Hi guys it's my first time posting on the forum so I am not exactly sure the way that this works.
I was born and grew up on Lamma and only moved away a few years ago to go to Uni.
I am currently in my last year and I am focusing on Lamma as my main project for this year. I am focusing on the environment/ green peace aspect of Lamma and was wondering if I could get some input for my research.
The way I would like to do this is to send anyone that is interested a postcard asking them one question about Lamma and hopefully they could respond to me answering the question, either by email or a postcard/letter back.
Of course I would have to get addresses of anyone who would be interested in helping me but of course your privacy is my main concern, so you could give me a fake name in which to send the post card.
I hope this gets me somewhere in my project, have a lovely day everyone!

I just registered last night (a day after you), but welcome to the forums anyway!

You are aware that you're asking people to give you their real contact information while you stay anonymous yourself? If my privacy really was your main concern, you wouldn't even use the internet but some personal ties you have on Lamma. There should be many, since you were born and raised here.

So for the sake of art (not data-mining), some anonymous, newly registered user claiming to be from Lamma wants to send me something (supposedly, a postcard) from an undisclosed location and I should mail or email it back - all for the purpose of answering a single question?

Sounds more like you should rather do a survey or just ask people here in the forum, using the board messenger. That way, nobody has to share their contact information with a stranger.

Maybe you can explain what exactly you are up to?

I'm not saying your motives aren't genuine, but if you want at least my support, you'll have to elaborate on your project and more importantly, on yourself. If it is a really interesting project, I'm sure many Lamma residents will support it.

Cheers,
naut

Seems a bit silly to user an Internet forum to make contacts for snail mail.

You can ask your question here and then let people respond in a forum post, by PM or by email (if you give your own email).
If your uni supervisor insisted on the postcard bit, well, I'd ask them to come into the 21st century, in a more polite way than that though.

Maybe the postcards are meant to be physically used in a kind of collage or something - but that would interfere with the option to email it back. Plus it's all related to environmental issues? With green and peace, for a year. Curious.

Do they offer scholarships?

I have been using personal ties: my family and my friends but I thought it would be a good idea to branch out and ask other people who really care about Lamma to answer some questions to help with my project.
I was not asking people to post their addresses on this post but if they were interested, to instead message me their addresses. I understand that it could seem dodgy but no reasons of why I would want people's addresses to do something with come to my mind.
I have made the postcards myself, with photographs that I recently took of Lamma in the summer, which is why I thought it would be a nice idea to send them to people that are from Lamma, as well as a bit of self promotion (I have no shame). On the back of the postcards is my email address, my website and my full name, so people would know exactly how to contact me back.
A survey would be a nice idea and I was thinking about that at first but I thought the postcards would be a nice personal touch.
I really did not think I would get a negative reaction about this and actually feel quite annoyed with the way you have replied.

My goodness some people are paranoid arent they? It's just a youngster doing an Art Project! Have already pm'd Lammachild my address. I have Lamma children myself and hope they wont meet with such a nasty response should they ever post in these forums.

It wasn't my intention to annoy you, but invite you to share more information on what you want people to do and why. If the way I phrased it offended you then please accept my sincere apologies.

However, I don't think being secretive is a good way to solicit support for anything. My comment was meant to make you think.



I'll give you some insight into my paranoid mind. The way I see it, someone spent 1 minute or less on a forum post, asking people to send their personal information to him/her on the claim that it's for an art project. If met with success, this person will compile a neat list of

- English-speaking
- mostly foreign
- HK residents, who:
- appreciate nature and healthy living
- can be connected to specific forum users + all their posts
- eagerly give out personal information on simple request

I personally know people who would pay a few hundred bucks for such a list, maybe even more. I also grew up in a communist country with a well-known secret service spying on citizens (back then, it was considered wrong). That sounds paranoid to you? Well, you made me do this. Before your post, I didn't go that far myself.

The decades of snailbox advertisement waste, spam and cold-calling (especially since I came to HK) have made me cautious.

