Received an Email today...

admin

Retired Administrator
Just wondered what you guys think of this email i received today, I am not going to reply till tomorrow, but I haven't got much of a clue what to say. I don't think the persons think we are the official MITM site or anything... Help me decpher so I can write back properly tomorrow :D
Hi there

Please can you contact me asap regarding your site. Media.Com are sponsoring Malcolm in the Middle this year at a considerable cost to Starburst. I'm very rapidly building an online plan for the year and would like to include an assoication with Starburst, either as a water-mark or with the Starburst logo. My telephone number is Tel: (CENSORED) if you'd like to give me a call or please could you mail me with your details. The deal hasn't been completed yet throgh Malcolm in the Middle and Media.com, however I would have thought you will be aware, or if not please could you forward the query to whom ever it might concern? Many thanks & kind regards (CENSORED). (Media Manager @ Media.Com (CENSORED))
I've censored the senders name, telephone number and email address at of politeness, but i need some help understanding what exactly its asking. I shall probalby email back tomorrow asking for more details...

Currently i am thinking of saying, well obviously not in bullet points but

  • We are not associated with FOX, bla bla. Only Unofficial Fansite
  • Happy to allow Starburst to advertise, but obviously, it will cost, but not much :D
  • We have advertising space, under every image usually, is that ok
  • Looking forward to hearing from you.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
David, we probably all know even less about this than you, but considering your URL of www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk it probably isn't too difficult to think you're the official site.

I would also be careful of fraudulence. Have you looked up the number or address? See if they exist, and if they're registered to who the email states they're registered to. I'm not sure about the UK, maybe you know or maybe this works at google.co.uk but in the US if you put in someone's phone number at Google, you're taken to Google Phone Book which gives you a plethora of information about the number. You may also know of an online reverse phone directory? I would try that.

Secondly, have you looked at Media.com? First, there's an awful lot of grammar mistakes in that sentence; second, Media.Com is not a real site, just a search portal thingy.

Thirdly, I would question what Starburst has to do with any of this, it's worded rather confusedly, with plenty of grammar mistakes that make it difficult to understand.

Finally, I would avoid supplying ANY details of yourself to this person until you can figure out what is going on.

Good luck!
 

admin

Retired Administrator
The website, actually refers to www.mediacomuk.com, for some reason the site calls itself media.com no idea why

But yeah, i'm always careful, the email adress it arrived from was a proper company email address.

I've dealt with adverters before, my old Friends site had Warner Brothers sponsership for a year or two....

But i do wish I understood what the email is trying to say more.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Well, that makes a lot more sense now. The grammar is still horrible, which would make me doubt the genuineness (is that correct in the noun form?) of the email, but they are an advertising firm, which would make the whole Starburst logo make sense.

However, in the Clients section listed on the Website, neither Starburst nor Twentieth Century Fox nor BuenaVista Television are listed.

As far as what the email is trying to say, the grammar is fine on the site, so I have to assume it in in the capacity of the site owner to create such a grammatically correct and clear email. That does not appear to be the case, however.

The best thing for you to do right now may be, and this would be what I would do, is forward the email along to Fox. They may or may not reply, but if they don't get back to you, then I would go back to dealing directly with the company. If there is a mistake, or if there is fraud, Fox may know something about it.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
It does imply in the email that this sponsoring is in very early stage, but it also implies that we should be aware of it....

Emailing can do no harm really, so I shall send one tomorrow, just stating some of my above facts, I won't be releasing any personal details until I can see some more concreate proof.

Yes the spelling and grammar is dreadful, but i find it difficultt to understand as well... Its they way people speak these days, I get so many emails from my web design site, which I just can't understand. People should learn to take their time, and write things in plain English. Just because its an email, doesn't automatically mean I understand media jargon :D
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
They may be fully aware of the fact you are an unoffical site but would like you as a site to let them advertise. i agree its rather confusing but what i dont get is why Starburst would have interest in mitm :s it strikes me as odd a large company would got for mitm - i mean the new series aint eveen in the uk yet. however i could be that they want to start a whole new campaigne when it does come to the uk. who knows. id personally write back saying that you do not understand what exactly they are refering to/asking you.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
yeah, i will soon. If they simply want to advertise on the site, at our costs, they can.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
OK guys, I sent an email back today, the first quote here, then I got a reply pretty swiftly. It explains things way better IMO. Anyway, looks like even if they thought we were the offical site, they'll be asking us anyway.

