This crap is still spam. Unwanted advertising.
Ass bite top posting dick head. Tell me which of the following groups
isn't for sale items or printer items:
seattle.forsale.computers
pnw.forsale
pdx.computing
comp.periphs.printers
misc.forsale.computers.printers
Learn to post properly dick head.
Here is the current FAQ for usenet spam:
Subject: FAQ: Current Usenet spam thresholds and guidelines
Summary: This posting contains the current Spam definitions,
thresholds, and guidelines, as used by most major spam cancellers and
news administrators.
Xref: sn-us news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins:18763
news.admin.net-abuse.usenet:359832
news.admin.net-abuse.sightings:2166133
news.admin.net-abuse.misc:192570 news.answers:277138
Archive-name: usenet/spam-faq
Posting-Frequency: weekly
Last-modified: 1998/11/10
URL:
http://www.killfile.org/faqs/spam.html
Maintainer: (e-mail address removed) (Tim Skirvin)
Original-Author: (e-mail address removed) (Chris Lewis)
Current Spam thresholds and guidelines.
This article is intended to describe the current consensus spam
thresholds and ensure that the definitions of these terms are
available and consistent. It is believed that most, if not all, spam
cancellers use these terms and definitions in their work; however,
many other people use the terms inappropriately, which leads to
confusion in discussions. This is an informal FAQ aimed at clarity
and understanding, not anal-retentive correctness.
Excessive Multi-Posting (EMP) has the same meaning as the term "spam"
usually carries, but it is more accurate and self-explanatory. EMP
means, essentially, "too many separate copies of a substantively
identical article."
"Substantively identical" means that the material in each article is
sufficiently similar to construe the same message. The signature is
included in the determination. These are examples of substantively
identical articles:
- byte-for-byte identical messages
- otherwise identical postings minimally customized for
each group it appears in.
- advertising the same service.
- articles that consist solely of the same signature
- articles which consist of inclusions of other user's
postings, but are otherwise identical.
Cross-posting means that a single message appears in more than one
group. Most newsreaders allow you to specify more than one group in a
posting.
Excessive Crossposting (ECP) refers to where a "lot" of postings to
more than one group each have been made.
Some people think cross-posting is "bad". In and of itself, it's good
behaviour - it allows you to reach more groups with less impact on the
net. Especially if you set the Followup-to: header to one group. It
is "bad" when it's done to attack newsgroups or provoke flamewars
(like cross-posting how to cook a cat between alt.tasteless and
rec.pet.cats), but this is beyond the scope of this FAQ.
This author considers the term "spam" to mean excessive postings of
EMP and/or ECP variety. That is, "spam", is a generic term for
several different things. The term was originally supposed to mean
EMPs only, but most people use "spam" to mean "any excessive posting".
A spam, EMP, or ECP therefore refers to a posting that has been posted
to many places. There is a consensus that there is a point at which
it is abuse, and is subject to advisory cancellation.
A formula has been invented by Seth Breidbart which attempts to
quantify the degree of "badness" of a spam (whether EMP or ECP) as a
single number. The Breidbart Index (BI) is defined as the sum of the
square roots of n (n is the number of newsgroups each copy was posted
to).
Example: If two copies of a posting are made, one to 9 groups, and one
to 16, the BI index is sqrt(9)+sqrt(16) = 3+4 = 7.
The BI2 (Breidbart Index, version 2) is an experimental metric, which
may eventually replace the BI. It is calculated by computing the sum
of the square roots of n, plus the sum of n, and dividing by two. Eg:
one posting to 9, and one to 16 is
(sqrt(9) + sqrt(16) + 9 + 16) / 2
( 3 + 4 + 9 + 16 ) / 2 = 32 / 2 = 16
The BI2 is more "aggressive" than the BI, intended to cut off the
"higherend". BI allows about 125 newsgroups maximum. BI2 allows a
maximum of 35.
A slightly less aggressive index is the SBI (Skirvin-Breidbart Index);
it is calculated much the same as the BI2, but sums the number of
groups in the Followup-to: header (if available), rather than the
newsgroups. Eg: one posting to 9 groups, and one to 16 with followups
set to 4 is
(sqrt(9) + sqrt(16) + 9 + 4) / 2
( 3 + 4 + 9 + 4 ) / 2 = 20 / 2 = 10
Except in nl.*, where the SBI is followed, the BI2 and SBI are not
used to determine whether a spam is cancellable.
The thresholds for spam cancels are based _only_ on one or more of the
following measures:
1) The BI is 20 or greater over a 45 day period.
2) is a continuation of a previous EMP/ECP, within a 45 day
sliding window. That is: if the articles posted within the
past 45 days exceeds a BI threshold of 20, it gets removed,
unless the originator has made a clear and obvious effort
to
cease spamming (which includes an undertaking to do so
posted in news.admin.net-abuse.usenet). This includes
"make
money fast" schemes which passed the EMP/ECP thresholds
several years ago. This author recommends one posting
cross-posted to no more than 10 groups, no more often than
once every two weeks (a BI of 3).
A single posting cannot be cancellable - to reach a BI of 20, it would
have to be cross-posted to 400 groups. This isn't possible due to
limitations in Usenet software.
These thresholds nominally apply to all hierarchies - not just the
Big-8 and alt.*. Many hierarchies have more restrictive rules, which
are decided upon and enforced by their users and administrators; they
may also opt out of the cancellations, at the discretion of the same
users and admins.
These cancels have nothing whatsoever to do with the contents of the
message. It doesn't matter if it's an advertisement, it doesn't
matter if it's abusive, it doesn't matter whether it's on-topic in the
groups it was posted in, it doesn't matter whether the posting is for
a "good cause" or not - spam is cancelled regardless, based on _how
many times_ it was said and not _what_ was said.
Administrators wishing to ignore spam cancels can "alias out" the site
"cyberspam", and the cancels will not affect your system. This is
normally done at your feed site, but patches are available for INN to
allow you to reject spam cancels on your own system. Ask in
news.admin.net-abuse.usenet if you need this patch.
Further literature on posting etiquette and related information:
The newsgroup news.announce.newusers
<URL:
"What is Usenet", by Salzenberg, Spafford and Moraes
<URL:ftp://ftp.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/what-is/part1>
"What is Usenet? A second opinion.", by Vielmetti
<URL:ftp://ftp.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/what-is/part2>
"FAQ: Advertising on Usenet: How To Do It, How Not To Do It", by Furr
<URL:ftp://ftp.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/advertising/how-to/part1>
"A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community", by Von Rospach,
et al
<URL:ftp://ftp.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/primer/part1>
"Rules for posting to Usenet", by Horton, Spafford & Moraes.
<URL:ftp://ftp.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/posting-rules/part1>
"Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette", by Templeton et
al
<URL:ftp://ftp.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/emily-postnews/part1>
Numerous books and publications on Usenet, such as O'Reilly's
"Stopping
Spam" (Schwartz and Garfinkel), the "Whole Internet Guide and Catalog"
(Krol), "Usenet Handbook" (Harrison), etc.
"Cancel Messages: Frequently Asked Questions", by Skirvin
<URL:
http://www.killfile.org/faqs/cancel.html>
The above FAQs are also mirrored at various sites, including as
ftp.sunet.se,
mirror.aol.com, ftp.uu.net, ftp.uni-paderborn.de, nctuccca.edu.tw,
hwarang.postech.ac.kr, ftp.hk.super.net etc.
A mailing list has been set up to assist those wishing to post
commercial
advertisements on Usenet in a responsible fashion. Email your
questions to
(e-mail address removed).
