phone spam

If you just want aurora alerts sign up to www.aurorachasers.com/ and redirect it to your o2/vodafone mail. Its been done already, feel free to put a link to that in A&S so your subscribers can sign up.

Actually I'll save you the trouble on how to set this up in a free way to the supplier provided they dont piss the customer off!:

Just set up a mailing list, redbrick, yahoogroups whatever that people can sign up to.

Allow some (ideally ONE but perhaps 2 or 3) people to post to this list. Block all others.

Regular subscribers sign up with an O2/vodafone/whtever address snd set their accounts to send them an sms when a message is recived from the list.

When an approved person posts a message it gets forwarded to the mailing list and then onto peoples mobiles.

There are some issues:

. Messages need to be short and to the point. This is because the message will be padded with From: Date: lines etc. This is a message I recieved for the recent aurora:
---
Email Alert
From: adeclist@AuroraChasers.com
Subject: ADEC Kp:7.00 Time:3:17AM Nov 10 UT Confidence:100% LastKp:7.00
---

. The list should be specific. You should have an aurora list AND a meteor shower list and an ISS list. not a general observing list. The cost of this service is on the customer (they pay for the SMS to their phone, and yes you are required to explicitly tell them this before they subscribe, and the expected volume of messages) and they will not want to pay for more than they want. Plus since you are not getting the money there is little point.

. The mail should only come from a real adminstrator address eg. aurora-alert-owner@irishastronomy.org, this is so that the customer can mail a real life person to be unsubscribed if necessary (Its also a dataprivicy requirement).

. Though shalt not cry wolf. I would expect to recieve about 10 aurora alers per year. If you use it more than this or use it for other promotion people will unsubscribe and complain.

. The sender needs to be near a computer to send the message. This has been the downfall of many schemes. Its no use sitting in the wicklow mountains watching an aurora, with a mailing list to tell people about it if you cant send the email! Though this is not a problem as much now, as people have capable phones and PDA's. You can of course always tell people to call a certain number when they see something and this person can then send the email.

Actually why did we never do this in the end? I cant see the problem now. I'll implement it during the week requests for list types and volunteers for message senders to me as a pm please.

Of course you can go the commercial route and make money out of the customers who sign up to a higher rate service (ie the O2 services to send you goal scores etc) this costs your customer 13c rather than 11c. And you'll only make a profit if you can convince your customers that they want to recieve a lot of messages from you. And only more profitable than a premium rate number if you can convince them to recieve a lot of messages (which is why you see this only advertised for news headlines, football scores, weather, daily stuff). Margins are very thin on this without a lot of volume.

If A&S is seriously considering doing this can I suggest you advocate using a method that provides the best experience to the customer? I might sign up if its only a handful of alerts a year (unexpected metor peaks, aurora) but would not if it meant recieving a txt every other day.

Cheers,
~Al

You've got it all wrong. Offering A&S subscribers a free service isn't the way to do it. The way to do it is get the info off that site, and put it on a 1550 number.

When will you people learn that this astronomy lark is all about turning a profit!!! :roll:

Exactly!
They are a company, their aim is to make a profit, astronomy is only a means of achieving this for them,
BUT, there is nothing wrong in making a profit, as long as they offer a fair price.
and that is the real problem here.

As far as I'm concerned, if a shop (of any kind) seems to be too expensive, do not go in, do not give them an inch.
If you are perceived as competition by them, that is exactly how they'll treat you.

Spceboy, I think you’re missing the point here, and to be honest, I think you’re deliberately missing the point. You’ve jumped in with the jealousy accusation – easy to make – but have ignored the fundamental issue. If I wanted to receive aurora alerts then I would sign up for them. I would seek that information and ask to receive it through my phone/email. I did not seek information about Astro-Expo. I did not want to receive information about Astro-Expo and I most certainly did not provide contact details to Astronomy & Space Limited when I took out my subscription to their magazine so I could receive this information in this way. Therefore Astronomy & Space Limited has acted illegally. If people don’t act against this issue now, then soon all of our voicemail boxes will be clogged with unsolicited messages from all sorts of companies.

ESB, Bord Gais, AIB, B of I and various other groups have my mobile number. Do they dump messages in my voicemail? No. Why not? Because it is ILLEGAL! Who is doing it is not really the point – the fact that it is being done is.

If I had thought of this before launching the Observing Challenges Programme would I have done it? No. Why not? Because it is ILLEGAL!

