Re: Information

From: Ilya <ilya@spam.free.gamecommandos.com>

Date: Thu, 03 Feb 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Sam Palmer wrote:
>
> Hi guys,
>
> I was wondering if you could help me with this very off topic request. I
> have to do a assignment for on college on Newgroups and I was hoping you
> could give me the correct definitions for the following terms.
>
> Terms below:
>
> Flamming:

I believe that would be "flaming."  It's the all-too-frequent
tendency to use vitriolic speech, ad hominem attack, aggression
and/or threats, and in general use whatever resource of wit
(usually lacking, but not always) and articulation (ditto) the
writer/poster has to attack another post or the person posting.

It's something we would all rarely, if ever, do face to face.
Or at least we would undertake such bitter attacks much less
often, and under much greater provocation, than seems to be
the norm in these electronic forums.

> Spamming:

I've always understood spam to have two dimensions: volume
and relevance. Undesirable and/or unacceptable postings are
spam, in the broadest sense, though I think most people restrict
it somewhat, and I'm sure they'll all be happy to tell you about
it!  Postings can be undesirable because they are not relevant
or off topic, or just so obviously posted or emailed by someone
who has no idea about who is receiving it, or whether they may
or may not be interested.  Or they can be undesirable because
they are just too many, or too frequent.

Often spam is commercial in nature (wanting to sell you something)
but not always.  Commercial email that is unsolicited is called
spam, though I think it's fair to say that the term is broader
than that.  This commercial stuff is also called UCE, and there's
an organization dedicated to controlling or eliminating it called
Cauce.

Looked at another way: spam could be any email or post you get that
you don't want to receive or read.

You should also have asked about the term Troll.

--
Ilya (at) gamecommandos (dot) com

References

Information
Sam Palmer <Sam@homeway.demon.co.uk>
Thu, 03 Feb 2000 00:00:00 +0000