Dear Spammers....

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

You take the European stance that criminals should be coddled, I take the American stance that criminals should be cudgeled.

As a former American prosecutor, I found that far funnier than I should have. Oh if only I could have just clobbered some criminals rather than put them on probation...

On a serious note, I am curious as to how legislation could manage to apply the CAN-SPAM law to forums if a spammer were to, say, crash the site with his or her spam. It can be up to a two million dollar penalty for debilitating email systems with spam.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by MJK2111

Dear Mr.Mrs. Wroldwalker,
I am writing to you in response to good forturne of your's in winning the Plhebitoria Lottery! Your's is the most illustrious of magnificense as you are the top most winner!

To claim your high winnings, please to send the information to our winner facility to include name, birthdate, country of origin and bank numbers. We will than make haste to deposit the winnings into the account provided.

Also please to understand that this does in any way represent a scam, deceitful entitiy, or spam!

[Worldwalker]

The problem is, the so-called CAN-SPAM law really amounts to the yes-you-can-spam law, in particular by taking away citizens' right of action. No government is going to care about the DVD guys spamming this place up, and Alex can't do anything except delete it.

As for whether or not spammers should die in a fire (or any other way):

Spammers have proven that they see the rest of the human race (that is, all of us) as not compatriots but targets and victims. They have chosen to become predators on their own species. Is there some reason not to see them as the predators (and, therefore, menaces) they have chosen to become?

A wolf is born a wolf; it has no choice except to be a predator. A human has the choice. Most humans decide to be a part of their ecosystem (that is, human society). Spammers choose to prey upon it instead. So I think it's natural to accept them as what they have chosen to be.

The world is full of people whose lives I care deeply about. Spammers, who have chosen to renounce their humanity, are not any of them.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

The problem is, the so-called CAN-SPAM law really amounts to the yes-you-can-spam law, in particular by taking away citizens' right of action. No government is going to care about the DVD guys spamming this place up, and Alex can't do anything except delete it.

As for whether or not spammers should die in a fire (or any other way):

Spammers have proven that they see the rest of the human race (that is, all of us) as not compatriots but targets and victims. They have chosen to become predators on their own species. Is there some reason not to see them as the predators (and, therefore, menaces) they have chosen to become?

A wolf is born a wolf; it has no choice except to be a predator. A human has the choice. Most humans decide to be a part of their ecosystem (that is, human society). Spammers choose to prey upon it instead. So I think it's natural to accept them as what they have chosen to be.

The world is full of people whose lives I care deeply about. Spammers, who have chosen to renounce their humanity, are not any of them.

And how do you see advertising as related to spam. I hate advertising, but don't have any choice but to put up with it (other than recording and fast-forwarding)...

Is spam a fundamentally different thing than advertising or is it just by context.

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by kennyc

And how do you see advertising as related to spam. I hate advertising, but don't have any choice but to put up with it (other than recording and fast-forwarding)...

Is spam a fundamentally different thing than advertising or is it just by context.

I think it is the way it is presented, both delivery and content, and the item being pushed.

The biggest difference, is that, as irritating and as 'in your face' as it is, most legitimate advertising restricts itself to locations and methods that are somewhat socially acceptable.

Also, the advertising is, for the most part, done on an upfront and semi-honest basis. I do not open emails from someone named Jenny who's subject is "Long time no see" and get an ad for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. I do on the other hand get them all the time for mortgage refinancing, hair replacement, male enhancement, and many other more questionable products.

And where they do somewhat cross the line the biggest separation is the item(s) being advertised. An unsolicited email sent to a million people for Starbucks coffee is much less irritating than a sales pitch for viagra sent to the same million people.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Spammers, who have chosen to renounce their humanity, are not any of them.

I have no axe to grind for spammers, but this kind of rabid crap seems to me to be an artifact of either some kind of repressed sexuality or a need to defile any meaningful notion of humanity - or both - and people who have such out of control feelings are a danger and should be chemically lobotomized.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by TGS

...people who have such out of control feelings are a danger and should be chemically lobotomized.

Funny, people used to say that about homosexuals too. Boy are me and my homosexual brain glad that one didn't take...

As to you guys talking about CAN-SPAM, honestly, this is a good example of legislation (and the people who are by and large writing it) not being as cutting edge as the people they are trying to govern. It certainly is not an ideal solution, but at least it brought the issue to the fore at the time. But the law is getting old, and soon enough it will come up again and be revised or scrapped.

[dreams]

Moderator Notice

This thread was probably started as a humorous way of expressing the frustration of encountering numerous spam posts on the forum, especially last night, when a large number of spam posts occurred. The MR mods do their human best to catch all spam posts ASAP. To be scrupulously fair, we do take the time to read and evaluate all posts reported as spam, so that legitimate posts are not accidentally deleted in haste. And we do share your wish that spammers could be stopped once and for all.

But MR policy frowns on allowing threads which focus on discussing appropriate means of death for any population, even in jest. So we are closing this thread before temperatures rise.

Yours in shared spam frustration,

dreams
moderator