Warning to all posters in this NG

[Bob]

When ever I create a post about the Flash MP3 player I give away for
free, I get one or two "spam" complaints. My ISP contacts me, I show I
make no profit from it in any way, and that the discussion is also on
topic.

They say, ok, thanks, and that is the end of it.

That should continue to work as long as you don't have godaddy
as a registrar/momma. Otherwise you're going to be dropping a
lot of $$$ in the "swear jar".

 

[William Tasso]

When ever I create a post about the Flash MP3 player I give away for
free, I get one or two "spam" complaints. My ISP contacts me, I show
I make no profit from it in any way, and that the discussion is also
on topic.

They say, ok, thanks, and that is the end of it.

Sounds like a fairly decent working relationship.

 

[rf]

Recently you may have seen a post about a new directory of web hosting
companies and domain registrars, and asking for you to mention, by e-mail, any
unlisted hosting companies or registrars. (Funny, it's gone now.)
Yep.

One guy responded with 3 new services, which I added to that directory.

Somebody freaked out. SPAM! SPAM!

Oh dear. One *does* have to be careful.

Well, the company handling my e-mail has contacted me and even the company that
registered the domain name of that directory has contacted me.

Like, gimme a break! That wasn't spam, because it is relevant to webmasters and
did not make any offer or solicit business.

Somebody obviously thought it was spam. Your ISP and your host obviously
thought it was. Just for the record I thought it might be, a borderline
case, it was only posted once and to only one newsgroup AFAIK. Also, just
for the record, I can't be bothered these days reporting anybody for
spamming here (somebody else always does) so it wasn't me

Your post might have been relevant to webmasters but IMHO it was not
relevant to solving the mysteries of what is wrong with your HTML, which is
the most often discussed thing here. A "directory of hosts and registrars"
has very little to do with HTML and so was off topic.

Your post *might* have been relavent over at AWW but they would probably
have sent you over to AWWA.

But just to let you all know, so you don't wake up one day and find your
website is down and your ISP cut you off.

Nope. We don't spam, not even borderline cases

OK, having warned us, what are you now going to do? Report everybody who
posts here?

Cheers
Richard.

 

[rf]

<snip>

$100... if not you lose the domain name?

Not domain name, site. They will redirect the domain name away from the
site, probably to their "terminated" page. Nowhere did they say the domain
name would be terminated.

And $100 is pretty resonable. GoDaddy probably spent a number of
person-hours on this single incident. The have to recoup that from somewhere


Cheers
Richard.

 

[rf]

Christ. If I reported every damn spam I got every day, I'd be sending out
more spam reports than doing anything else.

Because you didn't ask for it isn't necessarily spam.

Because she did not ask for it makes it necessarily spam. That is what spam
is you idiot, unsolicited email.

It's when they continously repeat the mail that it becomes spam.
Wrong.

Another good sign it is spam is the fact they use nonworking addy's or
hijack one.
I've got filters in place to kill anything that come from hotmail or

yahoo.

The usual dribble from you I see.

Cheers
Richard.

 

[kchayka]

Because you didn't ask for it isn't necessarily spam.
It's when they continously repeat the mail that it becomes spam.

Clue for you: if it's unsolicited, it's spam. Period.

 

[Daniel Ruscoe]

Clue for you: if it's unsolicited, it's spam. Period.

Serious question. If you email a company to ask if they want to take
part in some kind of project they might enjoy at no expense to them
whatsoever, would that still be considered spam?

If so, myself and countless others, including radio and television
shows, could be considered guilty.

I've never been reported, AFAIK.

It really hinders the communication medium if people aren't allowed to
contact people they haven't already met.

 

[Toby A Inkster]

Clue for you: if it's unsolicited, it's spam. Period.

There is generally an element of "bulk" in most people's definition of
"spam":

http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/spam.html

 

[Tina - AffordableHOST.com]

Serious question. If you email a company to ask if they want to take
part in some kind of project they might enjoy at no expense to them
whatsoever, would that still be considered spam?

If you're making money from it. Yes.

You'd be amazed at the number of kids starting up "hosting directories", and
how many emails I get each day asking me to join this listing or that
listing. I'm sick of it. I know hosting directories exist, and I actively
seek ones that I want to use. Don't email me telling me how great your
directory is...if it is, I'll find you.

It really hinders the communication medium if people aren't allowed to
contact people they haven't already met.

Would you feel differently if everyone from the group, who had a site they
thought you might enjoy, called you up on the phone whenever they felt like
it? "Hey, I just wanted to tell you about my new website. I think its
really cool...and I'm sure you will too!" Maybe you'd find one out of 100
of them as interesting as the site owner. Maybe you'd be so annoyed you'd
not even bother to look at any of them.

My email is for my business. Going through spam takes my time away from
doing things that I need and want to do. It also costs me quite a bit in
bandwidth each month (we process probably 1 million emails per day...guess
how many of those are spams?). I don't care what the motivation or
reasoning, its just not cool to contact someone out of the blue because you
think they might enjoy visiting the website that you have a monitary
interest in.

--Tina

 

[Daniel Ruscoe]

Would you feel differently if everyone from the group, who had a site they
thought you might enjoy, called you up on the phone whenever they felt like
it? "Hey, I just wanted to tell you about my new website. I think its
really cool...and I'm sure you will too!"

Yes, that would be annoying. And that's something I've never done.

I was thinking of a project I've got going right now, which is a
motoring news/reviews website. I've been talking to local car dealers
about featuring their dealerships on the website for free, and so far
I've yet to have a negative responce.

In my original post, I was refering to asking appropriate organisations
if they would like to be involved in a project they may be interested
in. Not just advertising it to them.

(we process probably 1 million emails per day...guess how many of those
are spams?).

