were very angry :cussing: and as I checked it out, it was clear that the emails all originated from this other website that is run by a patient who has been funding, out of her own pocket, a long term survey of cystitis and bladder conditions. This was OBVIOUS if anyone just looked at the email that it came from which used her web address.
Glitches happen. God knows we've had our own through the years. But what deeply offends me is that some people picked an easy target rather than doing the obvious... going to the website and looking at it. :loco: As a result, I feel that the ICN was libelled unfairly and inappropriately.
I've been in touch with that site owner and have shared with her why her software did what it did (It's notoriously bad which is why I've never used it)... and also to ask for a public apology for the comments made about the ICN and me personally on that list.
To that one person who chose to enter my name into the fray, your "guess" about the source of the email showed a lack of judgement and common sense. If you had just read that first email and/or looked at the email address listed on each of those emails, you would have seen that this never came from the ICN. I'm very offended that you would blame this on me... and make the assumptions that you made which have libeled our site and work.
We need to grow up here. :tsk: We're working with very ill patients and none of us would be doing this work if we didn't care. I operate with a firm set of values that my parents taught me and when those values are questioned, it upsets me... especially when I'm not involved in the incident at all.
Jill