It seems clear that different definitions are useful for different
things; in particular, different methods are better or worse depending
on the definition used.
For instance, it seems apparent that using "This Is Spam" buttons hit
by users to train filters will do best under a definition like "email
users say is spam".
My suggestion of filtering confirmations through the ISP (so the site
clicked on is theirs rather than the sender's, and they record the
click and notify the sender) works really well using an "unsolicited"
definition, and less well using a "user complaints" definition (since
it's well known that users sometimes complain about mail they
solicited).
So, it can be worthwhile to specify which definition you're using when
you suggest a method to optimize under that definition. But that's
pure practicality, it has nothing to do with "right" or "wrong".
There's no such thing with definitions. Rather, the purpose of a
definition is to enable discussion about something without having to
describe it in full each time it's mentioned.
Seth
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