Wednesday, August 20, 2008

telemarketing drivel

FTC essentially bans prerecorded telemarketing drivel. It's not the "electrocute the bastards by pressing the pound key" solution we were hoping for, but it's still a good thing

Hosebeatings: They insisted he'd called them from my number on a Friday afternoon

A bill collector tried that one on me a few years ago. I immediately started copying down all the information they would give me about getting in touch with them, confirmed their claim that the neighbor (A woman in this case) had called from my number and then breathlessly informed them that I was thankful they'd let me know about this break-in and that I would call the police immediately.

"I can't believe that b**th broke into my apartment!" I yelled. Then I said "Just a second, I need to get a tape recorder. I want a tape of you telling me she'd called from this number when I file a police report."

I put the phone down for a few seconds, and when I picked it back up they'd hung up. That agency never called me at that number again.


Update: The post was deleted within 24 hours

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Sucks that someone has a grudge against you. Why not try making a new account from a different IP, using a different name?

Also, looks like they got your post in the Telemarketing thread.
Very sad - your sense of humor is quite appreciated.

-A fellow Farker.

Matthew Miller said...

Thank you.

It's tempting to create a new account, but that just sidesteps the issue. If the deleted posts violated any terms of service I would understand, but that's not the case.

Ultimately, this blog exists to give people a chance to see that Fark is not a haven of free speech and information exchange. Yes, it's entertaining and yes its influential but its moderation is driven by grudges and political viewpoints. The moderators don't seem to be trying to keep TOS violations or trolling down, but to silence voices they disagree with or who once at some point in the distant past posted something they didn't like.

Your comment about using a different IP address brings up another point. How do I know the grudge is even against me? For all I know my posts could be being targeted because a coworker behind the same firewall ticked someone off. My only "crime" could have been using the same IP address as someone who ticked off a moderator.