LOL

Have been onto MySpace/ClubbingUK for a few months now and loads of people have been deleted or kicked off for spamming techniques recently!

I’d be very careful if thinking about automated methods and review the product in question…

Keep up the good work (especially you Jimmy)

Again, I think MySpace does seem to be a special situation. As several people have pointed out to me, the place was designed to allow small bands to promote themselves. Joining MySpace and not expecting any self-promotion is kind of like sitting in the Mormon Church week after week and not expecting any proselytizing.

Thanks again for keeping the discussion lively and civil.

Andrew: The book sounds funny. What group of college guys hasn’t sat around coming up with parody porn movie names?

The most common criteria are that spam messages are unsolicited, and that they are sent in bulk.

As far as unsolicited goes, yours would fit very neatly. There’s a difference, I’d expect, between being listed as Stern’s friend, and being listed as “Interested in anything else similar to what Stern does”. Same for any other “if they’re a friend of X than this must interest them” assumptions.

Where you, and David Edelman, are on the borderline is with the bulk issue. Putting a bot to automatically send messages is working in bulk, but as you said the decision on which people to target is the same as you’d have used manually.
Manually sending a message to a lot of people is still bulk, of course. But it can be said that each is considered individually by the person sending the message. So maybe the choosing is done on a broad term, but it is borderline rather than obviously bulkish.
Then again, anyone spamming Viagra could reasonably say that this is something that they personally think can be relevant to any human who may possibly be sexually active, and that this group has a very strong correlation with people who have email addresses…

The most redeeming factor is that MySpace does seem to move more and more into a state where these actions are common and the norm. If this progress further, then it would be legitimate to assume that if someone keeps a friends list there then they actually expect to hear about similar things to interest them. This will make all such actions solicited, and so not spam.
But it’s not there yet. So it’s still spamming.

I created a myspace page to help promote my (humor) book “Pornification” (http://www.pornifythis.com).

After creating the page (http://www.myspace.com/pornification) I started systematically Adding Howard Stern’s friends. I’ve been a fan of the show for years and the humor in Pornification is just about a perfect fit for Howard Stern fans.

But Adding people one-by-one is a pretty tedious process so I’ve been trying to decide if an auto-adder is ethical.

On the PRO side - I would be using it for the exact same thing I’m currently doing manually.

On the CON side - It feels like spam.

(Also, MySpace admin may view using a ‘bot as spam and take action. Anyone know if/what/how MySpace polices spam?)

But is there really a difference between Adding Howard Stern’s friends manually and using a ‘bot? Or looking at it another way, does the fact that doing a thing one way is harder than the other way suddenly make it more ethical?

I don’t think so. So then the question becomes not whether to use a ‘bot or not but whether Adding someone you don’t know with the open intention to promote a product is by its very nature spam.

I think not. I think the critical difference between spam and plain old unwanted email is the intent to deceive.

I strongly object to emails with subject lines that have nothing to do with the content of the email and exist only to trick me into opening the email. I strongly object to links that don’t go where they say they are going.

BUT I am only annoyed by email that is just plain unwanted. If I were currently refinancing my apartment, maybe that “Refinance now” email would actually be interesting to me but at least it’s completely open about what it is.

AND I am less annoyed by email that at least shows that it is more than just a shot in the dark. I may not be interested in that email about the latest play to hit Broadway but at least someone out there figured out that I do go to Broadway shows and is offering me something that I have a fighting chance of wanting to read. Even if they are wrong, I give them some credit for trying.

(For what it’s worth, the government seems to be with me on the deception issue. The CAN-SPAM act allows unsolicited email as long as certain conditions are met, one of which is adding “ADV” to the subject line. As far as I can tell, it’s a little more complicated than that, but this seems to be the gist of it.)

What do you think?

Andrew Benjamin
ab@pornifythis.com

“Pornification” is now on sale at stores like Urban Outfitters and Barnes & Noble and is available online at http://www.pornifythis.com

PS Tell Howard Stern about Pornification!