Post by tekmac on Dec 29, 2004 10:52:09 GMT -5
Rodale's Scuba Diving: The Magazine Divers Trust (to sell subscriber email addresses to the highest bidder)
by FREEMAN WASHINGTON
"From time to time, we make our customer e-mail addresses, postal addresses and telephone numbers available to other reputable business associates whose products or services might be of value to you." Rodale's Scuba Diving Privacy (cough) Statement
"When divers board your boats, they must sign a liability waiver and if you're like most businesses, you file these waivers away in the broom closet, never to be seen again. Unfortunately (sic), these waivers contain valuable marketing data, including mailing addresses and e-mail addresses. You're missing an invaluable marketing opportunity! The RSD Dive Waiver Program allows both of us to benefit from these high-quality contacts." Rodale's Scuba Diving: Marketing Scam Letter Targeting Dive Boat Operators
In the beginning, there was absolutely nothing, not even flush toilets nor anything else that depends on our favorite mix of hydrogen and oxygen.
Then God (not to be confused with Pete Bennett, the ousted and obscenely figurined ex-insurance salesman of Divers Alert Network) created the sea and that was one hell of an improvement on the empty old minimalist concept, especially for monthly scuba diving magazines that part fools from subscription fees with fraudulent scuba equipment reviews and reprints of the same old "crystal-clear, emerald green waters, blah, blah, blah" article about your favorite (fill in the blank) Caribbean destination.
"Hey divers, get ready for next month's issue: REDISCOVERING BONAIRE, CANCUN, BELIZE, THE CAYMANS AND THE BAHAMAS!!!" (for the 798th time).
But wait! We're getting ahead of ourselves.
And the sea was empty so God filled it with wonderful flora and fauna, which inspired producers of lowest common denominator TV adventure shows about dare-devil shark feeding fools like Erich Ritter ("...HELP MOMMY, DA BIG BULL SHARK ATE MY SWISS LEG!!!") and brain-dead crocodile wrestlers like Manny Puig ("Duh, why molest marine wildlife? Maybe cuz I'm bored forcing innocent children to suck my dirty toes 'n kiss my hairy pecs...").
OK, so then God - also known as John Cronin (who recently completed his last ascent while writing the final chapter of his autobiography, "Learn To Scuba Dive In 15 Minutes") created a pyramid marketing scheme, called it PADI, and the rest, as they say, is MacDiving history ("Gimme a large coke, medium fries and a couple of them PADI Open Water MacC-Cards and be quick about it dammit--I'm only booked at this resort through the weekend. Hahahahahahahahahaha!").
DEATH
Death is always a tough sell to fun-loving, self-gratificational holiday types even when you dress it up for young trend-mongering scuba diving hedonists. Enter the liability waiver, a cornerstone of the unregulated dive industry's formula for success.
You want to go diving? Well thanks to Cronin and industry cronies like Rick Lesser and other hired legal guns, you MUST sign a one-sided liability release that essentially says to a jury of your peers, "OK, I admit it: I was an idiot on vacation. I fully understood scuba diving is dangerous and I fully understood dive operators can be negligent. I agreed in writing that it's OK for the dive operator I went diving with to kill me. Now that I'm dead, I don't have a leg to stand on."
Who said assisted suicide ain't legal?
Dive Operator: "So you don't want to sign our release? OK smart guy, get your own boat and good luck with the local fishing industry thugs we pay off to give us exclusive access to these (increasingly damaged) reefs."
Customer: "OK, OK! You win. We didn't come halfway around the world to sit on the beach, meditate on our navels and watch happy-go-lucky natives paddle off into the sunset."
"I (sign name here) agree to waive my legal rights (and the rights of my heirs) to sue (fill in dive operator name here) and all company staff (fill in staff names here) for negligent conduct that leads to my injury or death."
DONE!
Sorry! Not quite. Enter Rodale's, "the magazine divers trust to sell subscriber "e-mail addresses, postal addresses and telephone numbers to the highest bidder". The marketing scammers at Rodale's added up 2 + 2 and concluded that if dive consumers are stupid enough to waive their rights to sue negligent dive operators, they must also be stupid enough to allow unscrupulous dive operators to sell their personal information to unscrupulous dive magazines that sell the information to anybody who can afford to buy it.
Rodale's Scuba Diving - The magazine divers trust to line its pockets with money generated by idiotic ads and unscrupulous marketing gimmicks...
From the Orwellian slogan, "the magazine divers trust", to rigged reader polls, biased and fraudulent scuba equipment reviews and other deceptive marketing gimmicks, no scuba publication has been more aggressive and less credible than Rodale's Scuba Diving.
