Monday, April 26, 2010

#163 Thanks, but no thanks

Thanks…but no thanks.

Well today seems like a pretty decent day, sun is shining and it is nice and cool. I started to walk to the post office today because one of my readers sent me a $50 gift card to Office Depot, and I really need to get in touch with her to let her know I got it, but because I cleaned out my inbox on my email, I accidentally got rid of every email I sent, so I don’t have her email to send back to her. So I typed up a letter last night with the intent of sending it today. As it so happened, just as I stepped out, ready to walk to the post office, the mail lady was putting mail in our box. I asked her if she can pick up mail already stamped, and she did…it saved me a walk…although I would have been put too much out of the way if I did.

So today I have to get some junk out of the house to move to the curb, since the city is picking up “junk” this week. I say “junk” because as the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. It amazes me that each year we put stuff out on the curb for the spring cleaning, people drive by and pick up most of it. I think its neat because at least it does not end up in a landfill. I would rather people come get it than the city. Last year, we put a lot of stuff out, and the only things left after people scooped up our “junk” was a blown out monitor and an old tire. Hopefully it will go as well this year too.

But I got an email the other day from a site called Write-A-Prisoner, a site I have not written for in years. Apparently they have in their data base of my birthday, and sent me an email wishing me a happy birthday, and to continue to participate at their site.

Thanks…but no thanks.

I have absolutely no intentions of going back there, because sites like that are examples where the people who run those sites have absolutely no idea what they are doing. The irony is that sites like that and LostVault pride themselves of connecting inmates with “regular folks” but those same sites don’t listen to anything an inmate, or ex felon has to say. And God forbid if that person says ANYTHING that sounds commercial.

I joined Write-A-Prisoner awhile back, and I started posting some of my retro blogs, to add some content to the site. As with nearly every so called “prison support” site, they don’t have any insight from the inside, only opinions and thoughts from people who have never been in prison.

I added some, and as you know, I do mention that I have books and cards. It is not the focal point of what I talk about, but I make reference to it. I try to keep my straight sell of my products for my blogs. But I do make mention that I have books and cards. After only a few days, I received an email from Write-A-Prisoner that I was banned from the site for 30 days for trying to sell my books. They said after 30 days, I would be more than welcome to come back.

With that kinda attitude, I don’t see why I would.

So I never went back to the site, but every few months I would get an email from the site saying something like, “we noticed you have not been back at Write-A-Prisoner” in awhile, can we entice you to come back”?

Answer…hell no.

I just don’t see the value of going back to a site that clearly does not understand the inmate perspective, nor wants to. If all you want to do is grab inmate addresses and write to them, fine, go ahead and do that. But if you are trying to understand what those guys are going through, and how you can be a positive flow for them, then you need to listen to what some ex felons are saying, and stop trying to ban every person that gets the least bit off of your righteous trail.

The implication from this site to me was that they thought I joined, then started sending my sales pitch to them, to try to solicit sales. Whoever read my posts never even tried to see what I was saying. If I write 10 pages, and spent only 2 sentences mentioning my books, that would have been all they needed to read to condemn me. That apparently must be true, it is what they did to me.

So no, I will not be going back to that site…unless it is to find out how to terminate my membership…which now sounds like the best idea, so I am not bothered by those people again.

But other than that, the weekend was great, now this week I am trying to prepare for my products to be available in May. As usual folks, email me to ask about it. If you have any questions about prison issues, or just need someone to talk to, let me know. I don’t promise to know it all, but I just might be able to help. Until then….

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