Dogs Don’t Know It’s Not Bacon
Do you recall the ads where the idiot dog gets all excited about the treats that taste like bacon but it’s just a chewy animal byproduct? I love that the dog gets so excited for something that he craves with his entire soul. The catch is that he needs one treat to calm his craving, but give him the whole bag and he’s got to sleep outside tonight, if you know what I mean!
In the Internet world, we do the same thing- since we want one treat, we permit ourselves to eat the entire bag of “bacon.” Let me explain- this week, a new term was coined that addresses this problem. “Bacn” refers to all of that email that you consented to but has somehow clogged your Inbox- it’s one step up from Spam and one step down from a meaningful personal or business email. Subscribing to comments, newsletters, Google Alerts, read receipts, twitter alerts, travel sales notifications, ebay bidding alerts, etc. are considered to be “bacn.” You asked for it, you just didn’t mean to get quite this much of it and you’re about to have to sleep outside tonight, if you know what I mean!
So how do we combat Bacn when we meant that we wanted one treat and not the whole bag? I’m not the tech savviest tool in the shed, so I hope others of you will chime in! I would suggest the following ways of fending off having to scarf down the whole slab of bacn:
1. Use a separate email for “alerts” of any kind.
2. If you’re an Outlook user, create a bacn folder. You want to read these emails but don’t have time right now, so just like you’d love to eat a bag of bacon treats, you should pace yourself, buddy!
3. Think twice before subscribing to alerts and don’t feel guilty for unsubscribing (Orbitz and Facebook won’t take it personally).
In this virtual world of self-imposed overindulgence, how do YOU combat bacn?
August 26th, 2007 at 10:02 am
I am interested in reading these comments… right now to be exact!
I have tried to fight the problem of spam by getting rid of all my accounts to sites like Digg and all the social networks. Tonight I made my blog so that you have to register to post a comment and I also added a box trapper to my email address that is on my blog. SAPMMERS YOU HAVE FORCED ME TO MAKE MY BLOG AND SITE STRONGER THAN FORT KNOX?
As for the “bacn” type spam, I have an issue with that subscribe to comments plugin that a lot of the real estate bloggers are usin. Number 1 - uncheck the box by default. Number 2 before you let your reader subscribe, make sure the unsubscribe function works - most do not believe it or not and I hate to hurt any feelings or step on any toes by emailing the admin. of those blogs asking them to remove me.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
I sleep outside…
August 27th, 2007 at 12:31 am
Chris- I have no doubt that you sleep oustide, buddy!
Derek- ugh, I feel your pain about spammers. The comments plugin is something I’ve been too lazy to install (but it’s on the GTD list) and while mine won’t automatically be checked, I tend to make a habit of reading all boxes of my comment since I’m committing my name to an idea.
I haven’t experienced a hard to reach admin, but I can imagine it would be irritating to have to hunt someone down for that reason.
But hey, bacn isn’t personal- if you want to opt out of your chosen “bacn treat” then do it- they’ll get over your not wanting to sleep outside with Chris!
August 27th, 2007 at 1:29 am
[...] Lani Anglin, Dogs Don’t Know It’s Not Bacon [...]
August 27th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Not feel guilty? I’ll have to choose #2 or 3.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:28 am
I still find myself behind door # 1 but am actively seeking better solutions…
August 28th, 2007 at 12:32 am
[...] give you link love if you can name this reference)! The article that won this CoRE geek award is Dogs Don’t Know It’s Not Bacon, so read up and be sure to [...]
August 28th, 2007 at 12:40 am
I love the term too - having a rules setup within my email client to place them all in a specific folder makes a ton of sense too.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:46 am
Erik, some readers may not understand how to modify an email client (and I am terrible at typing instructions)- do you (or someone else) care to leave instructions in the comments? That would be great!
August 28th, 2007 at 2:23 am
[...] the Realty.bots, the Web 2.0 real estate start-ups. Monetary policy, transparency, moral uplift and how to avoid self-inflicted spam — the menu was dizzying — and deliciously [...]
August 28th, 2007 at 3:28 am
[...] list for Odysseus Medal recipients (and although I’m being silly, I am so excited that bacn is getting so much [...]