Isn't it spam?

[webustaad]

Dear webmasters!

I hope you are fine and in good health. One of my friends runs an online forum. He told me that they have sent 10000 invitations (emails) within 48 hours by paying a marketing service. Earlier, in April 2003, they sent 12000 private messages to the members of a compititor forum. Do you think its spamming?

[benihana]

if the recipients hadnt specifcally requested to recieve information about that particular site, then yes it is.

[vincevincevince]

1 point...

i assume the emails of the competitor's forum were taken from the forum itself

why did the users put their email addresses on the forum? so that people can contact them with email relevant to the topic of that forum, surely

and your friend's forum IS relevant (being a competitor)

so it is hard to say that it's spam

the list harvested should have a remove function however

[hannamyluv]

The definition of spam varies. Did most of the people who received it think it was spam? probably. Did it really fall into the grey area of spam/not spam? Probably. Spam is technically (as long as you are talking to anyone but spammers and the DMA) unsolicited bulk mail. But, if at some point in time you requested to receive info from other "partner" companies, well... is it spam? You did say you wanted it. Good luck telling them you don't want it afterwards, though.

[pixel_juice]

vincevincevince, I think you're stretching the bounds of what the forum users 'agreed' to when they put their addresses up there. My guess is they did it so other members of the forum can contact them.

Spam is Unsolicited Commercial Email. If the email you send was not requested or agreed to in advance, it's spam. I'm glad I keep my email address off forums so I don't receive emails such as the one above. You run a real risk of annoying people like me who would otherwise have found your site useful.

>>the list harvested should have a remove function however

This really isn't enough - why should I have to go to the time and effort to request you NOT send me any more things that I didn't want in the first place, assuming that I am also not afraid that the unsubscribe link is not just going to tell the spammer that my address is live.

Sorry - I get all puritanical about spam sometimes ;)

[webustaad]

I appreciate all responses. I have recieved that email too from a yahoo address. The email is from a lady but it also says that I have subscribed to ....."name of a marketing company".... mailing list. The reality is that I have never subscribed to their mailing list.

[Macguru]

>>The reality is that I have never subscribed to their mailing list.

They write this to cover their act. They can use it a an excuse "well, someone did subcribe you"...

All mailing list subscriptions scripts that I install, requires email confimation before the email addresses are added to the proper list.

>>Sorry - I get all puritanical about spam sometimes

pixel_juice, I cannot really say what I actually do when I catch a spammer. Lets just say I do it with a smile... and it costs them big time!

[pixel_juice]

>>I cannot really say what I actually do when I catch a spammer. Lets just say I do it with a smile... and it costs them big time!

Glad to hear it Macguru! I try and do my bit too. I remember reading this case study [rahul.net] a long time ago, which I think pointed me in the right direction ;)