Path: ccw.ch!elna.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!news-penn.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!152.163.199.19!portc03.blue.aol.com!audrey02.news.aol.com!not-for-mail From: jkfabian@aol.com (JKFabian) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Spam origins Date: 2 Apr 1998 17:59:55 GMT Lines: 4 Message-ID: <1998040217595501.MAA26075@ladder01.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder01.news.aol.com X-Admin: news@aol.com Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com I'm sure this has been discussed to death, but I missed it when it all started. Trying to find out why junk email is called spam. Thanks! ###### Path: ccw.ch!elna.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!azrael.uoregon.edu!wesman From: Wesley Horner Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Spam origins Date: 2 Apr 1998 20:48:56 GMT Organization: University of Oregon, Eugene Lines: 15 Message-ID: <6g0tjo$ct5$1@pith.uoregon.edu> References: <1998040217595501.MAA26075@ladder01.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: azrael.uoregon.edu X-Trace: pith.uoregon.edu 891550136 13221 (None) 128.223.194.36 X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.uoregon.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 unoff BETA 970424; i386 FreeBSD 2.2.6-RELEASE] JKFabian wrote: > I'm sure this has been discussed to death, but I missed it when it all started. > Trying to find out why junk email is called spam. > Thanks! I believe it's a refrence to a monty python skit. wes -- ~~~~wesman@gladstone.uoregon.edu~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vax a vicious creature known to eat 110AC and quotes through its *DCL*. Vax are usually found in groups of Vaxen called clusters where they lay in wait to ravage thier prey known as users. ###### Path: ccw.ch!elna.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed2.news.erols.com!erols!europa.clark.net!205.197.251.110!dca1-hub1.news.digex.net!digex!lynx.unm.edu!fugu!feeder.swcp.com!sloth.swcp.com!llama.swcp.com!not-for-mail From: quirk@swcp.com (Taki Kogoma) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Spam origins Date: 2 Apr 1998 14:37:27 -0700 Organization: Nit-Pickers for a Better Tomorrow Afternoon Lines: 28 Message-ID: <6g10en$40@llama.swcp.com> References: <1998040217595501.MAA26075@ladder01.news.aol.com> <6g0tjo$ct5$1@pith.uoregon.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: llama.swcp.com Wesley Horner is alleged to have submitted message <6g0tjo$ct5$1@pith.uoregon.edu> to alt.folklore.computers: >JKFabian wrote: >> I'm sure this has been discussed to death, but I missed it when it all >> started. Trying to find out why junk email is called spam. > >I believe it's a refrence to a monty python skit. Yes, but the path to junk email is a tad convoluted. AFAIK, the term first popped up in the MUD community c. 1990 when annoying people started typing the same thing over and over to disrupt the activities taking place. (Just like those bloody vikings in the aforementioned MP skit.) It them migrated over to usenet to describe the Clarance Thomas IV and Canter & Seigel mass newsgroup bombings of '94. When the same people dealing with usenet spam started to get junk email they noted the similarity (lots of copies of the same message being sent to thousands of people), and started applying the term there. -- "Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive, difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind- boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." -- Gene "spaf" Spafford (1992) ###### Path: ccw.ch!elna.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-peer.gip.net!news-lond.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!baron.netcom.net.uk!netcom.net.uk!server3.netnews.ja.net!news.ox.ac.uk!not-for-mail From: Ben Hutchings Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Spam origins Date: 2 Apr 1998 22:59:10 +0100 Organization: Not organised Lines: 20 Sender: womble@eldritch.dyn.ml.org Message-ID: <6g11ne$4mh$1@eldritch.dyn.ml.org> References: <1998040217595501.MAA26075@ladder01.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: max91.public.ox.ac.uk In article <1998040217595501.MAA26075@ladder01.news.aol.com>, JKFabian wrote: >I'm sure this has been discussed to death, but I missed it when it all started. >Trying to find out why junk email is called spam. There's a Monty Python sketch set in a British "caff" where every meal on the menu includes spam - and whenever the word "spam" is mentioned, a group of Vikings in the corner starta to chant "spam, spam, spam, spam", drowning out what other people are saying. Messages cross-posted or multi-posted to inappropriate newsgroups were likened to this as they grew in number and threatened to swamp on- topic articles. Unsolicited bulk e-mail is also sometimes called spam because it is a similar form of net-abuse, although I don't think the analogy still holds. -- Ben Hutchings | ICOA User Rep election 1998: http://www.jms.org/election/ email/finger: m95bwh@ecs.ox.ac.uk | web: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~worc0223/ Logic doesn't apply to the real world. - Marvin Minsky