Month: August 2011

Let Me Frigging Unsubscribe

George Saines hits on a problem that annoys me to no end when it comes to getting off stupid mailing lists and pseudo-spam from legit companies. As he puts it in the title of his blog post, I Want To Unsubscribe, Not “Manage My Preferences”,

But increasingly, I see emails sent from large, respectable companies [1] that provide me with no unsubscribe link. Instead there is an insidious trend towards “Managing Preferences,” which invariably requires a log in, a brief search to find the unsubscribe option, and a form submit. And after all that am I unsubscribed? Apparently not because I keep getting messages. The companies assure that I’m off XY email list while seemingly putting me on ZQW list simultaneously. Perhaps most irritating of all, I am spending an increasing amount of time browsing and checking email from my phone, and elaborate unsubscribe workflows thwart my ability to quickly opt out.

Something else I really hate and get more of is political spam from affiliates of the two major parties in the United States.

For example, last year all I wanted to do was donate a couple hundred dollars to support gay marriage in California. Apparently doing that was an invitation for every fucking Democratic PAC and Steering Committee in the United States to add me to their mailing lists. Thanks, guys — really makes me want to not donate next time around.

WizKids Teams Up with Paizo for Pathfinder Battles Miniatures

WizKids recently announced it had teamed up with Paizo to release a line of collectible miniatures centered for the Pathfinder RPG. The odd thing is this doesn’t seem to involve any sort of miniatures-related game, but rather these are miniatures intended for use when playing Pathfinder or other RPGs. Which makes the collectible angle on this a bit odd,

Pathfinder Battles fantasy miniatures will be available in a variety of formats. The first release, Heroes & Monsters, will come in a “brick” of 19 blind standard booster packs, with 16 packs including one Medium or 2 Small figures, and 3 large packs featuring 1 Large monster each. Duplication of figures within a sealed brick has been held to a minimum, so purchasers should get no to very few duplicate figures in a brick (as with any randomized product, collation is not guaranteed). Buyers who purchase factory-sealed cases (4 bricks) should get a nearly complete set of figures.

Weird. So if I want to make sure I get the succubus depicted below for my tabletop game I’ve got to buy four bricks? Really?