Dudes,

I've been a silent supporter of your activities for a while--but we need to talk.

Today, I drove by one of those LOSE-50-POUNDS-IN-10-MINUTES signs that's been stuck in the ground for a couple weeks, and some bozo had stuck a big, neon-orange, C.A.U.S.S., "Please Remove Your Litter" sticker on it. Cute. The sign was in a shopping center in Monument.

If this was one of yours--shark it. Or I will, tomorrow. You've hijacked an eyesore and turned it into an even BIGGER one.

You've become part of The Problem.

I understand that you have some kind of legal fight in Evergreen that you need to fund, but, if you want to advertise, pay for it. I put about $1,500.00 a month into advertising my carpet-cleaning business. Why the hell should YOU get a free ride?

If you want to make illegitimate signs disappear, I won't lose any sleep over it. But if you've become spammers yourselves, then ##### you.

The sign I'm talking about is in the shopping center in Monument on Highway 105, between the post office and the Cork 'N Bottle Liquor store. If you don't have the nuts to pull it, then I WILL, at 9:30 tomorrow morning.

--Art

Art,

Obviously you are upset about seeing spam. That's good. The whole purpose of the Causs stickers is to raise public awareness and hopefully, recruit some sharks. There is no monetary gain for Causs in stickering - and the cost of it is expended by the individual shark.

The stickering is not endorsed by Causs, but simply another tactic that some of us to combat the problem. The foul language isn't necessary - we need to work together, and understand that different people are going to use different methods. Please use your energy in helping us fight the spam.

Thanks.

-Spellchecker

I think the important point to remember is that those who have posted on this thread and most who visit this web site share the goal of eliminating illegally posted signs. I think it is also abundantly clear that, in the current environment, stealth activity alone will not win the war against those who post illegal signs. If it were enough, we would not see signs virtually everywhere. I think we need to support anti-spam activities of many types. Some work to inspire or cajole code enforcement to be more active and aggressive. Some simply report spam to the authorities or to sign sharks. Some work to get better ordinances. Many people take direct action and remove signs themselves. Some remove the entire sign. Some leave a remnant but remove most of the sign. Some just cut out the numbers. Some work to get publicity. And, yes, some put up stickers.

If our strategy is to eliminate street spam, I think we are better off having some tolerance for differences in tactics.

Newbie

Newbie (not)

Hi, Newbie.

I don't entirely disagree with you. Winning the "war" against spam is the goal of most who post here. At the "tactical" level, if somebody's goal is to report spam to the authorities, then he's succeeded as soon as he's hung up the phone. If his goal to cut a phone number from a sign, the job's done when the number's gone.

If a Marine is ordered to parachute into Tora Bora in a thong bikini with pork chops hanging around his neck and a slingshot in his hand, then he can radio back, "Mission accomplished" as soon as he's hit the ground.

The STRATEGIC-level question is whether these tactics will win "The War."

This is the level at which I'm trying to offer feedback.

Thanks.

--Art

Spellchecker,

Thank you for your response.

I want to make it clear that I will go to war with CAUSS stickers in the Tri-Lakes community. We don't need them.

They're primitive, and they work against us.

Let's just make the spam disappear as it appears. Let's not draw attention to "sharkers."

Let's not make this a Big Deal.

Sharkers happen. Recruiting is unnecessary. Stop trying to be an "activist."

Thanks.

--Art

>I want to make it clear that I will go to war with CAUSS stickers in the Tri-Lakes community. We don't need them.

Art,

The best way to go to war with Causs stickers is to make sure there is no place to put them. That would be very helpful.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of people who are now tearing down these signs because of the stickers. Most people don't realize that they can do something to help - it just takes a little education.

Keep in mind that for every sticker, hundreds of these signs are taken down cleanly. The only thing we gain from the stickers is help.

-Spellchecker

Spellchecker,

I've lived in areas where spam was a real nuisance. But it isn't here. It's not a big problem, and, for THIS community's sensibilities, stickering is over-the-top. Maybe it's appropriate in other areas, but it isn't HERE. That's what I'm trying to communicate. My home is here, my business is here, and my finger is pretty much on the pulse of the region. "Stickering" is the problem that I want to nip in the bud. It's nothing more than glorified tagging.

