On Sun, 1 Mar 1998 18:42:07 -0500 Sean Breheny <shb7@CORNELL.EDU> writes:

>I don't get it, someone who is calling attention to the problem of
>spam is
>to blame for spam?

Exactly.  In response to a single 2-line spam posting, several people
have posted hundreds of lines, many including complete copies of the
original spam.  Thus in terms of message volume, this type of response to
spam is more of a problem than the original spam.
>
>>[]  > like these and ESPECIALLY ON YOUTH ORIENTED NEWS GROUPS AND ANY
>THAT DO
>>NOT
>>[]  > PERTAIN TO PORN.
>>
>>The nature of the problem is obviously that the unsolicited messages
>take up
>>space, makes the user think he got an interesting personal mail when
>it in
>fact
>>shows to be bulk mail, and that he needs to press "delete" an
>undesired
>number
>>of times per day. Not that porn is dangerous if "youth" sees it.
>>
>
>Well, I think (hope) most parents would be concerned about their
>teenage
>sons/daughters looking at porn. It has always been the spirit in
>tehcnically minded circles (such as amateur radio, for example) that
>objectionable material should not be allowed into the discussion so
>that
>young people (or anyone who finds such material objectionable) would
>be
>able to fully participate in the discussion.

The original posting contained no dirty words, only a URL listing for
most likely a porn site.  It is not hard to find porn on the Internet
without any referrals from spam.  What the spammer wanted was for people
to go to *their* particular porn site.  Obviously, the practice works, or
spammers wouldn't go to the trouble of obtaining "throwaway" accounts and
forging their spam messages.

So another very harmful way to respond to spam is by making it work: by
following the spammer's instructions.  If spam bothers you, act quietly.
Attempt to determine the true origin of the message and complain to
administrators at that site.  Do not respond to spam ads.  Also you can
count on many self-appointed spam police attempting to take care of it as
well.

Which brings up another point, unlike using profanity on amateur radio,
spam is not illegal (yet?).  The self-appointed spam police have no
mandate from society for what they are doing.  Fortuately they are not
harming the Internet community at large if they do it properly (and not
causing much harm when they do it improperly for that matter)

Don't get the impression I'm in favor of spam.  But you have to think of
what will be next in the very unlikely event that attempts to squash it
with an iron fist are successful.

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