Greetings,

I am new to Usenet and am seeking your advice on what is appropriate
to post here.

I was wondering if there would be pushback if I were to post our
detailed wine reviews here. I also wonder if the community would find
them valuable.

A little about us as a way to give you a little background before you
answer: We review and sell 365 wines per year. Each wine we sell is
hand-selected and always exceptional. We spend a great deal of time
with every wine we review and our reviews are plain-language, fun and
very detailed.

I don't want to spam the group but, instead, want to contribute our
reviews for the benefit of the community.

Perhaps the thing to do would be to only post older reviews. Since we
only sell one wine a day, maybe I never post the current wine of the
day?

Your thoughts and feedback are appreciated.

Thanks!

Agent Red, Founder
The Wine Spies

Agent Red wrote:

> I don't want to spam the group but, instead, want to contribute our
> reviews for the benefit of the community.
>
> Perhaps the thing to do would be to only post older reviews. Since we
> only sell one wine a day, maybe I never post the current wine of the
> day?
>
> Your thoughts and feedback are appreciated.

What a thoughtful and courteous introduction. Thank you! You are
correct that this group has taken a dim view on "stealth marketing"
attempts in the past, and you have already successfully negotiated that
by announcing your presence and intentions in a straightforward, honest
way. Speaking only as one voice among many, I'd say that as long as you
don't disguise your affiliation, why not post your tasting notes, old or
new? Others in the business will often include their affiliation in a
signature file at the bottom of their Usenet posts, and that constitutes
a simple and unobtrusive way of informing your readers about a possible
conflict of interest.

Again, speaking only for myself, I find tasting notes of limited value
as the tastes of the poster need to be known and compared to my own.
However, the more you post, the better I know your tastes and the easier
it is for me to make sense of your notes. And new notes have the added
benefit of referring to wine currently on the market.

Just my $0.02,
Mark Lipton

May I add to Mark's comments, please remember, this Newsgroup is one of the
most international in stature.

So, please consider your "home market", and the fact that we have people
from France, Austria, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many
other places contributing.

st.helier

On Jun 24, 12:33*pm, Agent Red > wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I am new to Usenet and am seeking your advice on what is appropriate
> to post here.
>
> I was wondering if there would be pushback if I were to post our
> detailed wine reviews here. *I also wonder if the community would find
> them valuable.
>
> A little about us as a way to give you a little background before you
> answer: We review and sell 365 wines per year. *Each wine we sell is
> hand-selected and always exceptional. *We spend a great deal of time
> with every wine we review and our reviews are plain-language, fun and
> very detailed.
>
> I don't want to spam the group but, instead, want to contribute our
> reviews for the benefit of the community.
>
> Perhaps the thing to do would be to only post older reviews. *Since we
> only sell one wine a day, maybe I never post the current wine of the
> day?
>
> Your thoughts and feedback are appreciated.

As long as you are not pushing sales from your business, I see no
problems. We have had people who are in the wine trade post here over
the years, mostly without problems. For example a lady who sells many
uncommon Austrian wines sometimes posts here with no problems. After
you post a few times people will get to know you and the comments you
get will help you know how you are going over. Of course, being
Usenet, a troll will pop in now and then and is likely to chastise any
of us. Usenet is not for those who become very upset by very unkind
remarks made by a troll.

Firstly, I'd echo others in saying I appreciate your open approach.

I think there is a narrow line between spam and genuine participation
in a newsgroup.

Personally I think anything that smacks of automation falls on the
spam side of things. So, for example, I do not think it would be
acceptable for you to post one TN a day from your business, however
old the TNs might be

I think the key it to talk to us as an individual, not as your
company. Let us know if there is a wine you have found particularly
interesting and tell us about it. And if the wine is one you are
selling add a disclaimer. Stick a URL in your sig so we can chase up
other TNs if we want.

That's my view at least. I don't pretend to speak for others.

--
Steve Slatcher
http://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher

On Jun 25, 2:46�am, Steve Slatcher > wrote:
> Firstly, I'd echo others in saying I appreciate your open approach.
>
> I think there is a narrow line between spam and genuine participation
> in a newsgroup. �
>
> Personally I think anything that smacks of automation falls on the
> spam side of things. �So, for example, I do not think it would be
> acceptable for you to post one TN a day from your business, however
> old the TNs might be
>
> I think the key it to talk to us as an individual, not as your
> company. �Let us know if there is a wine you have found particularly
> interesting and tell us about it. �And if the wine is one you are
> selling add a disclaimer. �Stick a URL in your sig so we can chase up
> other TNs if we want.
>
> That's my view at least. �I don't pretend to speak for others.
>
> --
> Steve Slatcherhttp://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher

Personally, I think the preferred way would be to post a batch of
notes (a couple of times, or if periodically once a week or month).
Even better, actually participate in discussions,. If people like your
notes and decide they like your taste, they can visit your site or
sign up for your email list. I think here we strive to find a balance
between the established Usemet etiquette (no commercial posts) and
being drowned in a sea of commercial posts.

