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In lugnet.general, Christopher L. Weeks writes:
> What are the defining attributes of spam? If there is some universally agreed
> upon definition, feel free to just point me to that.
I used to know of a couple of online resources, but I don't know offhand where
they are or if they still exist, so I'll try to sum up:
There are several different kinds of things that fall into the heading of
"Spam". One of these things is Unsolicted Commercial Email, or UCE. I think
you're pretty much famiiar with what it means, but UCE is basically exactly
what the name says- an email that is sent to your address advertising
something.
Pretty much any post to a Usenet group that isn't on-topic is considered to be
Spam. Whether it's something relatively innocuous, like someone posting to
the wrong group, or more purposeful, like someone posting multiple copies of an
ad to various newsgroups generally determines people's reaction. Obviously
someone posting to the wrong group is probably just lost, while a 'bot posting
to every rec.music.* group about "Great deals for musicians!!1!" is a
purposeful spammer.
> Why is it that there is a positive correlation between the degree of net
> savvyness and spite toward spam?
Because Spam threatens the integrity and usefulness of the internet.
Yeah, ok, I know that sounds alarmist, but follow along with me here:
Let's say that I want to sell widgets. I like my widgets, and I think you
will, too. So I want to get the word out to as many people as possible. So I
harvest 10,000 email addresses (or buy them from someone who does harvest them
[1]) and send out mail to everyone.
Let's assume your name is on that list. So you get a copy of it. Ok, you
don't want widgets, because you're allergic and frankly, they make your hips
look big, so you delete the email and read the other 10 emails you got from
your friends.
Now, imagine I'm not the only one who sent you a UCE email. Imagine 9 other
people get the same idea. Now you hae 50% mail you want, and 50% you don't.
Now imagine that 99 other people send you mail. Ten percent mail you want.
And the numbers can keep going up. Yeah, it seems extreme to assume the
numbers I'm talking about, but if Spam were left unchecked, the numbers would
probably actually be much higher. After all, 'bots sending out UCE
automatically for pennies per thousands of overhead. To marketing types, that
seems like a panacea.
It's better to react strongly to keep Spam in check then to wait for it to get
bad and then try to fix it.
eric
[1]These lists are often marketed as being "guaranteed good", which is
basically shorthand meaning that the person replied to at least one email.
This is the infamous "reply to be removed" schtick. Once it's known that your
address is good, it's more valuable than a dead address, so they want to know
if you're there.
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