Yep we have all had it, that fantastic email advertising unwanted goods, especially when they land in your corporate accounts!

Well I try very hard to keep my email address hidden, or ensure only a select few people have access to it. That being said, my website form redirects all enquiries to my main email address and just recently I noticed I was receiving more enquiries than I should.

In the past I used to receive a tonne of SPAM emails, too many to mention, or delete! I guess I learnt the errors of my ways and decided it would be best to remove any email addresses from public access. With my current email address I have it advertised no-where and this has essentially stopped all SPAM email entering my inbox.

I am not surprised that SPAMMERS have found new ways to target users, and was in no way shocked to discover my first web form based SPAM arrive on my inbox a few months back. As it was on its lonely self I just deleted it, forgot about it and a few days went by until the next one entered. This carried on for a few months, and it wasn’t until recently, when I started spending a bit more time on my website, getting the name out there, trying to build links etc that I noticed the situation becoming excessively worse.

So I started to take drastic action and began blocking their IP addresses. The answer was finally at hand I felt, shockingly I noticed this only seemed to spur on the amount of SPAM entered into my form, in fact having just removed the last 10 pieces I can see that 2 more have entered my inbox. In the past I would have probably lost the plot smashed up my keyboard and replied to the email address with threats about spam acts, privacy laws etc etc, however now I decided I would let it go.

Instead of SPAMMERS harvesting my email address (which I hope that cannot do) I will instead be harvesting their IP addresses. Having double checked most of them out already (with the help of Google Search) I can see that a lot of them are SPAM offenders. My list has grown considerably, and it seems the more I block, the more frequent I receive SPAM messages, however whilst the frequency has increased, it does also seem that the mails are coming from the same IP addresses, which hopefully means I may well be that I am slowly winning the battle.

I respect the fact that some intelligent person has written some code to crawl the web and auto fill in forms promoting all sorts of things, however it would appear that these same people have not engaged their brains in the slightest when it actually comes to the whole concept of understanding their audience? Because surely if SPAM was successful they would know what percentage of their audience respond to their messages. They would have detailed reports about their ROI, demographic data, Cost Per Action etc. They would know what frequency to send messages to their audience, and of course they would have politely received opt-in before sending a message (this last point is of course questionable with web forms).

So why is it then, that someone like myself, who only happens to delete the messages, whilst harvesting the IP address, only sees an increase? SPAM is resource and marketing wastage, it is poorly targeted and I would guess conversion rates are now lower than 0.01%, but I suppose thinking about SPAM as a marketing tool would be too much for some techy person laughing because I have received more SPAM by blocking their IP address, well here is a little present for you all, a list of blocked IP addresses I have harvested so far, be sure to add these to your own blocked list:

85.185.174.5 
121.100.50.7 
72.55.160.180 
78.157.143.161 
150.146.129.51 
155.52.218.53 
61.19.54.164 
129.41.196.150 
147.91.1.41 
210.19.71.60 
83.236.157.231 
85.88.14.31 
74.92.242.25 
130.94.69.95 
81.200.16.36 
91.121.84.156 
89.149.242.88 
87.239.19.15 
12.150.181.20 
203.158.221.227 
84.47.226.221 
85.124.67.80 
217.149.246.98 
137.164.143.110 
218.75.123.214 
203.123.182.34 
64.47.112.164 
85.117.156.200 
192.192.35.235 
218.7.13.151 
132.183.13.4 
62.12.138.134 
87.234.234.66 
216.240.136.189 
203.234.238.195 
87.234.234.68 
193.37.152.250 
122.213.250.14 
91.121.87.207 
164.116.224.10 
91.121.124.37 
85.214.75.160 
62.101.95.202 
129.7.249.41 
222.73.41.9 
216.31.225.6 
74.52.73.210 
218.206.94.132 
121.32.26.82 
92.48.84.209 
89.28.127.255 
202.85.54.90 
193.146.209.5 
193.45.97.249 
220.218.98.194 
85.238.101.170 
121.11.69.194 
124.217.231.230 
203.82.52.210 
205.178.184.113 
203.121.133.22 
213.27.150.198 
203.94.85.66 
218.188.73.199 

I will of course be adding to the list, and will try and give an update in a months time. :) 

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I have received a few messages from people letting me know that my blog design is a bit screwed, thanks guys I know it is. I quickly installed Wordpress and haven’t had the time to full implement my own design…yet. Being busy at work, and busy doing one heck of a lot of DIY at home, my time is restricted, and I feel it is more important to try and post content, rather than how nicely lined up my blogs lines are at the moment.

