I was reading in the bathroom when I ran across an item written by
Anthony Ayiomamitis on Sun, 07 Dec 2003
03:19:49 +0200, which said:

So you are saying that "Unsolicited messages, often of a commercial
nature, sent DISCRIMINATELY to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or
newsgroups." is not spam?

That's probably a pretty good way to put it, since to discriminate is
to use your judgement. Spam is mass email that does not take the
recipient into account.

Probably every advertisement you see or hear is something you didn't
intend to see or hear, regardless of whether it is on the internet or
TV, or in the newspaper. By the broader definition, this is all spam.
OTOH, there are such things as legitimate advertising, and legitimate
advertisers. I guess a good definition would be that they play by
whatever rules are in force for the intended venue.

I wouldn't mind seeing ads in this group by group regulars for
astronomy-related stuff, just as there's a similar unofficial rule
over in sci.space.history (my very first subscribed group). Neither
would I mind getting the occasional email about things which do
interest me; indeed, that already happens.


-------------
Beady's 11th Law of Social Harmonics: "Your spouse is precisely the kind of person someone like you would choose to marry."