when does it end?

I have a few issues with REAL SIMPLE magazine. Some people love it, and that's okay. Frankly, it annoys me.

Tonight I received this email that really annoyed me, so I wrote what follows. B thinks it is too harsh. Me? I think it is mild, as I didn't use a few choice words that I wanted to. [Here's the deal: The email announced that on 4.21.03 only subscribers or AOL members would be able to access their site content. Great, I thought. No more pop up ads to get me to subscribe. So I went to their site, as instructed, but said link was not available -- perhaps it will be in 11 days when they re-launch.]

Subject: Thought you were finally on the right track . . . .

But apparently I stand corrected.

While I was excited about learning of your decision to remove Carrie Tuhy as managing editor, it was even more exciting to see that perhaps said decision appeared to be leading to other smart business moves (i.e. to stop giving away the magazine on line, not to mention making it available before it arrived in my mailbox). All of this excitement was squelched, however, when it became clear that REAL SIMPLE still does not understand the Internet.

Perhaps this is why you are soliciting thoughts on "how is the Internet helpful to you?" My best guess though is that has more to do with your parent company being AOL/Time Warner.

The email I received this evening stated that as a subscriber I would need to go to your site and confirm my membership to use your site after April 21. It didn't say that I should wait until that date to go there. Do you really think people save such email? Let alone mark their calendars for such a minuscule event? I suspect that if they are like me, and receive over 200 messages a day -- they don't.

What's even sadder is that the whole purpose of your magazine is to help people simplify their lives. Anyone who has read any of the "organizing your life" books knows that the first rule is to read something once and take action. Not keep it around for 11 days. That's how clutter starts.

Sure, if I deleted this message and went to your site after your re-launch, I could probably still sign up. Although you should know that as many of your issues come wrapped in plastic (usually to announce some new partnership), it would not be by finding a copy of your magazine and looking up my id number -- the labels get recycled with the plastic wrapper!

I would have to take the extra steps of entering my name and address. I suspect this would be the same system I used when I changed my address, so I would have to remember which name I used when I signed up (see, sometimes I use my middle name, or initials, or nickname to keep track of where my junk mail comes from). Again, you would be taking up my time.

And sure, it would be fair to ask why I am taking my time right now to compose this email. To be honest, I am not sure what the point of all this is. I suspect it will be read by someone who is underpaid and unempowered, with no authority to change anything. Maybe it will get passed around the office and chuckled over.

But before you laugh too hard, please know that I am very close to canceling my subscription. Also know that I will be blogging about this and telling anyone who will listen. Do you really care? I doubt it. But for some reason I am sharing.

And I was almost ready to forgive you for the coq au vin recipe.

Sincerely,

The worst of it is, MSN was acting out big time, and so somehow I ended up sending this three times. Yikes! So I really look like a mad woman. More on coq au vin to follow.

Feel free to chime in.