Who should NOT insult you - but it seems do

[TheBaldOne]

I have a particular domain hack of a certain US State, brilliant, love it, and especially brilliant from my point of view is that the .com is so badly developed it has an Alexa rank of over 1.9 million.

Well I am getting out of domaining as such, just selling the last few of the domains I am not in the process of developing. Well it struck me today that with this particular domain it could be a great asset for either of the two major political parties in the US, so I emailed both of them and let them know that the domain was for sale, making sure that I was therefore unbiased because as a non-US citizen it would be wrong of me to try and influence commercially the politics of the US.

Anyway, within minutes of emailing the Democratic party I was asked basically to give them the domain because of their 'obvious limited resources'. I replied questioning 'their limited resources' and pointing out how much they spend on net, tv, and radio advertising and that it was illegal for them to ask a foreign national for a 'gift' and it would be illegal for me to make a 'gift'.

The next email from the individual then ends up by referring to me as " you retromingent wackadoo". Now those that know me may or may not agree with the description, but I find it strange that an official of one of the two major US parties would refer to someone like this.

So the upshot of it is simple, if you ever think about doing business with the Democrats from Wisconsin get ready to be insulted by Mr. Graeme Zielinski, their Communications Director, to become hostile and insult you if you are not willing to participate with him and/or the Democratic Party of Wisconsin in breaking the law, US law that is.

And just to think I was actually rooting for the Democrats.

 

[sky]

Talk about 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater'. You let one bad experience with one individual sour you to a whole party? Pretty lousy sample size. What's the margin of error of your assessment? Infinite?

You approached him, right? ... You were trying to peddle a domain. Unsolicited marketing to someone who wasn't in the market for domains, probably someone with no known history with dealing domains/domain sales?

You do realize a lot of people don't like that, and see it both as SPAM and the sleazy squatting and mark-up of domains, and blame that kind of thing for the exorbitant costs and saturation of the name space, right? Not everyone has the appreciation of domaining and the issues involved that we have. Have you no perspective on yourself or the industry?

 

[Sabre]

I think the point he was trying to make was quite simply;

'There was no reason to be so rude, especially considering the respondent really should know better considering he is a politician.'

 

[sky]

And I'm saying, from the political worker's perspective, who was the rude one? The aggressive unsolicited marketer offering a domain at what to the uninitiated probably sounded like an egregiously marked-up price of an otherwise $10 domain name, or the politician who got pissed off that his time was wasted for what sounded like a scam? What was the domain name and how much was being asked for it? It could have been a lot of $ for what some might consider a mediocre name at best.

That's what the majority of domain names people are pushing really seem like. Even technically 'good' domain names can sound absurd or useless to someone who is not well-aquainted with domaining.

Politicians are just people, and besides, that guy wasn't even running for office, just doing the business of the party in one state. Of things people shouldn't do, there are many. Being overtly rude and blowing off steam is just one of them.

 

[Sabre]

The politician was in the wrong. They may be 'just people', but to run as a politician you have to take on the extra social responsibility.

In the UK, a politician would probably face an internal party enquiry if they called someone a 'retromingent wackadoo'.

If he didn't like the solicitation, he should have hit the delete button.

 

[sky]

The politician was in the wrong. They may be 'just people', but to run as a politician you have to take on the extra social responsibility.

In the UK, a politician would probably face an internal party enquiry if they called someone a 'retromingent wackadoo'.

If he didn't like the solicitation, he should have hit the delete button.

Sounds like it was not a politician though. Just a campaign worker. I think anyone who SPAMs email for sales better have a thick skin. In the USA we don't like SPAM or scams, and see far too much of both in our inboxes, so if someone is a bit testy about that, that's understandable, even if it isn't the most diplomatic thing. For all that guy knew it was Karl Rove pushing that domain just to thwart the campaign.

 

[TheBaldOne]

Sabre, thank you, that was exactly my point.

