Welcome once again to "When The Internet Attacks!". On today's episode, it's more stupid user emails. As explained before, I handle most of the email at Rogue Amoeba, and so I get to handle all sorts of things, good and bad. In our last episode, we had a whiney user with poor eyesight. Today, it's time to meet Paranoid Greg. We first met Paranoid Greg back on November 28th, in the following emails:

First Email:
Dear Sirs,

Under your category Pop/Rock, which is:

http://rogueamoeba.net/streams/index.cgi?group=Pop/Rock

You will find my broadcast stream called <name omitted>.I want to know why after having already advertised my broadcast stream that I have had no listener response, at all.

By advertising I mean worldwide advertising, not only on various types of websites but also on fifteen selected newsgroups (Usenet), which was done in advance of beginning the Nicecast stream.

Please provide an explanation for this which is not plausible.

Greg

First Response:
Greg,

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for here (now why you think we need to explain this to you...) - internet radio is a tough game. There are thousands of streams out there competing for listeners, and you need to work to develop a listener base. It's not like FM radio, where the average listener can only pick up half a dozen stations and must settle for one of them.

Take a look at the rest of MacStreams.com - most stations on there have very few listeners. Then take a look at ShoutCast.com - the top 1/3 of the 7500+ stations have great listener numbers. But get beyond that, and the numbers drop off rapidly. Right around the halfway mark ( when I checked), you'll see that there are over 3000 stations with no listeners whatsoever.

As stated, it takes time and effort to developer a fanbase, just like anything else. Keep broadcasting, and keep advertising, and listeners should start to arrive. Good luck!

-Paul

Second Email:

"Paul",

As an I.T. Professional, I know when something is up. I will recommend to as many people as I know what I know.

Greg

Second Response:

Greg,
I'm not sure I understand this response (nor why my name has quotes around it). Can you explain this response in a bit more depth?

-Paul

Bizarre, no? As my first response said, it takes time to build a listener base. We finally heard from Greg again on December 22nd, when we received this:

Dear Paul,

Sorry about my odd e-mail a couple of weeks ago you received from me. I received some bad information from someone that "Nicecast" was acting as a front for Amazon.com by simply reporting to them what popular songs were being played so Amazon could sell more music. I see now that this is not the case.

I apologize for acting so weird. I said nothing bad about your company to anyone.

Sorry,
Greg

What...the...hell? What kind of terrible, lameass business would that be? Pretend to be a software company for a couple years, then front for Amazon to get some weak data they could get much more easily? And for that matter, who the hell is spreading that rumor?

Anyhow, that's all for now but join us next time on When The Internet Attacks!, for more Stupid User Emails or something equally bizarre or stupid.