Spam 2.0 - New problems for an evolving web
By: Peter Egan Jr.
December 01, 2007
Okay, so admittedly, this article has nothing to do with domain names. However, this is an extremely important question that doesn't get enough attention, even though it affects everyone who uses the internet even occasionally.
I first got the idea for this article while writing an excessively long comment in response to an article I came across on Mixx. Before I go any further, if you haven't been to Mixx, it is definitely worth checking out.
Anyway, getting back to the point, just What is Spam?
If the first image to come to mind when asked that question is the canned meat-like substance, you probably need not bother reading any further.
Anyway, on to the question of spam. I think it's safe to assume that we can all agree that unsolicited bulk emails offering discount Viagra constitute spam.
Remember the days before email spam filters? I'll bet that most of the ladies whose inboxes were regularly inundated with unsolicited offers for herbal supplements gauranteed to add two inches to their penis remember them like they were yesterday.
Over the past decade, many products were introduced and hailed as the slayer of spam. Some of these spam blockers worked, and some were not so good.
Then one day, the bulk email folder came into being, and it wouldn't be long until spam was a thing of the past. Or so we thought, anyway.
Spam 2.0
Web 2.0 has brought about many new trends since its arrival. Social media is by far the most notable of these trends, and the web continuously grows more interactive with each day that passes.
While Web 2.0 and the social media explosion has reshaped and revolutionized the internet, and contributed to countless positive developments, it has also come with its share of problems, including its own unique form of spam.
Forums, message boards, chat rooms, social networking and bookmarking sites became new targets for promotional spam. This new breed of spammer would use other sites that allowed users to generate their own content to place unwanted advertisements on web pages that were intended for relevent comments and discussion.
The sites being spammed then started to come up with various ways of combating spam, some more affective than others. It wouldn't be long until it was commonplace for websites ranging from small to gargantuan to rely on their users to detect and report spam.
While good in theory, this means of combating spam paved the way for yet another kind of spammer --- one that many sites have been unable to neutralize.
Take social media for example. The unfortunate reality is that far too many social media sites rely much too heavily on their users to report spam. While this method of spam control is good in theory, too many sites don't put in due diligence in the review process for spam complaints, leaving overworked, underpaid employees in charge of reviewing the complaints.
The obvious problem here is that this opens the door for malicious spam reporting, in which users who view themselves as being in competition with other users take advantage of this feature by bombarding it with spam complaints against their competitors. The aforementioned employees see so many of these spam complaints that mistakes are not uncommon, and legitimate users get mislabeled as "spammers" and banned from the site.
An excellent example of this phenomenon involves a popular online-auction company with a four-letter word for a name. Most people who have tried to sell with any regularity on said company's website has likely experienced their listings being terminated by said company for alleged violation of its listing agreement. More often than not, these listings are not actually in violation of anything, but the seller nonetheless has to pay the listing fee for a rule-abiding listing that was fraudulently reported as smam. At least for this particular company, my suspicion is that the likely reason is simply that the employee reviewing the complaint was unfamiliar with the very rules they were supposed to be enforcing, or too lazy to look them up. This very situation has turned many well-intentioned sellers away from said online-auction company with the four-letter word for a name.
There are many other examples of this type of occurance from a number of different sites.
The bottom line is that as long as interactive sites depend on user-submitted reporting of spam, spammers will continue to spam the spam complaints with spammy reports aimed first and foremost at stifling their competition. No one likes spam, but the current system of curtailing it has produced a different kind of spammer --- one that is every bit as unpleasant as the discount Viagra salesman.
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