85% easily.

I don't care what the motivation or
reasoning, its just not cool to contact someone out of the blue because you
think they might enjoy visiting the website that you have a monitary
interest in.

Agreed. And I would never email anybody just to suggest they look at my
website. I would, however, email somebody I think may be interested in
taking part in a project. If they're not, I leave them alone.

 

[kchayka]

There is generally an element of "bulk" in most people's definition of
"spam":

This is generally true, but doesn't have to be. I've gotten plenty of
unsolicited mail that wasn't necessarily a bulk mailing, but was still
spam nonetheless. The usual common denominator is they want me to spend
money, though that doesn't have to be true, either.

 

[Jay]

brucie wrote:


Ok mister legal attorney sir, define precisely what is an advertisement in a
newsgroup?
A request for more information to be placed on a website is not an
advertisement.
Posting of a link to a website would therefor be an advertisement under your
policy.
Therefor, your link above is solicitiation and an advertisement.
Consider yourself reported.

Er...since when is posting a link for reference (http://alt-html.org/)
considered advertising?

- J

 

[Leif K-Brooks]

Another good sign it is spam is the fact they use nonworking addy's or
hijack one.

And of course, [email protected] is a valid working email address?

 

[Eric Bohlman]

Serious question. If you email a company to ask if they want to take
part in some kind of project they might enjoy at no expense to them
whatsoever, would that still be considered spam?

The usual definition of spam is unsolicited *bulk* email, implying that the
same or similar message was sent to more than a few recipients. If you
were to send a "form letter" to a number of companies regarding your offer,
you'd be spamming. Something that's sent to only one recipient and is sent
only once isn't spam. The recipient can, of course, ask you not to send
them any further email, and your provider's TOS almost certainly requires
you to honor such requests, but that's a separate matter from spamming.

If so, myself and countless others, including radio and television
shows, could be considered guilty.

Radio and television shows don't consume the viewer/listener's resources.

It really hinders the communication medium if people aren't allowed to
contact people they haven't already met.

Yes, but people can contact people they haven't already met without
spamming. The communication just has to be *personal*: one-to-one, *not*
one-to-many.

 

[Tina - AffordableHOST.com]

The usual definition of spam is unsolicited *bulk* email, implying that the
same or similar message was sent to more than a few recipients. If you
were to send a "form letter" to a number of companies regarding your offer,
you'd be spamming. Something that's sent to only one recipient and is sent
only once isn't spam. The recipient can, of course, ask you not to send
them any further email, and your provider's TOS almost certainly requires
you to honor such requests, but that's a separate matter from spamming.


Radio and television shows don't consume the viewer/listener's resources.


Yes, but people can contact people they haven't already met without
spamming. The communication just has to be *personal*: one-to-one, *not*
one-to-many.

Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) aka spam. The name implies nothing about
the number of emails sent.

--Tina

 

[Bob]

Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) aka spam. The name implies nothing about
the number of emails sent.

There used to be a difference in those two terms. I'm not so sure
there is any more.

 

[Michael Bauser]

Not domain name, site. They will redirect the domain name away from the
site, probably to their "terminated" page. Nowhere did they say the domain
name would be terminated.

The do on the last paragraph of this page:

https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/no_spam.asp?isc=&se=+&from_app=

# In the event that GoDaddy.com receives further legitimate complaints
# after the domain name has been unlocked the first time, the domain
# name in question may also be canceled by GoDaddy.com.

So Alciere had better watch out -- he spams somebody again, he loses his
domain.-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Not domain name, site. They will redirect the domain name away from the
site, probably to their "terminated" page. Nowhere did they say the domain
name would be terminated.

The do on the last paragraph of this page:

https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/no_spam.asp?isc=&se=+&from_app=

# In the event that GoDaddy.com receives further legitimate complaints
# after the domain name has been unlocked the first time, the domain
# name in question may also be canceled by GoDaddy.com.

So Alciere had better watch out -- he spams somebody again, he loses his
domain.
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iD8DBQE/8nfTcpuEJT2bpHsRAokrAKDyzBCfBB9N5rgNa7p5r3sGKnk7qQCePNmZ
0kMiYMhjoeqw1OP7/Pn0LhM=
=myKl
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[Michael Bauser]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Edward Alfert wrote:

I guess so. I did not know domain registars were involved in fighting
spam. I thought is was only ISPs. Good to know there is another level of
spam fighters.

So, why is it that many know spam generating domains are still active? Why
aren't they canceled by the domain registars? Is it only some registrars
that have this policy? Is there an official ICANN policy?

ICANN is not dumb enough to try to set global standards about content
on domains (or content from domain names). If they started policing
spam, some fearmonger is going to ask them to police kiddy porn. Then
they'll get asked to police regular porn, then depictions of
violence, bad language, anti-goverment statements, flag-burning,
tobacco advertisements and short skirts. It would be an endless
processsion of people asking ICANN to protect us from *everything*,
because everything is considered *bad* somewhere.

This is strictly a GoDaddy policy we're talking about, and to be
honest, I think it has more to do with their owner's concern for his
*own* reputation than it does with minding the Net. That man has a
desperate need to be liked by everyone he meets.
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=ej9C
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[Matthias Gutfeldt]

Clue for you: if it's unsolicited, it's spam. Period.

Spam, spam, lovely spam...

It's sad how you young 'uns forget the original definition of spam and
just put the label on anything you don't like.


Matthias

 

[Toby A Inkster]

Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) aka spam. The name implies nothing about
the number of emails sent.

The authority on spam has to be the news.admin.net-abuse.email newsgroup,
and according to their FAQ, "for the most part UBE and spam can be
equated", with UBE standing for Unsolicited Bulk (or Broadcast) E-mail.