What is Spam?

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   Rafiq23posted 10 years ago

   What is Spam?
   
   Please explain the meaning of "Spam."

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   Marie Flintposted 10 years ago

   Spam is unrequested email that has been sent solely for the purpose of product or service promotion. Usually I do not mark something as spam unless I'm certain it has been sent en mass or have received the solicitation repeatedly and have no means of contacting the sender. Of course, if I'm interested in the product or service, I go to the website link (usually provided) to find out more about the offer. ***

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      Rafiq23posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Great explanation.Thanks Marie for your answer.

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   cam8510posted 10 years ago

   Spam is a brand of  uncooked "meat products" made by Hormel Foods Corporation.  It came out in 1937 and grew in popularity after WWII.  We can only hope its popularity is declining now that we have fast food restaurants to cover that food group.

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      cam8510posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      By the way, this was a joke, and I freely admit that I was spamming the question.

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      Rafiq23posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Chris Mills for your humour. I like humour and explained the term well.

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   Marian Designsposted 10 years ago

   Both of the answers you've already gotten are correct. Email spam is named after the meat spam, as made fun of in a Monty Python skit.
   
   As for the email spam, it's a good idea to check your spam folder every day for non-spam that has gotten into that folder in error. When you mark it as not being spam, it goes to your inbox. Then you should delete the rest of the emails in your spam folder.
   
   When you find spam email in your inbox, you should hit the spam button located at the top of your inbox. In gmail, that button is shown as an exclamation mark. Your email eventually recognizes the sender as a spammer and files further emails from that spammer in your spam folder.
   
   Hope this helps.

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      Rafiq23posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Marian Cates for your answer.

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   Baru Nakengeposted 10 years ago

   Muhammad,
   I asked this question some years ago when I was in Graduate school for Cyber-Security. I thought the story behind it was amusing to say the least.The actual origin of the term comes from a 1970 Monty Python Flying Circus skit.  During the skit, a customer witnessed all of  the restaurant’s menu items devolve into SPAM.  When the customer asks questions the waitress repeats the word SPAM, in a corner you can hear a group of Vikings singing “SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, Glorious SPAM!  Beautifully wonderful SPAM!”, drowning out other conversation, until finally they are asked to shut up.
   
   The exact usage first usage of the word as it relates to internet messages of varying type, such as chat messages, newsgroups, etc, isn’t entirely known. It sort of happened all over the place in a very short period of time.  It is, however, well documented that the users in each of these first instances chose the word “spam” referring to the 1970 Monty Python sketch where SPAM singing was drowning out conversation and SPAM itself was unwanted and popping up all over the menu.

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      Rafiq23posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Great explanation, Cyber Guy! Thanks for your answer.

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   The Examiner-1posted 10 years ago

   I thought besides unwanted remarks and sales SPAM had a chance of viruses, etc., with it.

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   peachpurpleposted 10 years ago

   spam means getting junk emails , getting junk comments in your article

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      Rafiq23posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Peachy for your answer.

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   sup3rcanposted 9 years ago

   This is a great resource to answer your question completely https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003

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