Again, out of coutesey I have censored the sender and their email address.

To {CENSORED}

We received you email today, but were not exactly sure about what it means.
Just to confirm to start with that we are not the official site, or
affiliated in any way with the official site. We are just globally the
largest and most popular Malcolm in the Middle Fansite on the internet. If
you were not aware of this, then we apologise for looking slightly
misleading, and you don't have to really read the rest of this email. If you
were aware if this then read on...

We of course would be happy if Starburst would like to add advertisements on
our, it will of course be a cost, as we are not related to the company
Starburst paid for MITM sponsorship and we need to fund our bandwidth and
web space. Just reply, and we can discuss this in more detail. But basically
we usually allow advertisers to have an advert under all the large images on
our website, and if they have a smaller image advert one on the homepage.
There are currently 121 images which adverts can go under. Plus 6+3 other
pages which we permit adverts on.

Best Regards, and hope to here back from you if your deal with MITM
sponsorship goes through

David
MITMVC Administration

P.S. I was wondering whether this deal was with SKY ONE to sponsor MITM, as
the only other UK channel to have MITM on is BBC2, and that's ad-free.
And the reply I got

Hi David

Thanks for getting back to me. Yes the deal is with Sky & will run from May till the end of the year. Even though you're not the official site I think you should be included on the online schedule; especially as you are the most used. Please could you let me know the ad-positions, what you can do i.e. banner, skyscraper or / & buttons & what's your CPC or is there an outright tenancy for the rest of the year? What's the traffic etc. Also what is the official site for Malcolm in the Middle as I should also approach them.

Thanks
Kind regards
{CENSORED}

So I my next email tomorrow I shall say..
  • The official site is the US site fox.com/malcolm, but SKY|ONE do have a MITM section on their site.
  • We operate on an outright tenancy, for the rest of the year
  • Our traffic statistics according to our webhost were as follows
Total Yesterday 1403
Total (since 18-06-2004) 244,224
Average per day 669
Top score per day3714 (06-12-2004)
Top monthly record 36 983 (Nov 2004)
  • We usually accept banners, text. But it has to be a horizontal banner, due to the layout of our website
  • Banners go on 121 pages, for each episode, plus homepage, top and bottom lists.
  • Also, you may have a text slogan at the bottom and or top of our weekly newsletter, which goes out to currently just under 1300 people.
Looks like the deal is with Sky and Starburst, which is pretty cool for us if we can get in on it :D
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
its must be for season 6 coming to skyone then. im still surprised starburst would be interedt in mitm but its cool. nice to know how big we have become to attract people like this. pretty exciting i think.
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
how very suspicious of you sam :D it search around for any info on a cam like that and there isnt anything - so i think its genuine.
 

Wemboy

New member
Don't get me wrong, i mean i want all this to be genuine, but a few things just don't add up. I mean, if this company really was sponsoring the show on sky then surely they would know what the official website was without having to ask you, there's also the bad grammar and the whole thing just seems a bit unprofessional. Then again it could just be that the guy emailing you is incompitant, and not very good at his job:D . On the plus side, it is the end of the financial year, which would be the natural time for sky to be rethinking any sponsorship deals they may have. Whatever, at the end of the day if he's offering you money i say take it and ask questions later!
 

Wemboy

New member
tjpeople said:
its must be for season 6 coming to skyone then. im still surprised starburst would be interedt in mitm but its cool. nice to know how big we have become to attract people like this. pretty exciting i think.
I've already watched an episode from season 6 on sky one, it was standee, a month or so ago. Watched it at my dads cos i don't have sky at uni, are they splitting the season up or something?
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
it sounds good. if they just want to put up a banner or something, how could that hurt? In the end you'll have some more money. But let's be careful.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
Yeah, i mean regardless of whether it being fake or not, and I think it probably is real, but there is nothing to loose.

If I put a starburst advert on or not, it doesn't matter - if they don't pay up, I'll take it off again... simple as that. If they do pay, but arent the mitm sponsor, that doesn't matter either - they've paid us, so thier our sponsor :D
 
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