December 23rd, 1996

"I don't normally personally respond to e-mails, but this one was just begging for it (and this *will* be posted in The Mailroom AKA E-mail and tomatoes... it's just too funny not to print). I don't want to turn this into a personal flame war, so I'm going to be the mature one, and I'll try not to personally attack you. But there are a few points I have to make...

1)Thanks for telling me the full URL of your site so I could check it out... I'm kidding of course. Just telling me the server doesn't help at all. I had to go onto Yahoo to find your site. Anyways, it looks like you *really* went out of your way not to copy anything from MAD (like you accused me of doing)... you are aware that it's just a list of your favorite issues, right?

2)About your site being "bigger", if you're talking about bytes, that may be true because you scanned the cover of all your favorite issues. If I wanted to do that, I could (remember, greg.simplenet.com is my own server, I can put as much stuff as I want on it). But I don't want to. That's not really helping people at all. Telling them what's in the current issue, answering thier questions, etc., that *is* helping them. Try it.

3)About copying stuff from MAD, actually I'm not, but MAD told me I can use stuff that I glean from the mag. And using half the name of one of their departments is hardly infringing on any patents. On the subject of copying, if my site is so bad, why did you copy *my* pic of Alfred E. Neuman?

My final thoughts are that you have a misconception of what a fan page should be. I must be doing something right, because my page gets hundreds of hits every day. Does yours?"