Yesterday, I wrote about Organic Coffee Growers coming to grips with a saturated market for Organic Coffee.
Today, I came in to find spam from a Kona Coffee company touting their product:
I think Kona coffee is filling an excellent niche. It has a unique set of variables going for it IN ADDITION to the appeal of just being from one of the loveliest places in the world. It combines the sheltered microclimate with rich volcanic soil and individualized attention from small family farmers to create a stupendous coffee bean. It really lives up to the hype.The comment was pure spam -- touting one particular company, not really adding anything to the conversation and incorrect information. The Kona side of Big Island is not a sheltered microclimate and the large growers are all automated. What's more, I should not be paying $15 to $20 for eight ounces of any kind of premium coffee. More than $15 is a rip-off and yes, I am talking about premium coffee, not the floor sweepings that are generally passed off for Kona. If I was going to spend my money on some Peaberry, I would get the green beans and roast and grind them at home, not pay for something that had been roasted weeks ago and flown over to the mainland. The thing that prompted this is that the IP Address resolves to a mainland Comcast address. One that is listed in the BSB database as being a known spammer. The WHOIS lookup resolves to Corporation Service Company of Wilmington, Delaware. Their website: Corporation Service Company. I can certainly understand wanting to protect a trademark and to build a business and I wish them (Kona) luck but promoting via comment spam is not the way to go and a corporation of this size and scope (CSC) should know the hell better -- this only turns people's perceptions of the company toward the tawdry and sleazy side of things. Spam is still Spam regardless of the intentions of the sender and as the senders IP address is in a Black Hole Spam database, it is patently obvious that this is not the first instance of abuse...