As a domainer of several years standing I am used to people both offering ridiculously small amounts for domains and for others to call me names, but the one thing I did not expect was a 'spokesman' for a State party organization to:

1) Lie to me about their finances
2) To suggest that I partake in a criminal act with him/them
3) Be insulted by someone representing the Democratic Party of Wisconsin

Sky, I suggest before you make any other comment you Google this, um, let me call him 'representative'. I did afterwards and I am amazed that ANY party would allow someone like this to be given the authority of making comments on their behalf.

I do hope he runs for office some day, I will have a field day with him. (Oh, and by the way a certain Wisconsin reporter has already emailed me for more details.)

 

[sky]

Well, my perspective is you SPAMmed a guy with a short temper and got what spammers get for it (and I've tried to sell domains as you do, but I fully understand the risks). Further you said you're 'used to getting lowballed'. Hey, if he's not into buying domains I bet anything more than $10 sounds like usury and domain squatting. He may be a jerk, and a bad person to have running the campaign, but if people find out the real story with all the facts.... how you contacted him, the domain name, the price you wanted, the whole thing could just as easily become a referendum on cybersquatting and SPAMming, and you might end up martyring the guy. It's a two way street, and what really surprises me is that you don't seem to recognize that. You were not a saint in the matter, you were being an invasive salesperson, and I don't have enough data to gauge the quality of you were offering or the reasonableness of what you were asking for it.

 

[TheBaldOne]

Sky have you Googled him yet?

I really do not care what he calls me, but he is a representative of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, who the hell would place someone like this in such a position? (Oh, and by the way, the price is low, other States are for sale much higher, just I am getting out the game, but that is for another thread.)

As always people will see it in different ways, but one thing is for sure, unless it was political misspeak (which seems a very popular excuse in the US) he solicited me to partake in a criminal act of being a non-US citizen donating to an American political party.

 

[999names]

Hey baldone. Let's not get political in this thread since many of us have ideologies that might ignite a huge fire fight, aside from that, I agree with sky that the guy prob gets so many emails. Also in these situations you never know who the email went to and who exactly answered it since they have hundreds of assistants and volunteers.

 

[TheBaldOne]

999names.

Firstly, I am not getting political, but commenting on the act of an individual who is Communications Director of a State political party - I would have made the same post if the response was from the 'other' party.

Secondly, the address the posts came from identify them as coming from the individual named.

Thirdly, how did such a person get to be in such a position, oh sorry, the excuse is he might receive thousands of such solicitations, does that mean he has cost his party thousands of individual votes (plus of course possibly those of family and friends of those he has insulted)?

This is a great story, unfortunately though it is not fiction.

 

[sky]

You are conveniently leaving out a lot of data, and avoiding any and all culpability for your own actions. That's always a red flag. You're completely one-sided and hiding something, and I'm not referring to tax returns (if you've been following U.S. politics lately).

No one is defending the U.S. political system here. Lord knows, I'm not. But this really isn't about that. And something tells me, you're not really making an airtight case for this guy's so-called criminal act either.

Until you cough up what the domain name is and how much you wanted for it, there's no basis to believe that your price was low or that you offered a name most domainers, or non-domainers would consider valuable or worth the money. And comparing your price to the cost to other state domains doesn't mean a damned thing if you didn't solicit someone who is versed in buying domains, who you contacted at random.

 

[TheBaldOne]

Sky, if you are an experienced domainer, as we are talking about a State domain, a domain hack, what the hell do you think the domain is?????

I will give you a clue, look at my avatar.

Obviously you know little of what domain hacks sell for.

Now back to the point, have you Googled Mr. Zielinski yet? When you have then comment.


Edit
I am of for a while for a cuppa and something to eat, be back later - didn't think this would get much notice at all, but it has got some jumping to this blokes defence - wonder why?)

 

[sky]

Sky, if you are an experienced domainer, as we are talking about a State domain, a domain hack, what the hell do you think the domain is?????

I will give you a clue, look at my avatar.

Obviously you know little of what domain hacks sell for.

Now back to the point, have you Googled Mr. Zielinski yet? When you have then comment.

