Re: SPAM DB 1.6.0 has been released - now OT if not originally

Ed Prochak <ed.prochak_at_magicinterface.com> writes:

>>... Spam (or at least how I think of it) is marketing gibberish,
>>giving very little useful information, and focused solely on getting
>>money out of people.
>
>Oops, you slipped back to: if it makes money, its spam.

Well no - I didn't say that, as you can see above: I said if it's marketing (meaning a one-sided promotion without much technical content) then it is spam.

However, for the purposes of this group's charter, one does make a clear distinction between commercially oriented messages and those that aren't.

>>OTOH, a well-written announcement of a free software project can be
>>a useful and relevant article on a newsgroup, and start an
>>informative discussion thread.
>
>And the one that started this thread obviously faileed that test. The
>subject line made it appear to be a DATABASE in stead of an
>interface.

Well, it wasn't the world's greatest Usenet article, but it wasn't that bad. And if the subject line was badly chosen, I don't think you can condemn it as spam just for that.

>And the original posteer was: Analysis&Solutions
>(info_at_analysisandsolutions.com)

This is a fair point, it does look a bit fishy.

>>In my case I am glad that we have a separation between .misc and
>>.marketing, with non-commercial messages going to .misc, so that I
>>don't have to sift through all the dubious 'material' on .marketing
>>to find the small number of useful free software announcements. At
>>least, this is the arrangement that the current charter suggests.
>
>But not what the group prefers.

I have to conede this point now that you have joined in - and what the group prefers is more important, in the end, than lawyering about the charter.

>>- comp.databases.oracle.free-software - announcements and discussion
>> of free programs related to Oracle, but no spam allowed
>
>If you put the new one up for a vote, I'll suport it.

Hmm, I've never done that before, I'll look into it.

>Though honestly I don't think it's needed.

It wouldn't be needed ideally (strictly IMHO) - other newsgroups manage fine with occasional announcements of free software releases and they form a normal part of the discussion. But that's not the case for cdo.misc, sadly...

-- 
Ed Avis <ed_at_membled.com>