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SPAM is a Four-Letter Word

June 14, 2007

How many of you know what spam is? 

Being 40, I KNOW what Spam is.  It’s processed-mystery-meat-in-a-can, right?  Well, it was when I was a younger kid.  As I recall, mixing it in with chopped-up, boiled eggs and slapping it between two pieces of bread made my mouth water.  Oops, wrong mystery-meat.  That was potted meat.

Yew!

Okay, maybe not.

After contacting a few visitors to MyBlogLog account last night, I retired.  I woke up today to THAT smell.  You know, the smell of burning spam.

The Community Manager of MyBlogLog, Robyn Tippins, left me a private message.  She wrote, “Your site is being flagged for spam. Please stop sending promotional messages to our users.” 

All of the sudden, I felt like a criminal.  I was thinking, “What did I do wrong?” 
Then, I felt dirty……you know, spammy, followed by feeling wrongly accused.  I felt like I needed a shower and a lawyer.

So, I sent her an email, ”I take spamming very seriously and am curious as to why my site is being flagged.”  She replied, “Jerry, Here’s an example: Welcome! www.BlueSkyBrothers.com www.MarketingSoftwareTools.com.” 

We went back-and-forth with a couple of very, cordial emails.  I was trying to understand her position.  Basically, as I understand it, spamming is governed according to the message-receiver.  If the message is unwanted attention from the sender, the receiver can register a complaint.  The intent of the sender is not considered.  However, Tippins ‘heard’ my case and ‘let me off’ with a generous warning.  (She really was very nice about the whole thing).

According to Tippins, my ‘Welcome’ message was a bit heavy in the self-promotional aspect (as opposed to the conversational aspect). 

COMMENTS:
(1) In a social networking arena, people need to “lighten up”.  My greeting was based upon a sincere “welcome”, and a quick plug in an effort to generate any interest.
(2) Text can be so distant.  It is challenging to build rapport with only text.  This is why I love video so much.
(3) If I ever offend anyone with a comment, please let me know directly. 

I was only trying to welcome a new member, as if I was at church.  But, I’m not at church, and I got my knuckles rapped for it. 

Okay, I’ve dramatized it a bit.  But, do you see my point?  While Greg and I take spamming very seriously, and would never knowingly violate such a code, people are a bit too sensitive, in my opinion. 

I mean, really?  C’mon.  Spamming on MyBlogLog?  I’ve had an account since Dec 6th, and I haven’t been spammed.  Well, I haven’t interpreted the attention I’ve received as annoying.  I guess I like being heckled……LOL.  I digress.

The point Tippins also made was that “sometimes it is tough to ascertain what’s acceptable and what’s annoying.”

It’s a fine line, I guess.  Certainly, it’s a subjective one.  And, I suppose it’s not a real problem on MyBlogLog, or MyBlogLog would specify if leaving a link in a message was acceptable or not.  In my case, virtually the whole message was two links, which was interpreted as spam. 

I apologize, sincerely.

I try to treat everyone as I like to be treated.  That’s all.  It is easy to see how our computers can desensitize human relationships to a detriment.  

I like MyBlogLog very much.  I think of it like a virtual, cocktail party.  You know, a room full of people, all abuzz.  Music in the background; drinks are flowing.  Laughter fills the room.  No angry spam to be found. 

Thoughts?

JerryWFranklin

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Written by JFranklin · Filed Under Blogging 

Comments

5 Responses to “SPAM is a Four-Letter Word”

  1. Eric Marcoullier on June 15th, 2007 1:55 pm

    Jerry, thanks for the well-reasoned post. It’s speaks volumes about you that you didn’t over-react with Robyn and worked to understand where we’re coming from. I hope that your post sparks a conversation with your readers and that you’ll let us know what they say. Cheers!

  2. gmeares on June 16th, 2007 6:49 pm

    I love spam! Fry it up and have it with Tomato soup, delicious!

    Greg
    http://www.marketingsoftwaretools.com

  3. Bonnie on June 17th, 2007 11:50 am

    Interesting post, Jerry.

