On Mon, 11 Mar 1996 00:01:48 -0500 Automatic digest processor said:
>Subject: Listserver Spam: A cautionary tale from TIME Magazine
 
Ooo... Eric will get you for that one.  :-)  The trademark is LISTSERV.
Never risk the Wrath of Eric.  (Hi, Eric!)
 
>[The following is copyright material from the 3/18/96 issue of TIME,
>reposted by permission. My experience suggests that a little bit of listserve
>security, like a confirmation message, might go a long way. ped]
 
Yup, you're right on that one.  (Though I'd been pushing Confirm on subs
to our lists here for quite a while, I still found about 20 lists that
were plain, old Subscription=Open... I went through and changed them
all myself.)
 
>I've Been Spammed!
 
Okay... Can I pick a few nits here in the hopes of trying to make sure
that John Q. Public learns the "correct" slang for things?  It's tough
enough dealing with lots (and *lots*) of novice users, so if we can teach
them what idioms are "correct", it helps anyone who's in client service.
(Translating what a user is saying to what they really mean can be a
real feat at times.)
 
Spamming is when a person sends out unsolicited e-mail (usually an
advertisement of some sort, but not necessarily).  That's a spam.
 
Forging bogus subscriptions to mailing lists is (at least in the
terminology I've heard/used most commonly) "spoofing".
 
So, you've been Spoofed... not Spammed.
 
-Holly