Other Voices on spam

Other opinions on spam, contributed by many people

Personal Opinions

History of Spam

Humour

Service Providers' views

Usenet and other FAQs

Miscellaneous resources

and links to Sample Acceptable Use Policies

Further contributions welcome.

Note: All articles in this section are the opinions of, and are copyrighted by, their respective authors.

Personal opinions on spam

Peter da Silva on horizontal mailbombing
Peter again on the Results of a UBE experiment
What happens when you post with your real address, and why does spam have a chilling effect on free speech?
Donald E. Eastlake 3rd on Pricing and Media
Mark Eckenwiler on applying the US junk fax law to e-mail
Ed Foster (InfoWorld) reports on reaction to aquaintance spam from a well known PC vendor:
With spam like this, who needs enemies? "Am I going to buy from them? Not anymore."
Abby Franquemont-Guillory on commercial vs. unsolicited spam
Chris Lewis and Tim Skirvin on Usenet spam thresholds
Keith Lynch on RISKS of spam
Todd Michel McComb with Spam - A Brief Q&A Session
Beebit (T Mills) confesses to being a Russian Superannuated Newbie who hates Usenet spam and is grateful to the spam cancellers
Aliza R. Panitz on commercial vs. non-commercial spam
Howard Rheingold on The Tragedy of the Electronic Commons
Barry Shein on why "Universal Service" obligations don't protect spammers
Brad Templeton's Essays on Junk E-mail (Spam)
Brad believes that "Government regulation of E-mail is a dangerous last resort" and offers some alternatives. The EFF agrees with him, many others don't. Make up your own mind.
Didier Verna on The Remove Problem
T. William Wells on Bulk unsolicited email
Windigo the Feral on Spam by the Numbers
The cluetrain manifesto Get a clue and join the conversation - or be roadkill.
Hans Peter Brøndmo, founder of Post Communications, writes in Salon Technology | Tasty spam? on how to do e-mail marketing that customers will love. Looks like he's on the cluetrain.

The History of Spam

Archeology of spam It's really the Etymology of "spam".
Here's the famous Monty Python sketch. You can even listen to That Word.
How I Invented Cyberspam How Chip Rosenthal started to fix Usenet spam.
"The Spam that started it all" by Wired News.
In 1994, two lawyers posted an advertisement to 6,000 news groups....
Some of us remember the 'jj' spam from a few years before that, but it was the notorious "Green Card Spam" which started the flood.
Major Spammer Is On The Verge Of Bankruptcy (24 Oct 96) Cyberpromo delenda est! And it was.
Cyber Promo v. AOL - Court Order (4 Nov 96), which is discussed in "Spam" Factory's Junk E-Mail Gets Stamped. And finally in April 1998, the "King of Spam" retires.
Pete Moss's SPAM-News Media Archives from 1995 to 1997. To get current SPAM News articles, you can also subscribe to Pete's mailing list from this page.
A Short History of the Internet by Bruce Sterling.
Written in 1992, this is a short history of the first 23 years of the net.
The time Before Spam, when you could publish your email address in safety.
Brad Templeton has supplied a history of the term 'spam', which includes an example of the very first spam, from way back in 1978.

The lighter side

You can learn from laughter - and sometimes you just have to lighten up before going back into the battle.

Hormel Foods on the use of the word "spam" for junk e-mail. Actually this one is serious.
Alice's Restaurant Anti-Spam Massacre Movement If just one person .., if just three people .., if just ... Oh heck, go read it yourself.
An anonymous spammer writes ... but is unclear on the concept.
Steve Ford's Green Backs in Spam.
Henry Neeman with a very simple explanation of why Spam is Bad.
Leevi Marttila from Finland with another simple explanation of Why spam is bad.
The Spammer's Rap by Wes Morgan.
Dan Garcia's Spam Homepage - In Praise of SPAM.
Telemarketing Industry Celebrates First Sale Don't you wish...
User Friendly's Spamming Analogy
Illiad has published other cartoons on spam, including the storylines Spam Attack, Denial of Service and Spam Begone.
The Spam Song - "I hate Spam/Spam in the morning/I hate Spam/In the evening, too/I hate Spam/Spam in my mailbox/I hate Spam/And that's why I hate you."
Spam Spam Spam Make Money Fast and Spam.
The Spam Avenger has audio material on the topic of eliminating spam.
"Spam" (a song), lyrics, to be sung to the tune of "Stand" by REM.
The Specious Report has a parody page of a do-not-spam registry.
George William Herbert's parody song "Every Spam is Sacred".