    To use your cocktail party analogy, imagine you’re in the corner of the room, enjoying yourself, having a nice conversation with three of your friends. Then some guy you don’t know barges in, pushes your friends aside, and shouts “Hey Jerry! (Hic!) Come to MY party!” :-)

    OK, that’s kinda silly. But there ARE a lot of spammers cruising the social networking sites, and I’m glad the folks at MyBlogLog are trying to control it.

    I’ve received several spam messages. They don’t bother me much, though. I don’t report them; I may delete the messages; mosly I just ignore them. While this strategy may do nothing to discourage true spammers, it also will not get people who are NOT really spammers into trouble.

    I think part of the problem with people being unfairly accused of spam is short attention spans and lousy memories of the people they’re sending messages to. You know, similar to how some people subscribe to an ezine, go through a double-opt-in process, and then report the email they receive in response as spam.

    We’re all on information overload. I think when people receive a message that looks a bit spammy (like “Come check out my newly revamped site!”), and the sender’s name doesn’t look familiar, they’ll think SPAM. Some will report it as such without doing any checking of their message files or whatever to see if a connection with that sender had already been established.

    I agree with you that we all need to lighten up a bit. But we can also be a bit more diligent… both as receivers and senders of messages that MIGHT be construed as spam. It might be helpful, for instance, to include more details in such messages and not rely on people’s memories. If I were going to invite people to look at a site I’d redesigned, for instance, I might say “Jerry, it’s been a while since we chatted but I hope you haven’t forgotten me. You were one of the first visitors to my blog back in December. I just wanted to let you know I’ve totally redesigned it. If you could swing by, take a look, and tell me what you think, I’d really appreciate it!”

    Of course that requires a lot more thought and effort. And unfortunately, along with short attention spans and lousy memories, a lot of us are short on time… and/or just lazy. (I include myself in each of those categories!)

    Anyway, sorry for the long post… I do like your new site!

  4. Fighting Spam: "The War on Sperror" on June 19th, 2007 12:50 am

    [...] After reading MyBlogLog "Eric" and Bonnie’s responses to “SPAM is a Four-Letter Word,” I was inspired to do some investigating. [...]

  5. Jerry on June 21st, 2007 12:22 pm

    Great points, Bonnie.

    If I have been a member of a social network longer than ‘the next person’ and I am so inclined to send a message, it will be a ‘welcome’ message, in most cases. Generally, that person will have come to my site first, or I’ve gone to them through a mutual member. I don’t know that I’ve ever taken the time to go to the home page and start ‘looking up’ people. But, even if I did, and I left a short greeting with 1-2 link messages, I bet 999 out of 1000 would report nothing.

    So, I got to thinkin’, (scary, I know), about what I find ‘annoying’ by Robyn Tippins’ definition, in the context of MyBlogLog.
    As for me, I’ve concluded that automated messages are unacceptable. I look at it this way: in the MyBlogLog setting, I can control what I read, when I read it, when I respond, if I respond. I’ve already done it both ways. I strike a rapport with some; with others, they simply want to let me know they are there. If an automated system filled my message box with hundreds of the same messages, I would be annoyed. So, I concur, Bonnie, I’m glad Robyn is keeping a close-eye on spamming.

    I used the word ‘control’ in the last paragraph. A huge advantage in MyBlogLog is the nature of the medium. It is static and one-half duplex, in nature. In other words, a message is sent; it is read; and a response is sent, or not. The communication is not simultaneous, like a conference call. I’m getting ‘way too technical’ here. My point: I have the control to ignore a message or respond to it through MyBlogLog. The likelihood that someone will sit long enough to send dozens of the same message is remote.

    Bonnie, I also agree with you regarding your point of diligence. We can all be a bit more diligent in the ways that we use words to communicate thoughts. And isn’t THAT the challenge? If it is difficult for a sender to precisely articulate in writing what his/her’s actual, 100% authentic thoughts are, then it is virtually impossible for anyone outside of the sender’s body to know the actual intent of the message.

    My point is getting ridiculous, which makes my point:
    Let’s lighten up, if for no other reason, fr our sanity’s sake.

    JerryWFranklin

    PS: Thank you for inspiring me to educate myself more on spamming. It IS a huge problem; I’m convinced.

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