The latest Rodale Inc marketing scam, which targets diver waiver releases to sell magazine subscriptions, demonstrates how desperate and shameless the company has become as scuba consumers increasingly turn away from ad-driven magazines to better, more trustworthy and cheaper online sources of information about scuba products and services. Although subscriptions are only a small percentage of total print magazine revenue, advertising rates, which often account for more than 90% of income, depend on a robust subscription rate.
Send in the Clowns
In a desperate attempt to prop up sagging subscription rates, Rodale launched its 'ads-for-waivers' scam, which required dive operators to send in their customer waiver releases. In return, Rodale Inc promised to give the dive operator free promotion in the scubadiving.com web site, which amounts to little more than an industry-controlled chatroom populated by 20 participants with fresh lobotomy scars) and annoying popups pushing site visitors to buy a subscription to the magazine "brain-dead wackos trust".
"When divers board your boats, they must sign a liability waiver and if you're like most businesses, you file these waivers away in the broom closet, never to be seen again," Rodale explains. "Unfortunately, these waivers contain valuable marketing data, including mailing addresses and e-mail addresses. You're missing an invaluable marketing opportunity! The RSD Dive Waiver Program allows both of us to benefit from these high-quality contacts."
The key phrase here is "these waivers contain valuable marketing data". After you fill in a waiver release (and pay by credit card), the dive operator has what Rodale Inc, information brokers and pitch-men consider "valuable marketing data".
It is disturbing to realize that our social security numbers, credit card purchases, telephone numbers, email addresses and other personal data have become commodities bought and sold by Rodale Inc and other marketing scammers. So long as our credit card numbers and personal information remain with the dive operator, it does not seem to be especially problematic but serious concerns arise once that information falls into the hands of third party marketing exploitationists where such data could be sold to commercial databases, and become yet another component of our personal lives over which we've lost all control.
Again, consider the following statement from Rodale on how "careful" they are with customer data:
"From time to time, we make our customer e-mail addresses, postal addresses and telephone numbers available to other reputable business associates whose products or services might be of value to you." Rodale's Scuba Diving Privacy (cough) Statement
HEY, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT FROM THE MAGAZINE DEGENERATE PERVERTS TRUST?
Just say 'No' to Rodale's and dive operators who betray their customers
Beware! Despite the Rodale's spin - "This is not spam since the dive business has a prior business relationship with the diver, blah, blah, blah" - CDNN has received numerous complaints from divers who were spammed by Rodale's (and other companies) after diving with an operator who exchanges waivers for ads.
If you have concerns about your privacy (AND WHO DOESN'T?) and you ever encounter what Rodale's describes as a "two-part NCR paper (the kind that makes a second copy without carbon paper, typically original is white and copy is yellow)", fill in nothing but the signature and date.
Do NOT fill in other information including your home address, business address, email address and telephone number. Similarly, until you confirm that a dive operator is NOT involved in the Rodale's database scam, do not fill in private information in an online booking form. Name and disposable email address only.
The safest way to avoid trouble is simply to avoid irresponsible dive operators who have colluded with Rodale's in the database scam. According to diver complaints, the following companies are selling customer waivers to third parties:
MICRONESIA
1. Peter Hughes
2. Kosrae Village
3. Palau Pacific Resort
4. Sam's Dive Tours
5. Manta Ray Bay Hotel-Yap Divers
BELIZE
1. Aqua Dives Belize
2. Paradise Villas
3. Blue Marlin Lodge
4. Fort Street Guesthouse
5. Mayan Prince Hotel
6. Royal Mayan Resort
7. SunBreeze Beach Hotel
DOMINICA
1. Carth Comfort Lodge
2. Dive Castaways
COZUMEL
1. Aqua World Cozumel
2. Casa Del Mar
3. Costra Club
4. Del Mar Aquatics
5. Dive House
6. El Presidente
7. Fiesta Americana
8. Hotel Flamingo
9. Iberostar
10. La Cieba
TURKS & CAICOS
1. Allegro Resort
2. Blue Water Divers
3. Comfort Suites
4. Dive Provo
5. Erebus Inn
6. Mount Pleasant Guesthouse
7. Oasis Dives
8. Gibbs Cay
9. Cecil Ingham's Sea Eye Diving
10. South Caicos Ocean Haven Dock
FLORIDA
1. Pro Dive
2. Bud n' Mary's
3. Lady Cyana
4. Amy Slate's
5. Kelly's On the Bay
6. Dive Key West
7. Grand Key Resort
8. South Point Divers
by FREEMAN WASHINGTON
"From time to time, we make our customer e-mail addresses, postal addresses and telephone numbers available to other reputable business associates whose products or services might be of value to you." Rodale's Scuba Diving Privacy (cough) Statement
"When divers board your boats, they must sign a liability waiver and if you're like most businesses, you file these waivers away in the broom closet, never to be seen again. Unfortunately (sic), these waivers contain valuable marketing data, including mailing addresses and e-mail addresses. You're missing an invaluable marketing opportunity! The RSD Dive Waiver Program allows both of us to benefit from these high-quality contacts." Rodale's Scuba Diving: Marketing Scam Letter Targeting Dive Boat Operators
In the beginning, there was absolutely nothing, not even flush toilets nor anything else that depends on our favorite mix of hydrogen and oxygen.
