Pathfinder 1E Has Paizo been selling my address?

[Garnfellow]

Could be Paizo:

"Paizo occasionally allows other companies to offer our registered customers information about their products and services. If you do not want to receive these offers, you should uncheck the box in the Privacy Settings section of the "My Account" area stating, "Paizo partners may send me information about their products, services or events"."

Many thanks for the tip! I figured the stupid crap that was landing in my mailbox was somehow connected to Paizo, but I didn't know about that setting -- and I'm pretty vigilant about that. I've unchecked that option now, so hopefully this line of junk mail will cease.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Could be Paizo:

"Paizo occasionally allows other companies to offer our registered customers information about their products and services. If you do not want to receive these offers, you should uncheck the box in the Privacy Settings section of the "My Account" area stating, "Paizo partners may send me information about their products, services or events"."

All my settings there are unchecked, so if they've been sharing my data, they're doing it illegally, assuming the laws in the U.S. are something like those in Canada. Of course, this is also evidence that it might not be Paizo, if I take them at their word that they're not passing around my data.

Edit: Or maybe it is Paizo, if JustKim is correct. I think that it wouldn't be too big of a stretch for some carpetbagger marketing exec to declare "Wizards of the Coast isn't a Paizo partner, it's a Paizo 'special partner', and therefore the privacy restriction doesn't apply to them." Whether this blackguard is on the Paizo side of things or the WotC side remains to be seen. Of course, it could also be a mistake with the database, which is forgivable as long as it only happens once.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I look at it this way:

Paizo needs to make money to keep publishing. They can either get that money from ads, or from increasing the price of the magazine. Personally I'd perfer ads.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Actually, given that Paizo licenses the right to publish the magazine, it would not surprise me in the least to discover that the reader database does not belongs to Paizo at all.

I suspect it belongs to WotC.

 

[James Jacobs]

They don't tell me the complicated crazy stuff that happens outside of the words or art in the magazines, so I can't say if it was indeed us who pawned out your address. There's countless ways for companies to track down addresses though... magazine subscriptions are certainly one of them, but by no means are they the only places ad agencies go to to farm addresses.

What I can say is this. Without advertisers, there would be no Dragon or Dungeon magazines.

The magazine business is not a good one to get in to if you want to make money; for most magazines, the only profit they actually recieve is from their ad sales. Newsstand and subscription sales generally are enough to cover costs of production and salaries of the staff... if they're lucky.

So feel free to hate the ads. Just understand that they're a part of the process, and without them we'd be trying to pawn $200 yearly subscriptions to the magazine or something crazy like that.

 

[Cryndo]

I got the same ad you did, but I've never subscribed to Dungeon or Dragon. Well, I shouldn't say that. I subscribed to Dragon in the 80's, but that was probably 8 addresses ago. I just assumed it was due to RPGA membership, but to be honest I didn't give it more than 2 seconds thought before I round-filed it.

 

[Agamon]

I suspect it is the RPGA, too, not Paizo. Why we got two instead of just one is odd.

 

[Mercule]

Meh.

I hate, loathe, and despise credit card ads or publisher's clearinghouse, etc. The chess set one didn't actually bother me. Which is really odd, considering I consider the product a silly piece of crap. At least it's close to something I might actually be interested in.

Now, if I start finding ads for penis enlargement in my box, and they can be traced to Paizo, then I'm gonna be out for blood.

 

[RangerWickett]

So feel free to hate the ads. Just understand that they're a part of the process, and without them we'd be trying to pawn $200 yearly subscriptions to the magazine or something crazy like that.

I've been hanging around at Circvs Maximvs too much lately. I read your reply and wanted to give you a boost to dignitas. I respect the balancing act Paizo has to perform to pull off being as awesome as you guys are without costing too much.

 

[JustKim]

I suspect it is the RPGA, too, not Paizo. Why we got two instead of just one is odd.

I've never been a part of the RPGA. More likely the ad agency pulled names from more than one source to compile the mailing list. The RPGA is a WotC resource, so it's only natural.

I am certain that my card came from Paizo selling my name. There isn't any other possibility short of a shadow government conspiracy theory.