In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, you wrote
:
>What a complete load of b**locks - this is just a poor attempt at hiding SPAM.
Now hold on just a second here.
I have to say that for me also, the first word that jumped into _my_ mind
when I saw this was `SPAM', but _I_ happen to be extraordinarily sensitized
to anything that smells even remotely like spam, so that's not terribly sur-
prising. I'm constantly preoccupied with the subject of spam, and I'm
starting to see spam in my sleep. I know this about myself, so when
thing like this come up, I have to force myself to take a step back and
really consider the issues on such bordeline cases before I start screaming
`SPAM'!
OK, so how many of the typical hallmarks of spam did we see in this instance?
What was the real spam coefficient of the message in question.
Well, it was sent to a mailing list. That is really neither here nor there.
It _does_ mean that it ended up being seen by a lot of people, but at the
origination point is was _still_ only one message... not a zillion. If I
ken for a fact that this was also sent to a zillion other mailing lists,
or even 1/4 zillion, then I would call it spam, but I don't know that so
I'm not ready to say that.
SPAM POINTS: 0
Was it forged? No.
SPAM POINTS: -1
Was is improperly relayed? As far as I know, no.
SPAM POINTS: -1
Was it selling something obviously shady, fradulent, or of questionable moral
worth? No.
SPAM POINTS: -1
Was it overtly soliciting readers to send in either checks or cash? No.
SPAM POINTS: -1
Was it even vaguely related to the actual topic of this specific mailing
list? That one could be argued either way I think. This certainly pushes
(if not outright breaking) the boundaries of what might be considered ``on
topic'' for this mailing list. Let's give the benefit of the doubt and say
that it is ambiguous and _maybe_ related to the topic of this list.
SPAM POINTS: 0
Was it sent to the list by someone who we have not seen as an actual and/or
normal participant here before, i.e. by some ``outsider'' who may have only
joined for the purpose of sending _this_ specific announcement/advertisment?
It appears so.
SPAM POINTS: +1
Was the nature of the announcement commercial, _and_ was it such that its
posting might conceivably be of greater benefit to the company that sent it
or that authorized it than it was to the average person who received it
(counting the people for whom it was just an annoyance)? Well, yea, probably.
SPAM POINTS: +1
------------------
OK. Add it all up and this still comes out with a slightly negative spam
coefficient. In short, unless you are a real hard-core purist, it wasn't
spam.
More importantly however, I want to make the point that I feel that those
of us who are working day in and day out to get the _real_ spam and the
_real_ spammers off the net should in fact be givning people... and especially
well know and well established companies like Intel... the benefit of the
doubt in these sorts of borderline cases. We should do that for two reasons,
i.e. number one, because (as we all know) there is more than enough _real_
and unambiguous spam out there for us to be worrying about, and number two,
because if we get _too_ fanatic about these borderline cases, then otherwise
respectable companies (like Intel, etc.) may just throw up their hands and
stop trying to make _any_ efforts to live within our generally accepted rules
and traditions. I mean if these kinds of companies become convinced that
no matter what they do, _somebody_ is going to complain, then that kinda
takes away the incentives for them to at least _try_ to behave somewhat
responsibly in the ways they promote things on the net. And if we ever
see things deteriorating to _that_ point... well then chaos will ensue.
Bottom line: Even I am willing to criticize the original poster for having
been ``off topic'', but I'm not ready to say that he ``spammed'' this list.
-- Ron Guilmette, Roseville, California ---------- E-Scrub Technologies, Inc.
-- Deadbolt(tm) Personal E-Mail Filter demo: http://www.e-scrub.com/deadbolt/
-- Wpoison (web harvester poisoning) - demo: http://www.e-scrub.com/wpoison/
