Stupid Question -- What exactly is SPAM?

Question

...and I do not mean the meat product.

Originally, Spam was used to denote Unsolicited Email, but especially Commercial Email.

Now the term seems to include any posting that use to be called Flooding, the process of posting multiple lines of the same text two or more times in a chatroom. I have even seen it used in reference to a message that is posted two or more times in a forum (or even on Yahoo! Answers).

I didn't get the memo. When did this change?

I am more interested in when did the change in accepted definition occur.

Answer 1

The definition of spam has never really changed. Flooding is still spam as is any abuse of ANY electronic messaging system to send undesired and unsolicited bulk messages.

Recall there was e-mail spam when e-mail was the only medium used to communicate on the Internet.

Now, other communication mediums have developed as administrators and software programs have cracked down on e-mail spam:

instant messaging spam - many people use IM compared to 5 years ago:

Usenet newsgroup spam - Spammers have found a niche in unmoderated newsgroups which do not check for spam.

Web search engine spam - Google took the lead on this one and everyone else is ripping them off (or partnering with them - I never trusted Google worth **** from day one due to its foreign intelligence background).

spam in blogs - people advertising in blogs - which I don't like.

mobile phone messaging spam - IM and E-mail are available on cell phones and spammers are following suit because the phone companies are not equipped to remove spam due to freedom of speech issues and the like.

In short - don't feel like you've been left behind - think of it as spammers reaching other popular Internet mediums (even this one).

Answer 2

SPAM is still....
Electronic junk mail or junk newsgroup postings. Some people define spam even more generally as any unsolicited e-mail. However, if a long-lost brother finds your e-mail address and sends you a message, this could hardly be called spam, even though it's unsolicited. Real spam is generally e-mail advertising for some product sent to a mailing list or newsgroup.

As for postings that would be decided by the moderators .. of the chatrooms... there are a lot of marketing sales people out there that are using the chatrooms and also yahoo answers to get people to visit 'unsolicited sites..'

Answer 3

spam is a mixture of pork shoulders and ham. the owner of a large slaughter house actually invented it because no one really bought pork shoulders and he wanted a way of turning it into profit instead of throwing it away. he had a contest and awarded a prize to the person who came up with a good name for it. the sp is for shoulders of pork, and the am is from ham. and if youre wondering why it always has that jelatin substance around it when you open it is because it is still raw meat when its canned, then the whole can is cooked. and also spam is pretty much a food staple in hawaii and eaten by most people there. it became so popular there because the military used to put cans of spam in the soldiers food rations and some of them stationed in hawaii would trade it to the locals for other things.

Answer 4

indiscriminately send unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages, especially commercial advertising in mass quantities

Answer 5

The one thing in common is that all these things advertise something that we as people don't want. So why use different names for different ways of displaying it?

And yes, it is also meat available in a tin.

Spam Up!

Answer 6

Junk mail is spam

Spamming, to send the same message over and over again.

Answer 7

Sales
Product
Advertisement
Mailings

Answer 8

It changed though common usage

Answer 9

it is email that has a virus in it

Answer 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_%28food%29

spam is short for spicy ham
it is ham or pork meat real meat not fillers