Should We Cut Spammers' Hands Off?

((I posted this at 8008135 recently. For the full thread, visit http://8008135.org/2006/01/16/blacklist-blackmail-even-godaddy)

The message was definitely a sales pitch, but I wouldn’t call it spam. Nobody has a clear cut definition of spam. Some say it’s ANY unsolicited email or posting. Others define it as a generic posting or email sent to an inappropriate site or address. In this thread alone there seems to be a wide range of definitions.

Personally, I don’t think it’s as simplistic as “ANY unsolicited email or posting.” The Internet offers all us common folk a chance to be on a par with the big companies when it comes to getting out the message about our products or services. I write books. I send unsolicited emails to libraries and bookstores announcing publication of my books. I send the same message to each, but I don’t send one email with a hundred addresses. I post each one individually. It’s time-consuming, but it’s a lot cheaper than sending letters. I’m a near-starving writer. I can’t afford stamps and stationery. But I have an Internet connection and email. That may not give me the clout of a New York advertising agency, but it gives me a marketing reach for my books that I wouldn’t come close to having otherwise. It gives me a chance to get the word out about my books without a hundred thousand dollar budget.

It puts broadcasting into everybody’s hands.

I even posted a message to this site (www.digg.com). It was dugg a whole five times. It was a notification about a contest I’m running through a fictitious corporate website to promote a book about the IT industry. The content of the book is related to the people who post to this site. The spirit of the fictitious corporate website is appropriate to the people who use this site. Some could construe it as an unsolicited invitation to, ultimately, buy a product.

So what about spam? It does exist and it’s a pain the ass. I wouldn’t even think of calling your message spam. It was a sales pitch, but not spam.

Spam is getting ads for Viagra with a subject line like “Hey, buds, check his out” or “The information you requested” when you never requested anything. Spam is in the subject line that lies to you and tries to trick you into reading like “Response required … legal action pending” for a penis enlargement ad. Spam is the automated message you get from ten different addresses, all with the same subject line, none of them appropriate to you.

Spam is equivalent to the mass snail mailing that says FREE OFFER on the envelope, but you have to pay some kind of fee for something else before you get the free stuff. But spam isn't the snail mail from the new deli that just opened in the neighborhood and contains a menu and an invitation to come in try the food. That one is appropriate to the people who receive it. It’s personal in that it has a good chance of being useful information to the recipient.

BTW, in my emails to libraries and bookstores, I try to make the content apparent with subject lines like “New novel by ______” or I mention the name of the novel.

I hate spam, but using email and posts as a means of advertising is a legitimate use of technologies that level the ball field - if they’re used honestly, and not used to trick or scam the recipient.