Then God (not to be confused with Pete Bennett, the ousted and obscenely figurined ex-insurance salesman of Divers Alert Network) created the sea and that was one hell of an improvement on the empty old minimalist concept, especially for monthly scuba diving magazines that part fools from subscription fees with fraudulent scuba equipment reviews and reprints of the same old "crystal-clear, emerald green waters, blah, blah, blah" article about your favorite (fill in the blank) Caribbean destination.
"Hey divers, get ready for next month's issue: REDISCOVERING BONAIRE, CANCUN, BELIZE, THE CAYMANS AND THE BAHAMAS!!!" (for the 798th time).
But wait! We're getting ahead of ourselves.
And the sea was empty so God filled it with wonderful flora and fauna, which inspired producers of lowest common denominator TV adventure shows about dare-devil shark feeding fools like Erich Ritter ("...HELP MOMMY, DA BIG BULL SHARK ATE MY SWISS LEG!!!") and brain-dead crocodile wrestlers like Manny Puig ("Duh, why molest marine wildlife? Maybe cuz I'm bored forcing innocent children to suck my dirty toes 'n kiss my hairy pecs...").
OK, so then God - also known as John Cronin (who recently completed his last ascent while writing the final chapter of his autobiography, "Learn To Scuba Dive In 15 Minutes") created a pyramid marketing scheme, called it PADI, and the rest, as they say, is MacDiving history ("Gimme a large coke, medium fries and a couple of them PADI Open Water MacC-Cards and be quick about it dammit--I'm only booked at this resort through the weekend. Hahahahahahahahahaha!").
DEATH
Death is always a tough sell to fun-loving, self-gratificational holiday types even when you dress it up for young trend-mongering scuba diving hedonists. Enter the liability waiver, a cornerstone of the unregulated dive industry's formula for success.
You want to go diving? Well thanks to Cronin and industry cronies like Rick Lesser and other hired legal guns, you MUST sign a one-sided liability release that essentially says to a jury of your peers, "OK, I admit it: I was an idiot on vacation. I fully understood scuba diving is dangerous and I fully understood dive operators can be negligent. I agreed in writing that it's OK for the dive operator I went diving with to kill me. Now that I'm dead, I don't have a leg to stand on."
Who said assisted suicide ain't legal?
Dive Operator: "So you don't want to sign our release? OK smart guy, get your own boat and good luck with the local fishing industry thugs we pay off to give us exclusive access to these (increasingly damaged) reefs."
Customer: "OK, OK! You win. We didn't come halfway around the world to sit on the beach, meditate on our navels and watch happy-go-lucky natives paddle off into the sunset."
"I (sign name here) agree to waive my legal rights (and the rights of my heirs) to sue (fill in dive operator name here) and all company staff (fill in staff names here) for negligent conduct that leads to my injury or death."
DONE!
Sorry! Not quite. Enter Rodale's, "the magazine divers trust to sell subscriber "e-mail addresses, postal addresses and telephone numbers to the highest bidder". The marketing scammers at Rodale's added up 2 + 2 and concluded that if dive consumers are stupid enough to waive their rights to sue negligent dive operators, they must also be stupid enough to allow unscrupulous dive operators to sell their personal information to unscrupulous dive magazines that sell the information to anybody who can afford to buy it.
Rodale's Scuba Diving - The magazine divers trust to line its pockets with money generated by idiotic ads and unscrupulous marketing gimmicks...
From the Orwellian slogan, "the magazine divers trust", to rigged reader polls, biased and fraudulent scuba equipment reviews and other deceptive marketing gimmicks, no scuba publication has been more aggressive and less credible than Rodale's Scuba Diving.
