evolution of spam

From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jul 30 2001 - 05:50:43 BST

  • Next message: Philip Jonkers: "Logic still: What survives in `survival of the fittest'?" 

    Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id FAA19316 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 30 Jul 2001 05:53:49 +0100
X-Originating-IP: [209.240.220.151]
From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: evolution of spam
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 00:50:43 -0400
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Message-ID: <F112TMVwVn20lbhsKd60000a6d8@hotmail.com>
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 30 Jul 2001 04:50:44.0430 (UTC) FILETIME=[310E06E0:01C118B3]
Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk

    I don't like spam! Isn't that from some Monty Python sketch? Everyday I
    delete garbage from my e-mail account that I can immediately tell from the
    sender addy and subject line alone is useless debris which has floated in on
    the latest tide. Another source of continual annoyance is the pop-up ads
    that clutter my screen while I'm trying to access some webpage which I
    *chose* to view. Is this "viral marketing" gone mad? There are ways of
    curtailing spam or junk-email. How does one cordon oneself off from these
    annoying pop-ups?

    Who responds to this garbage? Do those reponsible for the junk mail and
    pop-up advertising which detracts from my day actually think I'm going to
    contribute to their cause? They have annoyed me. Annoyed people do not
    become customers. Jehovah witnesses knocking at my front door are less of a
    nuisance. At least I can let them know face to face if they have perturbed
    me. These junk bulk e-mailers and pop-up ad slingers are in the same
    annoying category as those infomercial folks who subtly take over for
    regular programming while I sleep with the TV on? At least I could devise a
    means of controlling the access of TV infomercial slingers to my time. I
    could turn the TV off before I sleep or I could leave it on a channel which
    doesn't have such mind-numbing bilge or I could even program my box to
    change the channel at a given time if I were so inclined. BTW, how
    "informational" are "info"-mercials?

    Hopefully this rant gets through to some of you "viral"
    marketing/advertising types so that you realize that some of us you are
    trying to reach are not brain-dead enough to actually buy into your garbage.
    We are very annoyed though. I suppose this qualifies as being "innoculated"
    or "immune" or something like that.

    _________________________________________________________________
    Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

    ===============================================================
    This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit

    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jul 30 2001 - 05:58:02 BST