Comments on: Does the 80-20 initiative uses spamming tactics?

By: 8Asians.com » Obama campaign needs to lose 80/20: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:49:52 +0000

[...] that I can think of. And go figure this out. It’s different from the one that I wrote about back in April on this annoying [...]

By: thepeopleseason

thepeopleseason — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:18:21 +0000

@THE_BANANA_REPUBLIC: “Is there something inherently wrong in 1) collecting information to identify a demographic, 2) using this information to cater better political activism?”

No. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with that, but as the author of the first link in the “others that are getting these spam emails” list, I’ll reiterate my objections.

1. That 80-20 used common spammer tactics to compile their mailing list, such as culling addresses from Usenet archives and blanket sending to matching usernames on one service (say, yahoo.com) to another service (hotmail.com).
2. That 80-20 had the audacity to boast about their sudden “subscriber growth.”
3. That 80-20 is actually getting financial funding as a result of this unscrupulous practice.
4. That 80-20’s list administrator was in no way responsive when I asked to be removed multiple times.

As I mentioned in my post, I have no objections to someone attempting to create a political voting bloc out of some shared commonality, but my money is reserved for people who do so ethically.

By: darkmoon

darkmoon — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:56:13 +0000

Kind of curious actually, since from what I can track down, S.B. Woo while is declared an “independent”, is linked pretty strongly with the Democratic Party. In any case, what bothers me is some of the other stuff that’s written about this guy. Open Secrets claims that 50% of the money given to 80-20 goes directly in his pocket. Not sure if there’s legitimacy in that, but I’m actually not surprised there could be low tactics involved in political play.

Either way? It’s really really low to run email lists without having those people “sign up” for it. Regardless of party affiliation in my opinion.

By: THE_BANANA_REPUBLIC

THE_BANANA_REPUBLIC — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:37:30 +0000

Email is a cheap method of communicating and reaching out. Television advertisements make up the bulk of campaign spending. Other methods, such as precinct walking, are hugely consuming of time and labor. With some PACs already stretched to the brink in spending, it becomes clear why this reach-out medium is used.

I suspect the financial cost of paying for the information, and the bandwidth costs of sending out the message meet or surpass the political capital yielded.

By: THE_BANANA_REPUBLIC

THE_BANANA_REPUBLIC — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:32:04 +0000

Reaching out to the liberal base remains a more perverse demographic than the conservative one.

Is there something inherently wrong in 1) collecting information to identify a demographic, 2) using this information to cater better political activism?

By: Efren

Efren — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:44:13 +0000

If I remember correctly, wasn’t the 80-20 Initiative set up by Asian American Republicans? I have no idea how the hell I got on their mailing list, but after I put them on my spam list, I haven’t received anything from them since.

By: jaehwan

jaehwan — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:53:38 +0000

I think the 80/20 works like any spamming company–they send e-mails to ten million people and hope that 1% respond, or 100,000, respond. 80/20 is a pretty dirty organization led and founded by a guy who pushes the envelope on ethical behavior, and they do absolutely nothing for Asian Americans.

See here:
http://www.thefighting44s.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5319&highlight=questionnaire

and here:
http://www.aaa-fund.com/?p=164

and here:
http://www.reappropriate.com/?p=908

Thinking Asian Americans disagree on different things, but it seems like all of us are united in condemning 80/20.