But consider this: if I didn't want to help, I wouldn't have wasted time responding to his/her post in the first place. And a waste it was, since I still don't know a thing about the "art project" apart from what I knew before. Of course, you are welcome to share your information with anyone without hesitation, but please don't call me paranoid. I'm not, because I actually think they take breaks chasing me, so sometimes I'm probably safe enough.

If your children ever run into someone who confronts them with an honest opinion, I hope they can deal with it better than that.

Really? I doubt that.

He'd be very lucky to get a dozen responses.
That's not worth hundreds of dollars. I doubt it has any commercial value at all.

I will be astonished if this is not exactly what he says it is.

On the other hand, introduce me to the people you mention and I will see how much they will pay me to abuse my access to the site's membership database....

HEY! It's MY privilege to abuse the membership database!

Well, everybody registering as a new member in this forum gets onto my email newsletter list and will receive 1-2 times monthly updates on what's new and happening on Lamma. Opting out is an easy one-click operation, of course.

I haven't been very successful so far in monetising this email-only list, collected and constantly updated over 11 years, only occasionally adding a bit of commercial, sometimes paid-for text promoting an off-Lamma show or event. All local events get free promotion, of course. No spamming, no abuse and no advertising-only emails, unlike many other local email lists. The email addresses will never be given out to anybody else, not for any purpose, of course.

Any ideas on how to abuse, err, make better use of my email list of 5,500 active email addresses from all over HK, far beyond Lamma?

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I was not annoyed with the fact that you were suspicious of my intentions and of course everyone has their own personal opinion. I would not sell people's addresses for money, I wouldn't even know why to do so or even who to give it to. I am a 21 year old art student, not a criminal.
I will explain to you the full idea for the project at the moment (it has a lot of room to grow as it is only the beginning of the year!). When I first came home for the summer (I had not been back for a whole year), I was taken back by how much I missed the island and how much it had stayed the same but also changed in several aspects. At first, I wanted to use a tourism theme and go from there but speaking to my mum, she said that there was no real depth to that and maybe I should should focus on the environmental aspect of the Island. Sending postcards would only be a primary research point, not the basis of my entire project. I do understand that using postcards may not seem environmentally friendly but I was more thinking that since I made the postcards myself, people would be more inclined to keep the postcards instead of throwing them straight away (most of the people I am sending to, I know very well). I am not quite sure as to where the project will be heading after this, which is why I am doing research first before committing to an idea. I knew that I wanted to use Hong Kong/ Lamma Island as my last university project, as I created a photo set last year that fuelled my inspiration and made me realise that I am passionate about where I am from, you can check it out here if you are interested: http://www.cargocollective.com/katiedowsonphotography (it is on the conceptual page)
I hope this helps.

A somewhat constructive idea to get your postcards:

1. send a stack of postcards to a trusted person on Lamma
2. suggest a day on which that person is available for us to pick up a card
3. write it there (e.g. a stand on cable road)
4. have that person collect and return the postcards to you

That way, nobody needs to share any personal information and you still get everything you need for your project. You can encourage participation by promoting it further, providing stamped postcards with complete address field and maybe even do a lottery to engage the common folks on the street. First price: a bookman's beard or some other commodity

Just a quick shot, real hard thinking may easily produce better ideas...


I know a set of a dozen isn't worth anything. But "if met with success" (say, get 500 or more responses), things look different. And don't forget the additional social connections reflected by the board. Anyway, that's all just firlefanz for the sake of explaining something to somebody. I wouldn't seriously discuss it further.

What's in for me? And after I became a mod myself, I won't need you anymore. Until then, you better don't know too much - otherwise you'll be knowing too much...



But if you do it, it wouldn't really be abuse. Nobody pays for legit usage nowadays. You could continue growing that list until Google makes you an offer?

Definitely more than a dozen - but do you have postcards from all of them? I imagine a massive installation of postcards called "From Far Beyond Lamma".

But seriously, what information connects to those email addresses other than being located in HK? You got their fb profiles or other compromising information? Anyway the first step should be a long overdue change of the board's privacy statement.

I'm drifting off topic, it seems...