Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2003 15:31:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Fwd: Hellboy set visit with MTV
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Elspeth Kovar <ekovar at worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> Er, doesn't this count as spam?

I don't think so.  It is commercial, but I don't think it's bulk.

* It relates to SF, fantasy, or science.

* It was emailed to our correct club contact address, rather than to
  addresses set up for some other purpose, or to all WSFA members.

* We only got one copy.

* It implies that the sender knows we're an SF club.

* The headers weren't forged.

* The product didn't appear to be fraudulent.

* In more than a 24 hours, nobody had reported it to the
  news.admin.net-abuse.sightings newsgroup as spam.

* It was from a reputable company (Sony Pictures).

* It was the sort of thing we might have gotten via snail mail and
  published in our Journal.

* I thought it might be of interest to some WSFA members.

These are the criteria I use.

What's the consensus?  Should I continue to forward such messages to
the list?  Should I forward them to Sam to print in the WSFA Journal?
Or should I just ignore them?

There are lots of borderline case.  On the 20th, I got an email from
"Phobos Books" addressed to "Dear Editor:" touting an SF novel from
a "Phobos Award Winner" whom I had never heard of, and offering us a
review copy.  I chose not to forward it.  (Would anyone like to see it?)

Today, I got a message forwarded by Judy Kindell, touting a local
writing workshop.  I replied, reminding her that the address she sent
to went only to me, and giving her the address of this list.  I won't
forward a message to this list *from a WSFA member*, since I assume
that if they meant to send to this list they would have done so,
rather than writing only to me.  I will remind them of the list, and
the fact that they don't have to subscribe to post to it.

Every day there are hundreds of very NON-borderline cases, outright
spam, which I ignore even when my filters don't block it.  I used to
try to report it, but finally gave that up when it consumed nearly
*all* my free time, with no signs of progress.  (If you've been paying
close attention to when I've been placing old WSFA Journals online,
you might have noticed that after I started, in April 2000, I went
slower and slower, until I put none at all online for over a year.
That's the year I sacrificed nearly all my free time to attempting
to save email.  Finally, I conceded that email was doomed.  I give
it another two years.  Maybe three at the most.  Then we'll have to
go back to snail mail.)
--
Keith F. Lynch - kfl at keithlynch.net - http://keithlynch.net/
I always welcome replies to my e-mail, postings, and web pages, but
unsolicited bulk e-mail (spam) is not acceptable.  Please do not send me
HTML, "rich text," or attachments, as all such email is discarded unread.