At 22:53 24-11-99 , John Le / Caitlin James wrote:
>Could you please tell me the origin of the term "spam"?
>Is it related to the canned ham product?
>It would be helpful for a paper I'm writing.
The origin of the term "SPAM" dates back to newsgroups, and refers to the
objectionable practice of posting the same message to an excessive number
of newsroups at about the same time... since newsgroups are a hierarchical
structure, one is expected to post to the most appropriate group.
Something is considered SPAM on newsgroups if posted to more than a few
groups, with 20 or 10 newsgroups being typical thresholds. Content does not
matter, it is the duplication that is considered objectionable.
The origin of term is usually credited as coming from a Monty Python skit
in which they repeatedly chant "spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, ..."
A list of resources on the topic is at:
http://www.blighty.com/spam/docs.html
where at least one annotation suggests information about history. I
stumbled on this list yesterday while looking for something else... while
I've hardly perused it, a quick skim suggests it should get you off to a
good start.... and have or perhaps link to resources to meet your needs.
As an aside, the role (and non-role) of the maker of the allegedly food
product in the issue might well merit a paper in its own right. <g>
Safe computing, /Harold
ps. Since this is an HTML list, might I suggest that any "my SPAM site is
better than their SPAM site" postings be sent to the requester via private
email. <g>
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Harold A. Driscoll mailto:Harold(at)Driscoll.Chi.IL.US
#include <std/disclaimer> http://Driscoll.Chi.IL.US
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