TheBaldOne.us?

I have no idea, but you completely dodged the whole point I made, which is, the guy you contacted at random has every right to be completely uninformed about the going rates of domain names! He doesn't owe you what you consider a good price, nor can he be expected to know the going rates of domains of any sort. It is absolutely absurd, ludicrous even, to imply he is accountable for that or that he has to waste anytime or one ounce of energy trying to find out when you were just peddling stuff to enrich yourself through SPAM e-mail.

---------- Post added at 02:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:17 PM ----------

BTW: As irrelevant as your red herring is, I did google "Mr. Zeilinski" and have no basis to vet the potentially partisan attacks on the guy. He might be a jerk, he might not, but it is completely tangental to what I see as the core dysfunction of the case you are making against him.

 

[domainerdon]

You chose the wrong side...

 

[TheBaldOne]

Hi, back.

Right then:
1) I only told him I had the domain for sale on eBay
2) The 'avatar' is the small picture that shows under your user name, yours is a presumably meant to be an abstract mountain scene with the sky above. (Look at mine)
3) Of the people who I email I guess no more than 1 in 100 (that's right 1%) are rude in reply.
4) The gentleman was not 'contacted at random' but as the Communications Director of the Wisconsin State Democratic Party. (That is not random.)
5) I sent an email to him and some of his colleagues, one email each, this was not SPAMMING them, it was introducing myself and the item I had for sale.
6) The question remains HOW did he get a position whereby as an individual he is able to officially represent a State political party let alone be the Communications Director?
7) I am not putting up a screen of any kind or putting out any red herrings, I am simply saying that someone in 'his' position should:
a) Be polite when declining any advance;
b) Not mislead the public;
c) Should always find out what he is talking about before commenting on it (that is to cover your argument that he doesn't know about domains)
and
d) BE POLITE - even if he is seething about something/anything inside.

 

[sky]

Responding by point:

2. Rather than pussyfoot around, why don't you just tell us what the domain name is and what you wanted for it? Otherwise it's all hearsay. I can't guess what it is exactly from your avatar, but I'm not into state name hacks or whatever those are.


4. It is random in the sense that he is likely not a buyer of domains, so his perspective on domaining is random. You solicited him out of the blue, not the other way around.


5. Yes, polite or not, it is SPAM because you are sending unsolicited email to sell them something.


6. Who cares? That's the red herring part. And you dragging the whole of US politics into this because you couldn't peddle a domain and start a political flamewar because your feelings were hurt is just absurd.


7 The problem with all your moralizing is, moralists could easily launch as many and possibly more legitimate or more severe arguments against what you did. And this is just getting boring now. You blundered into the wrong place with the wrong thing and got your pee pee slapped and now you're crying to mommy about it, and writing a new Bible on etiquette. That seems like a smokescreen to me.

 

[TheBaldOne]

Sky, oh dear, this is not a sales thread, therefore I will neither post the domain directly (and I think most people know what the domain is) nor will I quote a price on this thread of how much I am selling it for. (If I did either - both of which can easily be found easily in numerous ways - I would no doubt be in breach of the rules and this thread could be closed, that is not some trap I will fall into.)

I sent out an email to a named Director who publicly publishes his email for people to contact him. I introduced myself and my product to his organization which welcomed contact, that cannot be classed as SPAM (and most definitely not a legal definition of SPAMMING).

I am aghast that ANY State party of EITHER political party should have in place such a person as this who does represent them. As I said to the woman reporter I am aghast at receiving it from an official, but like all organizations some officials do not behave how you would expect.

Morals are a personal thing (though they can also be a social thing), and I do not force my morals on anyone, I may try to persuade others, but I am not in politics therefore I do not need to 'force' my morals on anyone else. As for the rest of your comment that I will not even comment on but let others make up their own minds on your wording.

Oh, by the way, glad you have learnt what an 'avatar' is now. Also you should find out about domain hacks, many sell for $xx,xxx and some sell for $xxx,xxx's.

