Re: [ARSCLIST] Spam and the list (was Re: [ARSCLIST] FW: FW: PLEEEEEEASE READ!!!! it was on the news! asap)

["Steven C. Barr" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Lucht" <lucht.2@xxxxxxxxxx>
> >One assumes - and hopes - that the idiot identified at "Peoples, Curtis"
> >has been forcibly unsubscribed from the list with prejudice.
> Give the man a break-and the benefit of the doubt.  Mistakes/accidents
happen.
>  I for one believe Curtis is sincere in his appology - he sent it twice
> afterall.  Can't people be a little more forgiving and understanding
before
> jumping to conclusions.
The message in question is NOT technically spam...any more than a post
advertising
78's for sale would be (and probably less so). Spam is unsolicited
advertising
e-mail, sent out in bulk millions at a time (and sometimes posted to e-lists
by
subscribers who have subscribed only for that purpose)...this was a single
message
posted by an actual list subscriber, which happened to be a common hoax
message!

If you define spam as "messages *I* don't need, or want, to read"...then
most of us
would find that between 50% and 90% on the traffic on any list fits that
definition!
However, spam...which now has a legal definition, if only to identify what
to ban...
is defined as in the paragraph above. While lousy jokes, offers of unwanted
discs
for sale, or lengthy discussions only of interest to a handful of concerned
subscribers may be a waste of bandwidth, they ain't spam...nor are
well-meant
hoax messages or messages carrying a hundred-kilobyte image of some
<deleted>'s
logo...
Steven C. Barr