Survival Guide Part 2

[Gorth]

"There is enough SPAM to destroy the world ten times over..."

 

How to get a message through

1. Chapter 1 - History of SPAM
   
2. Chapter 2 - The difference between SPAM and quality
   
3. Chapter 3 - Drowning amongst spammers, what to do ?
   
4. Appendix A
   

Chapter 1 - History of SPAM

Much to the chagrin of Hormel Foods, maker of the canned "Shoulder Pork and hAM"/"SPiced hAM" luncheon meat, the term "spam" has today come to mean network abuse, particularly junk E-mail and massive junk postings to USENET.

 

Further history can be found here: http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamterm.html

 

Chapter 2 - The difference between SPAM and quality

SPAM on USENET, BBS, Discussion Forums,Message Boards etc. is most often associated with prolific postings of messages of no informational value, i.e. they serve no purpose. The motivations for spamming (v. of SPAM) are many and varied. Some is the result of lack of skill, some just reflect the personality of the poster and then some are just doing it for the competitiveness in achieving highest possible postcounts. Quality postings on the other hand are serious attempts at conveying messages with either informational or otherwise relevant information to the recipients of the message.

 

Chapter 3 - Drowning amongst spammers, what to do ?

While slightly dependant on the target audience, spending some effort on writing a message that is both eloquent and structured, has a greater chance of being received by people, who are more than just occasional spammers themselves.

 

Illustrating Example

Lets imagine a poster, lets just call him "Garth", who wants to suggest three things to the people, who are creating the next game, he looks forward to.

Garth would like to suggest colour match between lightsaber blades and robes, high heeled boots for female jedi and finally a somewhat longer game experience.

 

Garth tries one approach first:

yo im Garth im just soooo cool I has watched star wars since before i were born and played all star wars game an therfore know all!!!! So u now spread ur ears and u listen and get ur fingers out, for if u ignore me then u just suxx so were was i yes we NEED those awesome lightsabrers that sort of just automaticaly change colors to match my robes and dont you lazy bastards make my robe without hoods for hoods are just wat we need for uber cool robes and then we also no can do without those friggin stiletto heels for my jedi chick for i like playing girls and then give us some fuqin space to play on for i finish last game in under 20 an that just suxx for i played them all and if u dont think that too then u can just p*ss off!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

PS: Oh and we need more polls to show that i am right

---

 

While Garth gets something through, that something is definitely not his point. A completely wasted post, that at best aggravates a lot of people and starts a recursive flaming process. This is a SPAM post.

 

Garth tries another approach

Hello, I'm new here, I heard that the developers takes all the ideas from the boards here and puts into the new game. So therefore i would like to have the following added lightsaber colors that automatically adjusts to my robecolor, we cant kill those ugly siths looking like a patchwork of materials and colors. Also we need more footwear for the girl jedis for my girlfriend says you cant go out in a city wearing that. And the old game was way to short so if you want my money again you better add double triple that much or give me free download of content for my xbox!

---

 

While definitely better than the first attemp, not technically SPAM anymore, the post is likely to be overlooked by the intended readers, simply because it's awful

 

Garth tries one last time

Hello, I'm new to these boards and would like to make a couple of suggestions:

• Lightsaber blades that adjust their colour to the robe the player is currently wearing
  
• High-heeled footwear for female jedis
  
• Longer game
  

First point: Colour clashes between garb and tools doesn't look good and is tedious to adjust manually.

 

Second point: Assuming that both sexes will wear male equipment is politically uncorrect and you might get sued.

 

Third point: It's a competitive market out there and other companies are bringing out games that currently has more value to offer for my money, besides, such brilliant developers as you can surely make a better gamimg experience than the first game, right ?

---

 

Still not perfect, but because the text is easier on the eye, odds are that some of the message might get read and appreciated for content (notice the nice suck-up in the last section ?). Point being, that by breaking up the monotony of the message and working on presentation, it's easier to access the information hidden in the post. It can also have the positive sideeffect, that individual sections of text are easier to quote and discuss (i.e. it will stand out amongst massive blocks of text).

 

Appendix A

About "social" spamming. Some posters have aquired a habit of chatting on message boards. This is often used to express rejection or accept of suggestions, general bantering, cracking jokes etc. While technically being SPAM, it can be argued, that by contributing to a community feeling, it does contribute something. Even if not relevant for the topics, community feeling can compel other posters to join in and become part of the community and thereby expand the scope and range of the arguments provided in general (i.e. useful).

[ramza]

Does this mean I am a SPAMer?

[Petor23]

Oh crap, if there was a test on this I would certainly fail