Spamming... Opionions Wanted!

[Dave Swift]

Now everyone knows that direct spamming is not only wrong and down right annoying, but in the long run it is bad for your site.
But what exactly is direct spamming?
Say for example that you have a site about gardening. You go over to Yahoo! Groups (formerly eGroups) or somewhere like that and you join a gardening group which has 2000+ members. Now, you think this might be a good traffic opportunity, so you send a short, polite informative message to the group telling them about your gardening site.
Now, is this spamming, or simply sharing information?
I'd like to know your views on this.

[Jason]

Dictionary.com gives a confusing perspective on this. Read the part that I put in bold. The confusing part is that if it is cross posted, it is no longer one message... it is two messages at that point. You can check out the page that I pulled it from if you need to see the context of the paragraph:

http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=spam

spammed, spam·ming, spams
To send unsolicited e-mail to.
To send (a message) indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups.

spam

1. <messaging> (From the Monty Python "Spam" song) To post irrelevant or inappropriate messages to one or more Usenet newsgroups or mailing lists in deliberate or accidental violation of netiquette.

It is possible to spam a newsgroup with one well- (or ill-) planned message, e.g. asking "What do you think of abortion?" on soc.women. This can be done by cross-posting, e.g. any message which is crossposted to alt.rush-limbaugh and alt.politics.homosexuality will almost inevitably spam both groups. (Compare troll and flame bait).

[eformsolutions]

Hi!

Definition: Unsolicited email messages offering everything from "Discover the Secrets of Wealth on the Internet" to "Low-Rate Mortgages" to "Lose 4 - 6 Inches of Stubborn Fat Overnight!" Spam is usually sent to a large list of people, and usually ends up in the electronic trash. (Just like the luncheon meat with the same name, Spam is undesirable and comes from an unrecognized source.)

Also Known As: Junk Email

Here is my point: The above definition, doesn't say a friendly message to everyday known users (no matter how many in numbers) is called SPAM.

Inviting to all the (any) Forum members to their moderators own sites for one or the other reasons is not called SPAM, because moderator has all the rights.

But if a member tries to deliver a similar message? ? ? ?

Unsolicited e-mail, SPAM Cross-posting Haaaaa

[Tony Hawk]

Good question. I believe any post that is made with the sole intention of generating traffic/money is spam. Now, if someone were to ask "My rose bushes are not blossoming this year, can anyone help", and your gardening site addresses this, I think it's fine to post a link.

If you start a topic just to promote your site, its DEFINITELY spam! Example of spam:

http://www.htmlforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=2395

[Ian]

Welcome to HTMLForums Mr Hawk.
You got my vote, thats spam alright, here is a good one too :)
http://www.htmlforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=2096
Hahaha

[Tony Hawk]

Holy smoke! That was a spamariffic link you posted there. I guess we'll let you spam your own site ;)

Thanks for the greeting. Hopefully I'll be around for a while. Nice place you have here.