I’m confused. Are you perhaps missing some context/haven’t read the post?
Tl;dr: We have emails of 1500 unusually cool people who have copies of HPMOR (and other books) because we’ve physically sent these copies to them because they’ve filled out a form saying they want a copy.
Spam is bad (though I wouldn’t classify it as defection against other groups). People have literally given us email and physical addresses to receive stuff from us, including physical books. They’re free to unsubscribe at any point.
I certainly prefer a world where groups that try to improve the world are allowed to make the case why helping them improve the world is a good idea to people who have filled out a form to receive some stuff from them and are vaguely ok with receiving more stuff. I do not understand why that would be defection.
Oh, I did misread your post. I thought these were just people on some mailing list that had no relation to HPMOR/EA and you were planning on sending them books as advertising. This makes a lot more sense, and I’m much more cool with this form of advertising.
EDIT: I will point out, it still does scream “cult tactic” to me, probably because it is targeting specific people who do not know there is a campaign behind the scenes to get them to join the group. I don’t think it is wrong to advertise to people who have given their consent, but I do think it is dangerous to have a culture where you discuss how to best advertise to specific people.
I’m confused. Are you perhaps missing some context/haven’t read the post?
Tl;dr: We have emails of 1500 unusually cool people who have copies of HPMOR (and other books) because we’ve physically sent these copies to them because they’ve filled out a form saying they want a copy.
Spam is bad (though I wouldn’t classify it as defection against other groups). People have literally given us email and physical addresses to receive stuff from us, including physical books. They’re free to unsubscribe at any point.
I certainly prefer a world where groups that try to improve the world are allowed to make the case why helping them improve the world is a good idea to people who have filled out a form to receive some stuff from them and are vaguely ok with receiving more stuff. I do not understand why that would be defection.
Oh, I did misread your post. I thought these were just people on some mailing list that had no relation to HPMOR/EA and you were planning on sending them books as advertising. This makes a lot more sense, and I’m much more cool with this form of advertising.
EDIT: I will point out, it still does scream “cult tactic” to me, probably because it is targeting specific people who do not know there is a campaign behind the scenes to get them to join the group. I don’t think it is wrong to advertise to people who have given their consent, but I do think it is dangerous to have a culture where you discuss how to best advertise to specific people.