On Jun 24, 10:33*am, Agent Red > wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I am new to Usenet and am seeking your advice on what is appropriate
> to post here.

(snip)

I REALLY appreciate all of the feedback and advice, and I look forward
to sharing my reviews and my thoughts on other wines discussed.

I hope that this will be a forum for me to learn about great new
wines.

Top Secret regards,

Agent Red

On Jun 25, 5:20�pm, Agent Red > wrote:
> On Jun 24, 10:33�am, Agent Red > wrote:
>
> > Greetings,
>
> > I am new to Usenet and am seeking your advice on what is appropriate
> > to post here.
>
> (snip)
>
> I REALLY appreciate all of the feedback and advice, and I look forward
> to sharing my reviews and my thoughts on other wines discussed.
>
> I hope that this will be a forum for me to learn about great new
> wines.
>
> Top Secret regards,
>
> Agent Red

Just a couple of thoughts. I did visit your site and I couldn't find
any calibration for your 100 point scale so I don't really know what
the difference is between a 100 point wine or a 89 point wine. I also
noticed that a lot of wines recieved scores of 95-100 points which
concerns me a bit considering that these are wines that you're
selling. Nice selection of wines a pretty good variety of locales and
varietals. The site was a bit too campy for me with the secret agent
stuff.

On Jun 25, 4:38Â*pm, "Bi!!" > wrote:
> On Jun 25, 5:20�pm, Agent Red > wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Jun 24, 10:33�am, Agent Red > wrote:
>
> > > Greetings,
>
> > > I am new to Usenet and am seeking your advice on what is appropriate
> > > to post here.
>
> > (snip)
>
> > I REALLY appreciate all of the feedback and advice, and I look forward
> > to sharing my reviews and my thoughts on other wines discussed.
>
> > I hope that this will be a forum for me to learn about great new
> > wines.
>
> > Top Secret regards,
>
> > Agent Red
>
> Just a couple of thoughts. Â*I did visit your site and I couldn't find
> any calibration for your 100 point scale so I don't really know what
> the difference is between a 100 point wine or a 89 point wine. Â*I also
> noticed that a lot Â*of wines recieved scores of 95-100 points which
> concerns me a bit considering that these are wines that you're
> selling. Â*Nice selection of wines a pretty good variety of locales and
> varietals. Â*The site was a bit too campy for me with the secret agent
> stuff.

We appreciate all feedback. Thank you.

Let me address both of your points:

First, we are not big fans of the 100 point scale and we will replace
this with a 5 point scale in .5 point increments (is that really just
a 10-point scale?) in the next few months.

Secondly, when our in-house Wine Spies (those that are employed by The
Wine Spies), we almost always post a more brief rated review beneath
our full review. Our Operatives (that's what we call our customers)
also post reviews - and those can tend to run in the 95 to 100 point
range. Personally, I don't recall ever rating a wine above 95. Long
story short, the point rating that you see there is the average rating
that a wine receives from all of those that rate it. When a wine
shows with a 100 point rating, it likely means that an over-
enthusiastic fan posted a 100 point review, and an in-house Spy did
not.

Also, with only 365 days in a year and thousands of wines to choose
from, we are very careful about which wines do end up for sale on our
site. It is because of this that we have built such a loyal
following. People have come to rely on the quality of our picks and
our reviews.

If you have any ideas, we would love to hear your suggestions for a
replacement scale. One through five Spy Shades? Do half-point
increments make sense?

Thanks, again.

Top Secret regards,

Agent Red, Founding Partner
The Wine Spies, LLC

Agent Red wrote:

> If you have any ideas, we would love to hear your suggestions for a
> replacement scale. One through five Spy Shades? Do half-point
> increments make sense?

Half point increments make no sense. Just double the range and use
whole numbers. So, a ten point scale is a ten point scale.

Second, calibrate it. Taste some wines (and report on them) that are
low on the scale, and middle on the scale. That way I'll know whether a
seven is plonk, or just ordinary, or actually pretty good, on your scale.

Also consider a variant of the Dale Scale. (Sniff around for some Dale
posts to find it).

Jose
--
Money: what you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.