The latest Rodale Inc marketing scam, which targets diver waiver releases to sell magazine subscriptions, demonstrates how desperate and shameless the company has become as scuba consumers increasingly turn away from ad-driven magazines to better, more trustworthy and cheaper online sources of information about scuba products and services. Although subscriptions are only a small percentage of total print magazine revenue, advertising rates, which often account for more than 90% of income, depend on a robust subscription rate.
Send in the Clowns
In a desperate attempt to prop up sagging subscription rates, Rodale launched its 'ads-for-waivers' scam, which required dive operators to send in their customer waiver releases. In return, Rodale Inc promised to give the dive operator free promotion in the scubadiving.com web site, which amounts to little more than an industry-controlled chatroom populated by 20 participants with fresh lobotomy scars) and annoying popups pushing site visitors to buy a subscription to the magazine "brain-dead wackos trust".
"When divers board your boats, they must sign a liability waiver and if you're like most businesses, you file these waivers away in the broom closet, never to be seen again," Rodale explains. "Unfortunately, these waivers contain valuable marketing data, including mailing addresses and e-mail addresses. You're missing an invaluable marketing opportunity! The RSD Dive Waiver Program allows both of us to benefit from these high-quality contacts."
The key phrase here is "these waivers contain valuable marketing data". After you fill in a waiver release (and pay by credit card), the dive operator has what Rodale Inc, information brokers and pitch-men consider "valuable marketing data".
It is disturbing to realize that our social security numbers, credit card purchases, telephone numbers, email addresses and other personal data have become commodities bought and sold by Rodale Inc and other marketing scammers. So long as our credit card numbers and personal information remain with the dive operator, it does not seem to be especially problematic but serious concerns arise once that information falls into the hands of third party marketing exploitationists where such data could be sold to commercial databases, and become yet another component of our personal lives over which we've lost all control.
Again, consider the following statement from Rodale on how "careful" they are with customer data:
"From time to time, we make our customer e-mail addresses, postal addresses and telephone numbers available to other reputable business associates whose products or services might be of value to you." Rodale's Scuba Diving Privacy (cough) Statement
HEY, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT FROM THE MAGAZINE DEGENERATE PERVERTS TRUST?
Just say 'No' to Rodale's and dive operators who betray their customers
Beware! Despite the Rodale's spin - "This is not spam since the dive business has a prior business relationship with the diver, blah, blah, blah" - CDNN has received numerous complaints from divers who were spammed by Rodale's (and other companies) after diving with an operator who exchanges waivers for ads.
If you have concerns about your privacy (AND WHO DOESN'T?) and you ever encounter what Rodale's describes as a "two-part NCR paper (the kind that makes a second copy without carbon paper, typically original is white and copy is yellow)", fill in nothing but the signature and date.
Do NOT fill in other information including your home address, business address, email address and telephone number. Similarly, until you confirm that a dive operator is NOT involved in the Rodale's database scam, do not fill in private information in an online booking form. Name and disposable email address only.
The safest way to avoid trouble is simply to avoid irresponsible dive operators who have colluded with Rodale's in the database scam. According to diver complaints, the following companies are selling customer waivers to third parties:
MICRONESIA
1. Peter Hughes
2. Kosrae Village
3. Palau Pacific Resort
4. Sam's Dive Tours
5. Manta Ray Bay Hotel-Yap Divers
BELIZE
1. Aqua Dives Belize
2. Paradise Villas
3. Blue Marlin Lodge
4. Fort Street Guesthouse
5. Mayan Prince Hotel
6. Royal Mayan Resort
7. SunBreeze Beach Hotel
DOMINICA
1. Carth Comfort Lodge
2. Dive Castaways
COZUMEL
1. Aqua World Cozumel
2. Casa Del Mar
3. Costra Club
4. Del Mar Aquatics
5. Dive House
6. El Presidente
7. Fiesta Americana
8. Hotel Flamingo
9. Iberostar
10. La Cieba
TURKS & CAICOS
1. Allegro Resort
2. Blue Water Divers
3. Comfort Suites
4. Dive Provo
5. Erebus Inn
6. Mount Pleasant Guesthouse
7. Oasis Dives
8. Gibbs Cay
9. Cecil Ingham's Sea Eye Diving
10. South Caicos Ocean Haven Dock
FLORIDA
1. Pro Dive
2. Bud n' Mary's
3. Lady Cyana
4. Amy Slate's
5. Kelly's On the Bay
6. Dive Key West
7. Grand Key Resort
8. South Point Divers
