What is "spam"?
NOTE: The word "spam" is often falsely referred to by "control freaks."
NOTE: In this posting, quotes from the FAQ are in this color, and where I've not written the word
"NOTE:" Quotes from the FAQ are not included in the below 5 items.
Contrary to the lies of the propagandists, the one's who try to censor
the proponent of the paranormal in *certain newsgroups,
SPAM is not:
1. A mention of a WWW page like:
SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA
http://www.psicounsel.com/scistudy.html
2. A mention of a WWW site like:
"skeptics what they do and why" from YAHOO
or:
http://www.psicounsel.com/page9328-a.htm
3. Necessarily the same answer in 1 or 2
newsgroups to a number of similar
posts, ie: "flames," or
about the same subject, or answering
essentially the same ideas with
the same wording _more than once_.
4. Posting SENSE HONESTY AND CIVILITY repeats
with the same post appearing about once
every 6 months: /intelllig.html, unless,
perhaps, an excessive portion of the post
has the same wording posted excessively
often.
5. Posting announcements periodically, with
the same wording about CHARTERS of a
newsgroup, or FAQs, or general activities
that have occurred recently in a newsgroup,
or newsgroups.
Propaganda writing, which could discourage people from reposting, has been placed in the newsgroups. I have answered this propaganda in the newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.usenet. My reply makes the following clear, and because the detailed rebuttal to it was not considered valid, the following remains fact:
1. It is permissible to reference your URL in posts, to point to information
about pseudo-skeptic fanatics. Banners placed on the pages
do not, necessarily, cause it to be "spam."
2. It is permissible to repost below the spam thresholds.
3. In your reposting, you may place identical wording that invites others
to repost, and those
words, properly placed, will not add to the count that would cause your
writing to be "spam."
There is other propaganda about so-called
"spam" which you the reader should be aware of, to counter such lies when
written to your ISP.
Often enough, an agenda is thwarted by a group, such as that group calling
themselves "skeptics" -- actually pseudo-skeptic fanatics -- and rather
than allow that agenda to be hindered, they will call announcements "spam,"
and complain with lies in multiple e-mails to Internet Service Providers
(ISPs).
Here is what "SPAM" is, according to The Net Abuse FAQ 1998/04/24 19:21:26 $, $Revision: 3.1 $ -- at:
http://www.cybernothing.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq.html#2.1
...posted an unacceptably high number
of times to one or more newsgroups."
Here is what "SPAM" is not, according to the same source:
CONTENT
IS IRRELEVANT. 'Spam' doesn't
mean "ads." It doesn't mean "abuse."
It doesn't mean "posts whose content
I object to."
So, according to the official USENET document, spam is not the mention of a URL concerning SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA, which pseudo-skeptics object to, nor is it SKEPTICS WHAT THEY DO AND WHY, which pseudo-skeptics have tried to censor me from referring to with written FAQs (FAQ example 2) and a phony CHARTER (for a newsgroup they have no ethical right to attempt to make policy about). The fact that "psicounsel" is used as a commercial site does not make it "spam" either. Even when commercial services are advertised, directly, that does not make it "spam."
The alt.paranormal FAQ and CHARTER
What is the BI?
3.2) What is the Breidbart Index (BI)?
The Breidbart
Index (BI) is a measure of the
breadth
of any multi-posting, cross-posting,
or combination
of the two. BI is defined as
the sum
of the square roots of how many
newsgroups
each article was posted to. If
that number
approaches 20, then the posts
will probably
be cancelled by somebody.
For instance,
four identical posts to nine
newsgroups
each (4 times 3) has a BI of 12.
However,
nine identical posts to four
newsgroups
each (9 times 2) has a BI of 18.
Generally, "spam" refers to cross-posting, or multiple posting, an originated message, not a number of individual replies to messages. In my opinion, commonly practiced methods of "spam" are probably the most often used criteria for enforcement: spam cancels.
The following, from "...Current Usenet Spam Thresholds..." in my opinion, probably applies to the above paragraph:
This is an informal
FAQ aimed at clarity
and understanding,
not anal-retentive
correctness.
