Your take on all this

[MadGamer]

Ok, so i was chatting to someone i know from school over MSN, and we got into an arguement, about SPAM. She said to me something about if you dont log into Messenger and forward such and such a message to 10 people you will have to pay for the service. So i replied, SPAM. She replied how is it spam? I replied, because its junk.

Anyway i define spam in a computing and mail sense to be junk mail thats sent to you. My so called friend thinks differently. In the end i just logged out of Messenger, because i had enough. Oh yeah and she had the nerve to call me a loser. How nice eh?

Whats your take on all this and how would you define the word or meaning of SPAM?

[Chris W]

the wikipedia discussion of your question is quite interesting..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam

[Angua]

Yup with you Wayne. The e-mail may well come from a friend who unwittingly spreads this cr@p about. People need to learn the difference between what you get if you pay for a service, what is genuinely free and what is paid by having ads attached.

And then there are the "chain" e-mails, these should be stopped asap.

[grandmaster]

This is the problem,

Spammers and chain mailers rely on the nievity (sp?) of users.

I've *******ed a few people in my work place for sending stuff like this..

[Flubflow]

Send her a message/email telling her that she is an idiot and ask her to forward it to 10 other people who think like her.

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by Flubflow

Send her a message/email telling her that she is an idiot and ask her to forward it to 10 other people who think like her.

Do you know what as im so ****ing well ****ed off right now, i think i will, could someone please kindly guide me on what i should put?

[MovedGoalPosts]

mind the language please

[Jon M]

Unfortunatly, Spim is hard to guard against with many instant messaging services.

MSN however allows you to manage "approved" and "unapproved" contacts in the buddy list, so theoretically you shouldn't get any unsolicited messages.
If someone you added starts doing so, you can't really classify the activity as Spam, because by adding them to your buddy list, you've effectively given them the go ahead to send messages to you.

The main thing, is that Spam (not SPAM which is the food) has to be unsolicited to qualify as such.
__________________

If a buddy starts to Spam, block them... enough said.

[Flubflow]

Originally Posted by Wayne A

Do you know what as im so ****ing well ****ed off right now, i think i will, could someone please kindly guide me on what i should put?

I wouldn't do anything that could get you expelled or worse, especially in that mood.
Just educate with a suitably bizarre quote from Shakespeare.....
http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html?

[ntl customer]

I personally don't mind the odd forwarded email - some of 'em can be a bit of a giggle and lighten your day but I usually don't bother to forward them onto my entire address book - perhaps 1 or 2 people at most if I find them funny. Otherwise they just stay in my inbox.

But I don't do the "forward to 200 people and all your wishes will come true if you don't you'll die tomorrow" type emails - they either get deleted or stay in my inbox. I don't do the "xxxxxxx@hotmail.com is a virus, don't let them add you to your MSN list otherwise they'll virus you, send this onto 10 people etc" emails either. Oh, and I don't forward what I believe to be untrue or obviously a hoax - like the Hotmail thing Wayne was referring to.

[Xaccers]

Good rule of thumb:
If it's funny, pass it on.
If it's not and it tells you to pass it on, then just don't
I've got a friend who sends me stuff to check if it's real or not, which I don't mind as it saves any hoaxes/spam being sent on.
But someone else I told had sent me a hoax about a baby suffering from cancer and emails were being tracked to fund a cure (and I gave links to pages showing it as a hoax) turned round and said I was lying and it was true and very beautiful.
I don't get email from them anymore which isn't a great loss
Anyway, must dash to pick up my lovely gf

[Raistlin]

Honestly, I can't see what all the fuss is about.

Wayne, your friend sounds like they're making something out of nothing.

Their attitude towards being told that they are wrong is stupid and (unfortunately) all too common.
It's morons like this (without the common sense or wherewithal) to spot a hoax, spam, or chain, email that are resposible in a large part for the rapid spread of viral payloads throughout the world.

If they're not going to talk to you, or email you, anymore then I would suggest that you're on to a winner - that's a few less pieces of crap in your inbox every day

The problem arises when someone adds you to their address book and then sends you EVERYTHING that they send to their friends.I then get added to their friends addess books and the whole thing spins out of order...With you getting several versions of the same 'funny' message.

That is unsolicited spam in my opinion.

[Raistlin]

I spent a lot of time educating the people that I worked with and asking them politely not to send me all the junk that they received every day - frankly I get enough emails at work without having to wade through all of that as well....

There were one or two people who just kept on sending it to me, despite me asking them politely not to....

Guess who's running the Team responsible for IT and IT security in our Business area now.....guess who doesn't have to "ask nicely" any more.....guess who's no longer getting any junk mail at work

[Halcyon]

Spam is annoying...some of it is intended just to annoy, some of it is advertising designed for us and causes annoyance, others are just random trash, cash schemes, and chain letters....in other words its all rubbish.

You are definately right Wayne. And people who dont agree with you are falling for the scams and spam.
They will learn one day but are currently still stuck in the world of "it could be useful and true".
They will in time learn how much spam is annoying.