REPLY TO 09/21/94 09:10 FROM [log in to unmask] "Museum discussion list": What is spamming? Erin McIntire and a number of other people have asked about the meaning of the word "spam". "Spam" on *this* group seems to have been used to mean simply an unwanted or irrelevant posting (particularly a self-serving one). In the wider net community though, spam refers to a type of malicious mischief often directed at the perpetrators of irrelevant, self-serving postings (like the lawyer who sent an ad to nearly every list on god's green internet). (btw, imho, announcements of courses, workshops, conferences related to the subject of a listserv aren't spamming: they're what--among other things--a listserv's for.) >From "Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (FOLDOC)" A glossary of programming languages, architectures, networks, domain theory, mathematics, in fact anything to do with computing. Copyright (c) Denis Howe 1993. spam [from the {MUD} community] vt. 1. To crash a program by overrunning a fixed-size buffer with excessively large input data. See also {buffer overflow}, {overrun screw}, {smash the stack}. 2. To cause a newsgroup to be flooded with irrelevant or inappropriate messages. You can spam a newsgroup with as little as one well- (or ill-) planned message (e.g. asking "What do you think of abortion?" on soc.women). This is often done with {cross-post}ing (e.g. any message which is crossposted to alt.rush-limbaugh and alt.politics.homosexuality will almost inevitably spam both groups). Richard Kohn Research Libraries Group To: [log in to unmask]