I will endeavour to finish the design soon, but in the meantime check out this blogs design, which I am very professionally jealous of. http://ma.tt/ It is designs like this that really help make the web a truly valuable resource (visually), I don’t know the owner, nor have I spoken with them, but it is a great representation of what is possible with the web, and I only wish the web was filled with more sites of a similar aesthetic quality, all the more reason for me to get my blog sorted!

I suppose the time wasted writing this would have been better spent sorting out the CSS, dam gotta post and get on – cheers!

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I am fortunate enough to work in a creative environment where everyone’s ideas are considered and the “team collective” really crunches out some great stuff. This hasn’t always been the case, and at times other companies really restrict the creative process, this is probably due to the fact that a lot of creative companies I have worked for or with are actually run by moneymen. This isn’t always a bad thing, as creativity and business/finance need to work hand in hand, they both keep each other in check, however there needs to be equal representation to ensure both sides are met, additionally financials shouldn’t be making creative decisions, it just isn’t what they are paid to do.

Onto the main point, just recently I have been involved with a new company which has been a lot of fun, and a real pleasure! My involvement has gone above and beyond what my job role dictates, and certainly what my skills experience has focused on. So I would like to formally present Elliot Events to the world. The company was born out of a lunchtime meeting in the bosses office over a take away and dodgy coffee. The team and I have been working hard on building a brand, website and planning the actual events themselves.

To give you all a quick intro; Elliot Events plans on transcending the Perth Party/Social scene. By hosting events at some of the most unique venues, and adding unique themes, our events promise to become an experience unlike any other, and something which will leave the audience wishing for more.

Our first event will be Midnight Massacre, A Unique Halloween Experience, hosted on the 25th October 2008, at Fremantle Prison, Perth Western Australia. The night is being billed as “one HELL of an event” and I can say we have researched and produced a fantastic story with direct links to some of Perth’s darkest days, in fact the links are so relevant, even the date is key to the narrative.

Tickets will soon be available from the website, so if you are in Perth, make sure you book yourself into this event as places are limited. In the meantime, the team and I are finalising the details of the event. It has been refreshing to be able to work on a project where we can have some fun, and get creative. Creativity is a fantastic gift and perhaps creatives should be given more credit where it is due, instead of business management holding a gun to creativity.

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I noticed this article online a few weeks ago http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7482383.stm and it talks about Tesco in particular, and other British supermarkets pulling out of deals with Zimbabwe.

Putting the economic problems of Zimbabwe to one side, it has been well documented that a large part of the population is starving. Is it therefore right, that BIG western companies actually import food from this country? Surely there is a serious ethical issue here? Tesco are taking food from the starving, to feed the full westerners?

I would also question the economic impact of this. Surely with inflation in Zimbabwe at a reported 2,200,000% the actual cost of importing food from Zimbabwe would be tiny, however with food prices across the world increasing, has this saving been passed onto customers in the UK? Probably not!

I may well be totally wrong, and I hope I am, but I would feel that any relationship Food Superstores have with Zimbabwe are financially motivated, rather than trying to help the country. If governments want to impose sanctions on the Zimbabwean Government then surely severe penalties should be brought against companies who are profiting from the exploitation of Zimbabwe, a country that cannot feed itself, exporting cheap goods to the western world.

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I came across this news article on the BBC NEWS site http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7300570.stm it discusses the possibility of controlling elephant populations through culling. I just wanted to expand on this subject a little.

Elephants, in my opinion, are some of the most majestic creatures earth has been blessed with. Animals who have highly developed social and communication within their family groups. I find it sad that rather than further study of these magnificent animals, we are instead discussing the idea of culling many of them, all because they are starting to get in the way!

It is the last point which really gets to me, we have raped and abused our planet, and it seems everything is only here to serve us. Should a forest get in our way, we burn it, should elephants get in our way, we kill them, hell some people are overjoyed about the Arctic Icecap melting as it will provide a clear path for shipping! Forget about the rich biodiversity which could be lost as a result of the destruction of this fragile habitat.

It seems though, Western Governments have no real interest in protecting or helping international biodiversity, and why should they? After all they cannot even protect their own lands properly, we seem to be on a one way mission of destruction. Short term profit is more important in the eyes of governments compared with long term sustainability.

The comments on the article are somewhat heated and suggestions have been made about culling humans. I don’t believe this is the way to go either, but something needs to be done to curb the ever expanding human race. Every new baby born, is one more mouth to feed, one more person to educate, one more person to provide healthcare for, one more job taken, one less house available. If we continue to fail in addressing the sustainable way we live our lives, then our problems will have grown ten fold. We need to start working with nature, instead of continuing to use it as a slave for ourselves!

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