Service providers on spam

Panix Public Access Networks on filtering unsolicited mass e-mail.
One ISP's implementation of site-wide e-mail filters which customers can choose whether or not to use.
ReplyNet's position on Unsolicited Junk E-Mail.....
An Internet-based business' take on unsolicited e-mail and Internet advertising.
Wolf's Den Educational Services e-mail policy
An Internet site takes steps to prevent address harvesting by spammers trying to build up mailing lists.
WaveOne Communications explains to CAUCE exactly why public relations company site
CSMcKinley.com has been nuked PERMANENTLY.

Related Usenet and other FAQs

Advertising on Usenet: How To Do It, How Not To Do It
Discussion of acceptable and unacceptable ways to advertise
Posted to news.announce.newusers, news.admin.misc, misc.entrepreneurs, news.admin.net-abuse.misc, news.misc
Biz Newsgroup FAQ.
Why not to post ads to biz.* newsgroups
Blacklist of Internet Advertisers
One suggested boycott list
Posted every 3-4 weeks to news.admin.net-abuse.misc, comp.mail.misc, alt.internet.services, biz.misc
Figuring out fake E-Mail & Posts or in slightly more readable form at alt.spam FAQ
Spotting forged mail and news headers
Posted monthly to alt.2600, alt.spam, alt.current-events.net-abuse, news.admin.net-abuse.misc, alt.hackers
Net Abuse FAQ
General primer on Net abuse and spam
Posted three times a month in news.admin.net-abuse.misc, news.admin.net-abuse.announce, news.groups.questions
Scientology Spam Team FAQ
Details of one specific ongoing denial of service attack
Posted monthly in ca.usenet, la.news, la.general, alt.bbs.internet, alt.internet.services, news.admin.net-abuse.announce, misc.news.internet.announce, alt.religion.scientology
FAQ: The Newsgroup Care Cancel Cookbook
How you can cancel spam off individual newsgroups using the simplest of means: a home pc and certain newsreaders, and *sound* knowledge.
SPAM-L FAQ
What is SPAM-L? A mailing list dedicated to "Spam prevention and Discussion"
Now read the FAQ to find out more.
LINX Best Current Practice for combating Unsolicited Bulk Email
A standard setting out recommended practices for ISPs, covering such issues as relaying, traceability of email, report handling and user education, plus a useful glossary.
The LINX (London Internet Exchange) is the non-profit partnership which operates the major UK Internet exchange point.

Miscellaneous Resources

Sam Spade, Spam hunter THE place to start when trying to track down a spam site
Get that spammer! A tool for tracking down junk e-mailers and news posters
SpamCop - File a spam report
Paste in your spam (with full headers) and file a report to the right places automatically.
Mail Filtering and Robots Filtering mail, running a mailing list, and other things you need to know about mail, from Infinite Ink. Includes recommended tools and services.
Cancelmoose[tm] Home Page - includes information about NoCeM, a personal Usenet-filtering tool
Usenet newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.announce
Robert Braver's Spam Page - reports from a Usenet spam canceller
Fred Elbel's page on junk mail, telemarketing and spam.
Lindsay Haisley's Spam Patrol - good material on spam tracking and reporting
Stop Junk Email John C. Rivard's Campaign to Stop Junk Email, with Animated logo, lots of advice and lots of further links. Some of the news is a bit out of date now
ANONYMOUS SURFING Use this to check out web sites you don't trust
CIAC Computer Security Web Site Much useful information about security threats of all sorts, including I-005: E-Mail Spamming countermeasures
Also from CIAC - Internet Hoaxes: PKZ300, Irina, Good Times, Deeyenda, Ghost One to refer to when you get that letter telling you something that EVERYONE will want to know ... before you pass it on
Spam Free Web Sites Logos
The Campaign to Stop Junk Email
You Might Be An Anti-Spam Kook If... is a listing of various reasons many "Final Ultimate Solutions to the Spam Problem" are bogus.
A movie on stopping spam.
Spam Digraphs is an article on detection of the random letter strings that are often used by spammers to track who replies to them.
GLOSSARY - Eric Raymond's Jargon File

Sample Acceptable Use Policies - a selected list

In addition, David Sorkin provides links to many of the Acceptable use policies of Internet service
providers

Other anti-spam sites

David Wright / dww@zorch.sf-bay.org & Scott Hazen Mueller / E-mail me & Aliza R. Panitz / buglady@ability.net