Rob McEwen wrote: > Matt Kettler wrote: > "Therefore, to me, and many others, it doesn't matter how few messages there > are, or how individual the message is. If it's unsolicited email of a > commercial nature, it's spam. Period." > > BTW - Matt, would an e-mail asking for link exchanges between web sites be > considered "commercial". What about unsolicited political or non-profit > e-mails?
Personally, I consider all of the above to be spam. At the very least, they're all unwelcome. That said, I never put up email addresses on a website without a explanation of what it's to be used for. I always use something like: "If you experience technical problems with this website, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]" "Send resume's to [EMAIL PROTECTED]" "Send support requests for this product to productxyz@" Often for my own personal pages I also add things like: "This address is not to be used for advertising. It is only to be used for questions regarding.." Since I've already explicitly stated what the address is to be used for any other use is intentionally violating an existing request for opt-out. In cases where I've explicitly excluded any form of advertising, it's even clearer. Therefore, if *I* got any of the above, the email is spam because there can be one of two situations: 1) If you read the website, you know your mail doesn't fit the declared purpose of the address, and you're spamming due to intentional violation of the recipient's preferences. 2) If you didn't read the website, you're scraping and sending out mass junk, and you're spamming under anyone's definition because it's UBE. > In fact, SpamHaus's splits the difference between these two extreme > definitions. > > http://www.spamhaus.org/definition.html > > Does anyone else consider SpamHaus's definition as too weak and believe that > ANY unsolicited e-mail is spam, even if a personally hand-typed note? I don't believe the spamhaus definition is as weak as you think because your hand-typed note is also likely to spam under spamhaus's definition if it is in any way templated: ------------- An electronic message is "spam" IF: (1) the recipient's personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients; AND (2) the recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate, explicit, and still-revocable permission for it to be sent. ------------- Unless the content of the request for link-exchange is highly specific to my website, the request fits (1) and (2). Most link-exchange requests I've seen for EVI are plain form letters with only EVI's name and our general market mentioned. They'd equally apply to EVI as any other electronics company. While I'd generally consider a highly customized hand typed message to be spam, I'm at least sympathetic to those who are willing to grant these an exception. All that said, I think spamhaus does need a third case. All email is automatically spam if the user has already explicitly revoked permission for it to be sent.
