What is Spam?
Origin of the word "Spam"
According to Dale G. Cuffe (thanks for the email), the term SPAM is
actually a contraction of the words SPiced hAM, which was sold all over
the place in small tins during the second world war.
Nowadays, it is also a popular name for a form of net abuse technically
known as EMP/ECP (Excessive MultiPosting / Excessive CrossPosting).
Spamming occurs in nearly every newsgroup. Take for example the never-ending
"Make Money Fast" pyramid-schemes. Not only are they illegal in many
countries, they are also an extreme nuisance to the people that are
trying to have a normal discussion in these groups.
Some "controversial" newsgroups are even under deliberate attack from
people using spamming techniques [1].
They generate so much noise in these groups, that normal discussions are
made impossible.
- [1]
- Scientology springs to mind: they have also canceled postings by other authors on numerous occasions.
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