Spamming

[A. R. 'Bob' Mascott]

				SPAMMING

  A complaint about 'spamming' on the Internet or anywhere else is 
inappropriate, largely because spamming is really an undefined term. What 
it means to one person is not the same as the next person.

  How many places does a message have to be sent to - to be classified as 
'spamming'?
What ever your answer is - it is wrong. Messages are commonly posted in 
many areas at the same time, with no complaints. And people in those 
areas forward that same message on to many other areas. All done without 
it being considered 'spamming'.

  When a person complains about 'spamming', they are not really 
complaining about a message being posted. They are complaining about the 
content of the message.

  For one reason or another the complainer does not like the message. 
However, instead of doing  that which is considered appropriate - 
Responding to the poster and complaining to him or her directly. The 
reasons for doing so, seem to be varied. Lack of courage, inadequate 
knowledge to respond appropriately, or from the wording of some of the 
messages sent to SCN, ashamed of their lack of education. Whatever it is, 
the result is the same. They try to rally intermediates to see their 
position, even though they know very little of the subject they write 
about. They just know that they didn't like that message.

  This is very much akin to wanting the post office to do something, 
because your girlfriend wrote you a 'Dear John' message and sent copies 
of it to many of your friends.

  Forums and Lists can be either UnModerated (as most are) or moderated 
(postings are sorted before they are seen by the public). Never has just 
someone saying 'Post only this kind of message' made it so. Never has 
there been either a forum or a list in which some of the message 
subjects, strayed from the correct subject, without anyone complaining.

  When one tries to write something like a rule or policy to prohibit 
some actions of some of the public and do it without inhibiting the major 
amount of actions of most of the people - Words seem so inadequate.

                    Bob Mascott - mascott at scn.org