To simply attempt to dismiss my concerns and opinions and state that this is an issue of whether or not one has a life is puerile. Again the fundamental issue is neglected and rather than refuting my points you attempt to cast an assessment over my person and the quality of my life. Keep to the issue at hand. Like how good is Astronomy & Space magazine? I think it is SHITE! It’s a rag! It’s worse than worthless. That’s just my view though. Bart like it, as I’m sure others do, but I don’t. I don’t have to – I am allowed to criticise and have personal taste. If I was here complaining about Eminem or 50 Cent and how rubbish their attempts at music are would you be so quick to defend them? The only thing I have kept from almost two years worth of A&S is Gordon Nason’s series of articles. The rest of it is worthless. Orbit? Have I read it? No actually, despite paying my subscription to the IAS almost a year ago. I can’t comment on how good or not it is. I can comment on the IAS and tell you that they are, IMHO, a group on the wane and I am not surprised considering the poor efforts they are making for their members and the public. I have read ARCTURUS though and I like it. I find the range of stuff in it very satisfying and the quality to be superb considering that it is both voluntary and free, therefore making it infinitely better value than A&S. Indeed I would go so far as to say that any or all of the IFAS clubs offer better value than that of Astronomy & Space Limited (trading as Astronomy Ireland). The range of speakers at this years Whirlpool was better than the last ten years of AI lectures, including Astro-Expo, combined. WSP is an expensive weekend, granted, but one where you meet a RANGE of retailers and very few New Realeans. We have different tastes and expectations. Let’s come to terms with the variety of opinions and just agree to disagree as the cliché goes.

What the hell has David Moore got to do with Mick O’Dwyer? What’s your point here? Oh I get it – the small attempt at humour at the end to take the sting out of your criticisms. Would Mick O’Dwyer have made the Louth team into Leinster Champions? Does he have a magic formula that transforms crap footballers into Leinster Finalists 2004? Name the most successful gaelic football team at minor level for the last ten years. Go on – I’ll give you one guess.

Spaceboy, you are a tonic. It’s very easy for us here to just sit and criticise without thinking that there are others who have opposing opinions. The last thing I want to do here is alienate you or start a flame war. Feel free to pm or email me if you want to discuss things further.

I have to agree to some extent about the AS magazine.
I got it in Easons a number fo times a few years ago and found the constant hard sell just too much.
If you look in Sky and Telescope (the best astro mag on the planet by a light year), Astronomy Now and Astronomy Magazine, you do no see this.

I was not, am not and never will be and AI subscriber (member or what ever you are), so I dont get the spam or emails, thank god.

Spaceboy, I honestly don't think its a matter of jealousy when it comes to opinions of AI here, its a matter of trust.

To all curent AI members, I suggest you reads the fine print next time you renew your membership, I'd bet that next time there will be a clause in there stating that you do accept these kind of texts or announcements as standard, at a cost to you.

Shane commented...

What the hell has David Moore got to do with Mick O’Dwyer?

Surely David is not taking up football managing, its not a "well paid" job
Charles
www.terracetalkireland.com/interviews/mick-dwyer.htm

In a previous post you mentiond that you had missed an astronomy event in a nearby county because it was not listed in the A&S magazine. The reason it was'nt is that we were NOT INFORMED ABOUT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE DESPITE REPEATED REQUESTS TO THE ORGANISERS!!!

I've spoken to DM about some of the other complaints that have arose on these pages and he and the Managment Committee of A.I. are looking at and discussing them.

Sorry Spaceboy, I have to disagree with you strongly on that note above here.

I am co-organiser of COSMOS for the last 4 years. COSMOS is run by Tullamore Astronomical Society, and is officially the second longest running Star Party after Whirlpool, in Ireland. THEN its AstroExpo, then Connaught.

Last year, I sent 3 emails to Astronomy Ireland etc about COSMOS '04, and did not receive a reply at all. Two were in December, giving plenty of notice about the event in case of last date for receiving notices etc as is the case for other magazines, and one email sent at the end of January. COSMOS '04 was held in mid March.

You know what, it did get a mention in the March issue. It was a 2" by 1" box on the contents page (I think). The reasn being that a new member, Mr. Dave McCann joined TAS after moving down to Rhode village about 10-or-so miles from Tullamore. We asked him in November, as a new member and fellow astronomy enthusiast, if he would like to be the TAS member to host the opening lecture on the Friday night of the weekend. Which he did. It was about Cassini, it was very interesting, and unfortunately, we did not hear from him since.

We knew he was with Astronomy Ireland, he told us - and we didn't care! BUT, I think he MAY have been scared-off a little, perhaps after seeing some of the stuff on these boards regarding AI, maybe not. If this is the case, all I can say is that it was unfortunate, was in no way personal, and does not represent the views of the club. TAS is not in competition with anyone or anybody. We just do astronomy as best we can, get some money from subscriptions to help pay for the telescopes and Observatory that we all have worked over 12 years for, and that members can use.

The notice in Astronomy & Space simply said something along the lines of "COSMOS 2004 takes place in Annaharvey Equestrian Center, a few miles from Tullamore Co. Offaly, where our own member Dave McCann will be speaking." That was it. Nothing about who was hosting it. I beleive this was because it was by a rival club in the region, and AI/A&S is not in the habit of supporting other clubs.

And that was the proof. Plain and simple.


Seanie.