 

[enlytend]

Someone you put in charge of "communication", for a company, a political organization, etc. is expected to have the discipline to deal with people in a tactful and diplomatic manner - regardless of how they feel about them personally.

"Retromingent wackadoo" is how you describe them to your co-workers, after you hit "send" on the email where you very politely and courteously decline their offer.

(Am I the only person who had to go running to the dictionary to look up "retromingent?" Gotta give him points for vocabulary, even though it was highly inappropriate.)

 

[sky]

I have seen countless absolutely crappy domain names people insisted were worth a million dollars. A domain is ultimately worth what you can get for it. When you SPAM, you'd better have a thick skin.

If I pulled what TheBaldOne did (and I have in the past) and someone flamed me for it, I might *privately* call them an A$$*@(# to myself under my breath about it, but I wouldn't go whining to everyone in the world about how shocked I was at what the world has come to in this day and age and how this dirty politician is so much more shocking than all the clean politicians, and how people get pissed off. Why? Because I would not let myself off the hook for peddling a squatted-on domain name with SPAM in the first place. To a bunch of people in the same organization, no less! I would, of course, understand why I did it. I could even justify the rationale of domaining, buying a domain, squatting on it, and marking it up, but I would keep it in perspective and realize there are other equally valid points of view that justify trash talking someone who domains like that. So he met a hot head who he peddled to and the guy thought he deserved some heat. I'd say get over it and move on and drop the whole Movement for Perfect Political Campaign People. Politic's heated and brutal these days, particularly this time of this season. Step into a hornet's nest, looking like a chiseler and you might get stung.

 

[TheBaldOne]

Enlytend, no you are not the only one who had to look it up, I have already said on the 'other site' I had to, also quite pleased I did not know what it meant as well!

Anyway it is late here now and as I have said I am giving up domaining so no more 3am's or 4am's for me. Going to go and watch a little tv or read and behave like a normal person (urgh, there is always a downside to everything. )

Catch up with this tomorrow.

 

[ecalc]

I sent out an email to a named Director who publicly publishes his email for people to contact him. I introduced myself and my product to his organization which welcomed contact, that cannot be classed as SPAM (and most definitely not a legal definition of SPAMMING).

The United States Federal Trade Commission defines spam here:

Unwanted commercial email – also known as "spam"

source: http://onguardonline.gov/articles/0038-spam/

 

[DU]

No party is going to put their name on an INdian Hack let alone in Wiscons.in

 

[TheBaldOne]

Ah well, having slept on this overnight I have taken the domain off of eBay, it would be wrong for a potential buyer to purchase the domain name without realising or being informed of the potentially toxic baggage that could come with the domain.

Obviously Blake has transferred this to the 'Break Room', and therefore I feel that I am able to satisfy 'Sky's' requests for the name of the domain and what was the asking price.

Sky:

The domain name is: www.Wiscons.in

The asking price was: £3,500 (circa. $5,500)

Now it is not Mr. Zielinski's fault that this domain has potentially toxic baggage, it was me posting on here and another forum commenting on his reaction that has caused that situation. But that is life, you win some you lose some.

I am still aghast at Zielinski's reaction, and it was not spam, if he or anyone else cares to try and make a criminal case of it I would more than willingly contest it, for the definition of 'spam' given above would mean that over 80% of emails from businesses, organisations, news broadcasters, etc. are committing the same offence.

Undoubtedly this story will now run, I am down circa. £3,000 after costs, Mr. Zielinski has been shown to be a complete ............., and other events may unfold from it.

Now then, I wonder if I should consider putting a site up on Wiscons.in, perhaps a satirical site concerning one person and the organization he belongs to. Hmmmm, now that is something worth considering.....

 

[bulkdomainz]

No representative of any organisation (terrorist organisations/ drug cartels/ robbery gangs/ trafficking gangs excluded) should allow themselves to be 'caught' being that rude in such a scenario! He was obviously taking the mick when he asked for the name to be donated due to limited resources. Mr Communications Director could have NOT replied! There is a delete/spam/purge button for emails you consider spam!