Few people deliberately "spam" messages by replying.
"Spam" is "unwanted" posts, and when a person writes a subject, and you reply, your answer will seldom be considered "unwanted" by an unbiased observer. The person you reply to may not "want" it, but that is of no consequence in consideration of what "spam" is, or is not.
A person deliberately setting out to "spam" (with the typical motivations of propaganda or advertising) would seldom take the time necessary to answer individual posts, with repeated answers, and manually edited quotes of each individual poster.
Even if _replies_ are considered "spam," 20 identical messages to 1 newsgroup would be required during a 45 day period.
Multi-posting is posting manually or with a computer program to 2 or
more newsgroups, by placing each message in a different newsgroup.
Cross-posting is placing one message, and assigning the newsgroups it is
sent to in the header.
Now, quoting exactly:
The
Breidbart Index (BI) is a measure of
the
breadth of any multi-posting,
cross-posting,
or combination of the two.
...and exactly, from
FAQ: Current Usenet spam
thresholds
and guidelines:
A spam,
EMP, or ECP then refers to a posting
that
has been posted to many places.
The following is from:
http://www.uiuc.edu/~tskirvin/faqs/spam.html
FAQ: Current Usenet spam thresholds
and guidelines
Many people use these
terms inappropriately,
which leads to confusion
in discussions.
So, let us be clear, here, about what "spam" is, exactly, and what current consensus spam thresholds exist.
Excessive Multi-Posting
(EMP) means the
same as the term "spam"
usually does, but
is more accurate and
self-explanatory. It
means, essentially,
too many separate
copies of a substantively
identical
article.
WHAT IS "SUBSTANTIVELY IDENTICAL"
1. byte-for-byte identical messages
2. otherwise identical
postings minimally
customized
for each group it appears in.
Note:
"customized for each group"
The main problem
with spamming is cross-posting
to many groups.
This is the primary aim
in the writing of this FAQ,
obviously to eliminate the
excessive cross-posting
and multiple-posting.
3. advertising the same service.
Note:
Again, note what the FAQ
writers are trying to stop,
mainly, and that certainly
does not mean they
are principally aiming for
people who reply
to one, or possibly two
newsgroups, the same
reply to similar posts.
4. articles that consist solely of the same signature
Note:
The writers of the FAQ, in
my opinion, have the
huge multi-level-marketing
schemes in mind, which
produce massive
amounts of the same
telephone number or URL,
which when picked up on
USENET, get posts cancelled.
5, articles which consist
of inclusions of
other user's postings, but are otherwise
identical.
Note:
The above means what it says,
"identical." If
you answer with a similar
meaning, but altogether
different words many times,
your posts are not
"identical." You should
quote part of the posters
writing in your reply.
What does it take to be a "spammer," something we all want to avoid?
The thresholds for spam cancels are based _only_ on one or more of the
following measures:
For one:
"The BI is 20 or greater over a 45 day period."
For another:
...is a continuation
of a previous EMP/ECP,
within a 45 day
sliding window. (ECP-Excessive
Crossposting --).
To get an excessively
high BI, posts must be
repeated within
a 45 day period.
Note:
If a BI applies to one newsgroup,
the square root
of 1 is 1, so 20 "identical" posted
messages would be
required within a 45 day period, to
be "spam," in
one newsgroup. One could make
an announcement nearly
every other day and it would not be
"spam."
When a _BI_ applies with 2 newsgroups,
14 identical
posts to 2 newsgroups produces a BI
of 20. The square
root of 2 is 1.41 -- 1.41 X 14 = approximately
20
When a _BI_ applies with 4 newsgroups,
10 identical
posts to 4 newsgroups produces a BI
of 20. The square
root of 4 is 2 -- 2 X 10 = 20
alt.paranormal/alt.astrology is where
proponents of these subjects post. Others post, but they are not
proponents. Instead of just posting,
or just disagreeing whether the subjects
have validity, they attempt to control the activities in these newsgroups.