To spam or not to spam

[Kama]

I lurk on this Polish fantasy forum, and its members have found themselves a pretty unusual entertaiment last night. They (at least 10, maybe more people) went and totally spammed another board. They made lots and lots of new topics, totally unrelated to the subject of the forums, making fun of the admin and the users. So far, the judgment is pretty obvious.

However, you need to ask yourselves, why would well-read, educated people (most of them have, or are striving to get, university degrees) do such a thing.

The answer lies in the nature of the forum they spammed. It's a totally radical, ultra-catholic (though any catholic would cringe that they dare describe themselves as such), nationalistic, anti-semitic board. The topics deal with the issues such as: "is the catholic church really catholic" (no, it's not, according to the members. it's... Jewish. Apparently, half of our clergy are Jewish. :huh: ); "who really rules Poland" (communists.... and Jews). Oh, the admin actually claims they are not anti-semitic, because there have been righteous Jews who had the courage to speak against their kin.

So this is the board they spammed, in an effort to make the admin's life a bit more irritating. It was a childish act, they should have maybe chosen a more mature way (that's another question, btw. Is there anyone to be notified about this site to take it down? Or is it legal to claim what they claim? It's either on an American or Canadian server). But I can't really blame them. Yes, this is spam, but is spam wrong under all circumstances? They were consciously malicious, and the satisfaction they got was a satisfaction of a kid breaking another kid's toy. But was it really something they should be ashamed of, given the nature of the board?


Hmmm?

[m. bowles]

Sounds like something I'd do....... well I guess that pretty much sums up the fun! Childish and moronic humor, what could be better! I'm off to spam another board! :P :D :lol:

[Kama]

Why don't you spam this one? :ph34r:

[m. bowles]

I've always thought of my cheesy replies as spam! :D

[Kama]

In which case, you still have a lot to learn... from you niece, for example :P

[Hobbes]

My opinion is that it was childish and a silly thing to do. Spaming will only make them angry, or have no effect at best. It seems to me the best way to deal with it is explain why their wrong, and then leave. Most likely they'll ignore your explenation but then you've given them the facts and they have to make a choice. After that you've done what you could to educate them and it's up to them to change. Making them mad will just make them more sure that they're right.

As for reporting them, I seriously doubt it. There are lots of hate websites around that sound even worse than this one and they have the right to say whatever mornoic thing they want to, at least if the server's in America.

Hobbes :)

[Kama]

Yeah, but see, they had fun spamming. They would have no fun in simply explaining why the forum members are wrong. They had no intent to educate the "wrongdoers", they wanted to simply make them angry.

I agree, it was silly and childish, and had no positive effects whatsoever (except for the spammers' satisfaction). But what I'm wondering is: are they any different from the "regular" spammers who haunt the more decent forums? Or is spam always spam, no matter where?

[m. bowles]

No, No, see there is spam and then there is treat....... :P

[Hobbes]

In my opinion doing something wrong is doing something wrong. However, if doing this wrong thing some how improves something else, then the person who did it is less harshley judged, or even revered for it (killing one person to save 20 say). But in this case it doesn't seem to me that they solved anything and they're just using someone else's faliure's to make up for their own bad behavoir.

But that's just my (late night) opinion.

Hobbes :)

[PatrickDarwinPoyfair]

I say we spam the Josh Groban message board.

Oh wait... Jon Boy already did that.
:)

[Bok]

It's okay to have fun. However, it's better to choose constructive fun than destructive (anyone else have a better word than this) fun.

If the people from the board can't have fun maturely stating their case, and responding to criticisms, then that is a shortcoming of the fantasy board's members.

Spam is spam. Either way it is a purposeful action to disrupt communication via large amounts of unsolicited text. If anything th fantasy board folks are worse than "commercial" spammers, since the commercial spammers at least want a response.

No one can be mature all the time, but in the cases of being immature, I can think of lots of healthier ways to have fun immaturely, than what those folks did.

-Bok

[celia60]

i know some people on some boards consider it a public service to spam other boards they don't agree with.

of couse some boards might be viewed as full of immature losers.

and other boards might be promoting pedophilia.

but, hey, maybe i'll hang out here where i don't have to deal with either.

[Kama]

Well, you don't have to deal with promoting pedophilia...

[Kama]

Stage 2

They are now creating "believable" screen names, writing appriopriate posts, registering in small groups, and are planning a D-day some time in the future.

I do have mixed feelings about this, and I agree this is not constructive at all, but boy it's fun to watch. (with clear conscience, since I'm not - and would not - take part in it).

[Bok]

Ummm, standing by with full knowledge of what is going on isn't exactly a case of clean ethics.

Of course, it isn't as bad as doing what the others is, but is that something to be proud of?

-Bok

[Kamila]

Who says I'm proud?

But don't think I'm going to stop them from making a bigot's life more irritating.

[Bok]

Or, in a way your cohorts don't realize, you justify and support those bigot's twisted ideologies? Doing some spam (or spam-esque) campaign will trigger fight-or-flight responses, and essentially reinforce their current beliefs, and likely make them more militant about it.

That's all I'm saying.

-Bok