[pmmail-list] Spam -- your definition

[Dave Hathaway]

I got back from lunch and was surprised to find 50 or so messages in
my PMMail list box.  Whoa!

[snip]
> Some people say that "spam" is (1) unsolicited (2) bulk (3)
> commercial email that is (4) fraudulent and/or (5) does not contain
> any real contact info or method of demanding that the contact stop.
> Personally I like that definition because it gives us a target that
> we can all agree should be prevented.
> 
> Which definition do you use?

After reading all the messages thus far, I want to point out an
earlier technology that was affected like email is now: junk faxes. 
When fax technology was new, bulk faxers sprung up, wasting countless
rolls of expensive thermal fax paper.  Eventually this was recognized
as a un-asked-for waste of the receivers' resources and laws were
emplaced.  Now I rarely get unsolicited commercial faxes.

I think email spam is like junk faxes.  I don't much care if it is
fraudulent or if it doesn't contain contact information.  It is
wasting my resources, it is costing me money (I bill at $190/hour or
so and even a minute wasted is money).  I now am using Yahoo Mail and
am constantly getting bugged to buy more space because I get so much
spam (and those stupid HTML viruses *sigh*).

I don't buy the theory that spam is using significant resources in
transmission.  Has anyone ever seen the figures on USENET usage?  How
many spam messages could fit inside one porn video clip?

OK, so that's the end of my tirade.  To answer the original question,
I think 1-3 defines spam, with 4 and 5 removing any remaining amount
of gray area.

Dave



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