Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 10:26:02 +0000 From: Greg Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.ORG> To: Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Request for opinions: what is spam Message-ID: <20011113102601.H34244@sydney.worldwide.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <3BE81422.7080304@potentialtech.com>; from wmoran@potentialtech.com on Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 11:47:30AM -0500 References: <3BE81422.7080304@potentialtech.com>
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On Tuesday, 6 November 2001 at 11:47:30 -0500, Bill Moran wrote: (sorry, I've been travelling, and haven't had time to look at this before). > I've been having a tough couple of months and I just had some > things happen today that are causing me to re-evaluate some of > my beliefs. > > One thing, central to this, is where do you draw the line > between promotion and spam? > > I'll give the example that really got me thinking: > > Got an email today through the "moreinfo@" address for my > company, which is listed on the web site on the contact > page. The email stated that "I got your email from a > list server". > Now, technically this is a lie, because the "moreinfo@" address > is _never_ used to _send_ mail, so it would never appear on > any list server. That depends on whether the mail sender got the name from a From: line, or whether he found it in the body of some other message, as you go on to say. A priori I'd say this could be correct. > I can see what _might_ have been done, however. Notice my > sig below. Now, that'll be on list servers for any list I post > to and this guy may have stopped by the web site, checked out > the contact page for the address, and sent me the mail. > > So my first question is: "Is this spam?" You haven't said what the message was. If I get the intention correctly, your moreinfo@ address is for asking questions. If this was a (even marginally relevant) question, then it was a valid use of the address. If it was advertising of any kind, then it probably wasn't. If it was sent indiscriminately to a large list, it's spam. Note that this doesn't have very much to do with where they got the address from. > An example is that I recently posted to the jobs@freebsd.com list an > announcement about my company and that we're seeking new customers. > To me, that's what that particular list is for. I would never have > posted such an announcement to questions@ or any other FreeBSD list. > I received one complaint that it was an inapprorpiate posting, and > while I don't know how many people subscribe to that list, I'm > assuming that that's a pretty low percentage that I offended. Given the amount of completely untargetted spam around, I think that "even marginally relevant" is a reasonable criterion. I didn't see the message, but if it's offering some kind of service, I can't see any reason to distinguish between employment and other ways of offering this service. Certainly people looking for the service would have less interest in the distinction. Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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