Spam
From: The Gaiapedia, the community encyclopedia about Gaia Online
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[edit] Definition
Spam is a catchall term for unsolicited advertizing, bumping, or any posts or PMs that do not contribute anything, but rather prevent communication and/or slow down Gaia's servers with pointless chain letters.
[edit] Etymology
The term spam is derived from the Monty Python SPAM sketch, set in a cafe where every item on the menu includes SPAM luncheon meat. As the server recites the SPAM-filled menu, a chorus of Viking patrons drowns out all conversations with a song repeating "SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM... lovely SPAM, wonderful SPAM," hence "SPAMming" the dialogue.
It later came to be used on Usenet to mean excessive multiple posting—the repeated posting of the same message. The first evident usage of this sense was by Joel Furr in the aftermath of the ARMM incident of March 31, 1993, in which a piece of experimental software released dozens of recursive messages onto the news.admin.policy newsgroup. Soon, this use had also become established—to spam Usenet was to flood newsgroups with junk messages.
Spam could also be taken to mean a set of humorous English backronyms, including: Short/Stupid/Silly Particularly/Pointless Annoying Messages, Self-Promotional Advertising Material, Self Propelled Automatic Mail, Send Post All Members, Sending Persistently Annoying Mail, and Shit Posting As Mail. SPAM is also a portmanteau of "spew" and "scam".
[edit] How to identify spam
In forums, spam is off topic posts, bumping when the thread has not yet fallen off the first page, or anything adds nothing to the conversation ("I agree"). Spam is discouraged in all the the forums except the Chatterbox, as well as certain guild forums, whose entire purpose it to contain the spam from users posting for gold that would otherwise consume the site.
In private messages, spam is any message that asks the recipient to pass it on. Often it uses threats, guilt, or promises of luck or other rewards to convince someone to. Spam often uses techinical language, or claims to come from an administrator, in order to sound creditable.
No matter what the PM says, a user cannot be a virus, the only 'secret features' are test trials sent out by admin, no one is going to delete your account, and you won't be subject to good/bad luck, random events, or anything else based on your messaging something on to friends. It does you no good to send it on, but it can do harm, taking time away from your friends, and putting undue stress on Gaia's servers.
[edit] Spam as Trolling
Some types of spam, most commonly found in General Discussionand the mmo forum, are also a form of trolling.
