You have probably seen an increase in the amount of "junk mail" which
shows up in your email box, or on your favorite newsgroup.
What is spam?
Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in
an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose
to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious
products, get-rich-quick schemes.
The word SPAM is also used
interchangeably for meaning "anything not wanted". For instance, I now
call my junk mail in my postal mailbox, SPAM. It just proves I'm online
too much. :) The same goes for search engines. By submitting to a search
engine you are able to get your website listed in their directories.
Unfortunately, some folks take advantage of this and will submit their
sites over and over and over. The search engines call this SPAM and if
they see you have spammed them, they will not allow your site in their
listings. This is more of a "slang" usage of the word, because SPAM is
really an email violation...not an over submitting violation.
Another form of SPAM is placing an ad in a forum or a message board
where advertising is not allowed. This can get you "flamed" or "bombed"
for it. Flames are simply hateful email and bombs stand for viruses sent
by email. Always respect the rules of any forum or message board. And
never SPAM no matter where you are.
I really hope you have
understood this by now. The online community hates Spam. The government
hates Spam. I hate spam. YOU hate spam. Most spammers have bad English
and don’t bother running a spell check. So please, don’t spam.