by , 4:15 PM EST, December 6th, 2002
Irony can be a subtle thing, though it can be equally blunt, as well. It is with a healthy respect for that word, irony, that we bring you the following story. Mike Wendland penned a piece a few weeks ago about how spam lord Alan Ralsky was living high on the proceeds from wasting all of our time with his spam. That piece made the rounds here at TMO, and just about every other tech Web site on the Internet. According to a new article from Mr. Wenland, since the first one ran, a campaign launched by Slashdot readers to register Mr. Ralsky for physical junk mail has been a raging success. A success, that is, to everyone except for Mr. Ralsky.
This is where the irony kicks in: Mr. Ralsky is angry about it. From the article:
Ever since I wrote a story on him a couple of weeks ago, he says he's been inundated with ads, catalogs and brochures delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to his brand-new US$740,000 home.
It's all the result of a well-organized campaign by the anti-spam community, and Ralsky doesn't find it funny.
"They've signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is," he told me. "These people are out of their minds. They're harassing me."
Mr. Wenland's short article also says that Mr. Ralsky is having his attorney sue the anti-spammers behind the campaign. With this short piece is another short mention of the success of Apple's Switch campaign.