To: WSFAlist at WSFA.org
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 22:13:35 -0400
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Freebies List Spammed
From: ronkean at juno.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:52:40 -0400 "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net> writes:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <ronkean at juno.com>
...if a political message from a new member
> seems to
> > be on topic, I will let the message go through, even though the
> message
> > may in fact be hit and run spam.
>
> Referring to your last sentence:  Aren't we broadening the
> definition of
> "spam" a bit far to include any kind of political rant not sent out
> by the
> thousands/millions?
>
> --Ted White
>

My definition of hit and run spam on automatic listservers includes the
element that multiple lists have been hit with the same message, and,
usually, that the choice of lists has been somewhat indiscriminate.  In
most cases, I don't really know for a fact that what I have labelled hit
and run spam really has been sent to many lists; I am just making a
plausible inference based on the nature of the message.

I agree that a message, to be spam, would have to be sent out to many
recipients, coupled with the sender being aware that most of the
recipients would regard the message as unwanted.  If a sender only
subscribes to one listserve, posts one message, and then unsubscribes,
all within a short time, that is behavior characteristic of hit and run
spamming, but whether it meets some technical definition of spam may
depend on how many members the list has and whether most of them would
consider the message unwanted.  Most lists, I think, have no more than a
few dozen members, and that might not be a large enough number to meet
some definitions of spam.

There is someone in the Libertarian Party who accumulates the email
addresses of her correspondents, and possibly also some other addresses.
Then, every so often, she sends out some political blurb or announcement
to the whole list of addresses, as 'undisclosed recipients'.  The number
of addresses is probably no more than a few hundred, and may even be just
a few dozen.  Each time she does that, she probably gets a few
complaints, and I believe that she will remove from the list of addresses
anyone who asks to be removed.  Also, she makes no effort to hide her
identity, and she provides an adddress where she may be contacted.  So is
that spam?  To me, it seems like a grey area.

Ron Kean

.