Re: UKNM: Latency

[Ross Sleight]

James Tarin wrote:


> What about creating email viruses (i.e. messages or memes that get

> forwarded) which are actually valuable rather than timewasting or

> destructive. These entities could be regarded as symbiotic as opposed to

> parasitic (the hosts being the senders and recipients of the mails).

> 

> Can these entities not be used as powerful marketing tools (given the

> incredible reach that they have and their speed of replication)?


Mmmmm...I seem to remember a good story about this one once.  The

Interactive guy at a book publisher was creating an e-mail marketing

campaign for an interactive novel online (something about a Russian

Astronaut being killed and his daughter contacting you for information,

leading you onto an interactive novel adventure played over a period of

time).  Anyway, despite my lack of memory (answers on a postcard to the

normal address for reasons why my memory is so bad pls.), they created a

spoof of the good times virus telling individuals to go to the site

where the novel was.


What I do remember clearly was all hell broke loose as the large

organisations sent out major virus alerts, Dr Solomans got on the case

etc., and when said book publisher  realised that they had thrown areas

of the Net into panic, they sent out another e-mail telling users it was

a spoof, and had the Net community turn on them with <Samuel Jackson

style> furious thunder....</Samuel Jackson style>.


So I think that e-mail 'virus' ideas could be misinterpreted, but I

would love to know if anyone can remember any details from this sketchy

episode of about three years back.....


Ross