What is the current definition of SPAM

Is this term being misused or is the definition changing

[cyril kearney]

It seems that the term SPAM is often being used to mean any form of advertising on the internet.

So banners are called SPAM, pop-ups are SPAM and advertisements in an opt-in email are called SPAM.
Here we even think that signature lines are SPAM.

Under the older definition, SPAM meant any unsolicited email advertisement or a post to a forum or newsgroup that was really an advertisement.

Is the term now approaching the status of the s-word and can be substituted for any form advertising we disagree with?

Should we start to call SE Optimization, SE-SPAM?

[Brett_Tabke]

Well SE-Spam, would be spam running from search engines, such as boxed ads, ppc results, or other forms of "spam" on the page.

[DrCool]

The overuse of the word SPAM has gotten pretty bad hasn't it? I, out of habit, have been referring to junk snail mail as SPAM as well. It is almost to the point where anything unwanted is referred to SPAM whether that be email, web pages, pop-ups, the 3 day old donut left on the counter, the weird uncle who always talks about his health problems, etc.

I would like the meaning of the word to go back to meaning unsolicited emails.

[mivox]

Should we start to call SE Optimization, SE-SPAM?

LOL... I thought that's what half the search engines themselves already called it! ;)

[tedster]

Originally Spam meant Unsolicited Commercial Email (USCE). Now it has broadened to mean any unsolicited commercial message, whether email or some other medium.

The key is the word "unsolicted". It differentiates old-school interruption marketing from new school relationship marketing.

Opt-in
Who calls that spam? It's only spam if you opt-in giving permission for for one thing and then you get some other kind of marketing as well. Or the original party sells your address and you get communications from some other place.

Search Results
If I search on Disney and get a page about cross-species passions, that IS spam.

Banners, pop-ups and other ads
Admittedly, these are "less" than true spam. But did I opt-in here? Did I give my permission? When I type in a given domain, should I be completely at their mercy if they want to serve me commercial content from some snail-paced-server at doublewhack.com?

Spam is a NOT OPTED IN commercial message. Opt-in is relationship marketing. Done right, it's almost like running a general store in a small town, where the shopkeepers know everyone who comes through the door.

When online commercial messages are done wrong, they're more like the door-to-door vacuum salesman with dandruff and halitosis. The guy wedges his shoe in the door and then throws dirt on your carpet, just so he can demonstrate his wares.

[cyril kearney]

tedster says>
"Spam is a NOT OPTED IN commercial message."

I think this is an imcomplete definition. I'll use CNN in my example, but it could be just about any news site.

Are you saying that if you go to the CNN site to read the news, all ads on their pages are SPAM because you didn't opt-in?

Or are you saying that any site you visited implies that you opted-in to get any ads that they contain?

Assuming the second definition doesn't it follow that all ads may include pop-ups and pop-unders and those things that crawl across the screen?

[JayC]

>>Originally Spam meant Unsolicited Commercial Email (USCE).

Actually, before that it was used in usenet to refer to commercial messages posted to a large number of different newsgroups (that is, not crossposted). At the time that usage began (the days of the original "Green Card Lawyers") unsolicited commercial email was pretty rare.

For a current email-related definition, though, you'd probably have to include "bulk" in the description. A single unsolicited email message of a commercial nature sent to just one person probably shouldn't be considered spam -- whether it might be unwelcome notwithstanding.

[Lisa]

Just watch Monty Python's skit. That is the original definition of SPAM. SPAM, SPAM, SPAM.... Anything like that is spam.

[pageoneresults]

This is the one and only definition of SPAM [spam.com], past, current and future. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Resistance is futile!

[MarkHutch]

I just love that web site!!

[tedster]

I'm going to tell you a true story. Years ago, I managed a garment business with three street stores and a mail order catalog, and doing a great humorous tee shirt business. Hormel approached me for advice and I ended up designing the first official SPAM tee shirt for Hormel. Size, fabric, logo placement and the imprint process.

I was stupid. I did it for the exclusive rights to sell the shirt for 3 months. It took that long for it to catch on (this was maybe 1993 or 1994). By the time the item was flying, all my comptetitors had it, too. Back in the ancient history of the early 90's.

Yes, the word SPAM is evolving rapidly. I wonder how Hormel feels about their brand right now? When I was in touch with them, they had lots of humor about it, and were finding ways to ride the Python wave and the Internet wave. How many brands get two popular waves like that?

Earlier on I said "Banners, pop-ups and other ads. Admittedly, these are 'less' than true spam."

Nevertheless, if I say "MSN's Home Page is spammed out" most of my buddies will know exactly what I'm saying. So I communicated. And when enough people communicate the same meaning in the same way, then that's official language.

These days SPAM is coming to mean "sleazy commercialism" in almost any form. If I said "I drove from the US to Canada, and the minute we crossed the border all the highway Spam stopped" you would know what I mean, right?

[MarkHutch]

>>I did it for the exclusive rights to sell the shirt for 3 months.<<

You poor guy. If they made Forrest Gump now, instead of 7 years ago, the picture on the muddy tea shirt wouldn't be a smiley face, it would say SPAM... :-)

[Lisa]

highway Spam stopped

Hormel makes spamburgers only in the US? Or the concrete was made of spam? Hmmm