On Tue, Mar 04, 2003 at 10:14:15AM -0800, Craig Hughes wrote:
Yes, but define "unsolicited" and "bulk"
C
On Tuesday, March 4, 2003, at 09:49 AM, Vernon Schryver wrote:
- There is a single, common definition of spam that works. It is
"unsolicited bulk mail." "Unsolicited" is determined by the
target
unless the sender has creditable evidence that the target asked
for the
mail. "Bulk" is some number of substantially identical messages
usually
more than a dozen.
There are many other broken definitions of spam, but they are all
either over-elaborate variations of unsolicited bulk, based on
notions of censorship (e.g. unsolicited commercial or pornographic
mail), or lies and nonsense from spammers.
Actually, while UBE is a fairly common definition used, it has
a number of flaws. To wit, I send UBE, and so do many people.
I have a party-invite mailing list. When I meet interesting people
who live nearby, I put them on it. I don't ask them if they want
to be on it. Sometimes they give me a business card (which you
might imply means solicited). Sometimes I pull their name from
a conference directory. Sometimes I learn their E-mail another way.
Then I send out stuff, such as party invites. Surely you all have
gotten party invites from people where you didn't ask to be on their
list for such things? Sometimes I will send notes about new essays
or photography or etc. on my web site. Of course, each mailing
includes a note that if anybody wants off, they can get off, and of
course unlike many spammers, I mean it. I've gotten one such request.
I have 400 people on the list in one form or another. It sends perhaps
6 mails a year.
Lots of people do this, and it's entirely legitimate in my view -- we
have no business interfering with mail where nobody is complaining, but
it is also UBE.
I could ask everybody before I put them on. They would find that
more annoying than simply getting the first mailing with a legitimate
ability to unsubscribe. I would find it annoying if people said,
"I want to invite you to parties, is that OK?"
At the same time, unsolicited is in fact hard to define. If you buy
a product from a company, surely they can mail you about a product
recall or bug fix, right? That's not unsolicited, is it? What about
an upgrade? A related product? A totally new offer?
That forces you to draw a subjective line.
That's why I settled on "from a stranger" which a non-stranger being
somebody you have initiated contact with.
This is an entirely factual test, not subjective. And while it
does allow the company you buy stuff from to mail you. the truth
is the amount of unwanted mail I get from non-strangers is
insignificant. And that level of volume == victory over spam.
I have added one modification to my definition in the form of a
rule. Namely a requirement to have a working unsubscribe. So
that even if somebody is not a stranger, if you have told them not
to bulk mail you, and they do, it's a spam.
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