Re: Fwd: Re: Digital Island sponsors DoS attempt?

[David Schwartz <davids () webmaster com>]

> > I'm not sure I like the use of the word bulk.  The reason is that  it is
> > not precise.  Is 10 bulk?  50?  Is it only bulk if I use a  "spam tool"?

> Bulk is more than 1 copy.  How do I know if something is bulk?
> A simple test.  Is this something that could have been sent to someone else
> with either no modification, or a trivial "mailmerge" operation.
> It then becomes up to the spammer to prove otherwise to his abuse desk, who
> will probably have received multiple complaints anyway.

        I generally measure bulk in a more subjective but more useful way. If
someone composes ten pages of text and sends it to three people, I don't
consider that bulk. If someone sends one paragraph of text they composed to
fifty people, that's bulk. If someone ads 'look at this' to twenty pages they
stole from someone else and sends it to 10 people, that's bulk.

        The test is, is this person trying to spread a minimum amount of original
content to the maximum number of people? Or is the content specifically
targeted to each person by a human being? In other words, is this a rifle
being aimed or a machine gun being sprayed? Is a person trying to use email
as a publishing means?

        I have no objection if someone who honestly saw a message I wrote and
thought I'd be suitable for a particular job emails me asking if I'm
interested. However, the same email would be bulk if sent to everyone who
posts to NANOG, even if says, "I saw your post about "Re: Fwd: Re: Digital
Island sponsors DoS attempt" and thought you might be interested in buying
our premium fishing worms".

        DS