On Sun, 10 Dec 1995 12:14, Murph Sewall <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>Robert Kapela wrote:
>>This was not a spam. I have only sent this message to some people who are
>>active list owners/administers and might benefit and be interested in my
>>offer.
>
>The usual definition is an unsolicited promotional message (it doesn't have
>to be commercial) sent to a number of people who do not share a narrowly
>focused interest. If you only sent your message to list owners, whether it's
>spam or not is arguable. However, in my professional opinion, promoting a
>list hosting service to those who already own active lists is somewhat akin
>to trying to sell iceboxes to Eskimos. On that ground, your message was a
>waste of bandwidth--a rationale for objecting to spam in general.
 
In my humble opinion, the posting was no different from Eric's "non-spam",
which I reproduce, in part, below.  It advertises a quite-similar service,
and I didn't see any "flames" about this blatantly-commercial post.
 
P.S. Murph, remember that Eskimos do need iceboxes, at least part of the time.
P.P.S. It's now politically-correct to use the term "Inuit".
+---
| Date:         Fri, 1 Dec 1995 21:09:50 EST
| From:         Eric Thomas <[log in to unmask]>
| Organization: L-Soft international, Inc.
| Subject:      L-Soft starts budget list hosting service for hobby lists
|
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------
| This message is an L-Soft announcement.  L-Soft is the company that sells
| LISTSERV(TM), LMail(TM) and other  networking products and services. This
| message is not a  spam; it is only being posted to  lists which are owned
| and operated by L-Soft and discuss  L-Soft products or services. For this
| announcement, the following lists have been selected:
|
|    LISTSERV95-L         LISTSERV for Windows 95 Support Forum
|    LSOFT-ANNOUNCE       L-Soft announcements
| -> LSTOWN-L             LISTSERV list owners' forum
|    LSTSRV-E             Forum for LISTSERV evaluation kit users
|    LSTSRV-L             LISTSERV administrators - give and take forum
|
| All these lists are operated by L-Soft and related to L-Soft products. If
| you wish to  unsubscribe, simply send a  message to [log in to unmask]
| with the following command in the text of your message:
|
|                             SIGNOFF LSTOWN-L
|
| If  you  have any  question  about  this  announcement, please  write  to
| [log in to unmask] for more information.
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|                        A HAVEN FOR HOMELESS LISTS
|
|                             December 1, 1995
|
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
|
| (Washington, DC) ...  [SNIP!]