I can tell you that the first few stickers might elicit a few chuckles and a couple "You GO Girls," but after cutting down a few orange CAUSS signs--like I did this morning--people will start asking why sharks aren't pulling their weight. Education won't overcome that in an area where there really isn't a perceived problem.

You should check out the stickered sign I sharked this morning; I have it here in front of me. The guy who visited it before me was a real piece O' work. He cut off the last four digits of the sign's phone number, applied adhesive to it, then plastered on an orange piece of paper he ran through his printer. Then he walked away. All he had to do was snip a little plastic cord and pull.

Talk about pole-vaulting over a mouse turd!

This is the last time I'll clean up after a shark. People who sticker a sign, slash phone numbers from it, or otherwise beautify it OWN that sign, as far as I'm concerned, and are responsible for it. They've made it uglier than it was to begin with, and it has to go. Sharks should finish what they start.

--Art

LAST EDITED ON 02-11-02 AT 10:43 PM (CST)

LAST EDITED ON 02-11-02 AT 10:42 PM (CST)

>I want to make it clear that I will go to war with CAUSS stickers in the Tri-Lakes community. We don't need them.

I'm not trying to be confrontational here, because, well, I'm pretty easygoing regarding tactics, etc.

Art, dude, I don't use stickers. I don't paint signs either. But it's only because I don't have to.

There's someone a couple of towns east who paints the phone numbers on the signs. WhenI get out there, I take the painted signs down, but not with any animosity toward the person who painted them. Painting is not my preferred method (I like to rip them down completely), but at least the painter is doing something.

The guys in your AO may have had to resort to stickering to attract enough sharks to compete with the volume of sign spammers. See, if there aren't enough sharks, they can't keep up with the volume of spam signs.

Sounds like the case, if your pet sign has been there for a couple of weeks.

>They're primitive, and they work against us.

A matter of opinion. If they really worked agains "us" many areas in Colorado would be in a lot worse shape than they are.

>Let's just make the spam disappear as it appears. Let's not draw attention to "sharkers."

One more time: That can only happen if there are enough sharks to keep up with the spammers. If stickers are what's needed to make that happen, then stickers are good, notwithstanding the fact that I don't use them myself.

>Let's not make this a Big Deal.

'"I will go to war with CAUSS" sounds like you're making it a big deal. If you dislike the signs, why do you have such a big problem with something that recruits other people to help you get rid of them?

>Sharkers happen. Recruiting is unnecessary.

Denver and others in Colorado would beg to differ. They had a real problem out there, and the stickers helped them a lot.

> Stop trying to be an "activist."

You state this like "activist" is some kind of a dirty word. Why? Not to jump ugly with anyone who rips down signs, but I'm curious about the excessive sensitivity.

Redstone

UglyLitter.com is another organization with similar goals, but we advocate stickers as an important part of our toolkit. Our stickers are extremely visible, have cute slogans, and the website at the bottom.

In one large city UglyLitter.com is active in, we've stickered persistantly for about a year and a half. In that time the public awareness of the illegality of the signs has risen dramatically. There have been radio stories and newspaper stories about the signs. The number of sharks has risen hugely. The number of signs has dropped.

A year ago a short weekend morning of de-signing would bring in 150+ signs easily, occasionally over 300. Now it's difficult to find a location where we can destroy more than 10/hour. Some days there aren't any.

How do I know that the stickers are helping? Well, the number of emails from newbies rises dramatically after each stickering event. 4 out of 5 emails are positive. 4 out of 5 of the unfriendly emails are clearly from spammers. (The remainder are people who say "stickers are ugly, too.")

Also, and this is very interesting, neighborhoods that used to be horribly spammed just a year ago are now entirely clear of signs, despite the fact that we didn't put stickers there. The locals are becoming sharks and the spammers are giving up.

The point is that a good stickering campaign is educational. It lets people know that the laws are on the side of their personal inclination to take care of the problem. It lets them know there is a supportive community behind them. It gives them a chance to talk back with their concerns or suggestions. All of this brings us closer to a sign-free world.

Uglylitter,

I know this is an unfair question--please consider it rhetorical. I'll give you the last word.

What would have happened if the signs had just kept disappearing?

Thanks.

--Art

Art,

When the signs disappear, so do we.

I hope I'm not misunderstanding your question.