Who made you the Spam Cop?

I don't buy leads or use safelists either, i use targeted lead capture pages to create my own leads.

Been there - Done that - Bought the T Shirt....

I hope you understand my point Eric. Some people do use FFA pages, and when they do, they agreed to receive emails from those members. Same goes for safelists. If you have ever purchased a list of "leads" from a lead broker, you could be guilty of spam.

It is very easy for a newbie, and even a not so newbie to make a mistake. Lots of people buy leads. Often those lead lists are email addresses harvested from FFA pages. So your complaint that FFA page owners "spam" may or may not be ac

Excellent Eric. That's what APsense should be used for, getting the answers and learning from those who know stuff. By the way, Eric has a business to promote too, but you need to find out what it is by clicking on his .jpeg image (Photo)

John in the UK

PS.... Is that advertising a bus/op by default? :-)

FFA pages are Free For All Links pages where you can add a link for free to a web page in return for accepting emails from the FFA page owner.

The links rarely stays on a page for longer than a few minutes as they have a roll on roll off system with only about 50 links on the page at a time.

They were originally created as PR increasing pages. One of the tools google uses to measure Page Rank (PR) is the number of incoming links to your website. Google got suspicious of these pages and beg

To help recent readers and owning up to my limited knowledge. "What is FFA?" Somebody had to ask so it might as well be me.

JB in the UK Suffering Sunstroke from our one day summer. Hooray...

Yep, 1999 was a terrible year for me... I used what was put in front of me to use. FFA pages were the "Big Thing" back then.

It wasn't until i started visiting professional marketing forums and associating with people using other marketing methods that i learned the facts about FFA pages.

Of course if you own an FFA website and don't mind spam complaints etc, they are good for building lists. Newbies Love them.

I've been there, done that, and i now choose not to use them.... i would hav

Eric, you said.... "Most people would know that FFA pages are not the ideal place to promote anyway,"... and reality is that MOST people know no such thing. In fact, many successful internet marketers use them. You are stating your opinions as facts, and that is where the problem lies.

There is no concensus on what constitutes spam. I'd be willing to bet that you have sent unsolicited emails based on your responses here - clearly you have posted on FFA sites or you wouldn't have an opini

Karen,

Most people would know that FFA pages are not the ideal place to promote anyway, however, most FFA pages state you will get a conformation message - they say nothing about multiple emails, promotional emails and the like.

A conformation email is a simple - "Thanks for submitting your Ad"

What they don't say is - "Thanks for submitting your Ad, now that we have your email address we will bombard you with all types of opportunities you will probably never take up and we will not p

Of course ignorance is not going to save you if you are a "spammer". But let me assure of you of something. If you are using safelists, someone will eventually say that you are a spammer. Even though you probably are not. If you have posted an ad on a FFA site - You agreed to receiving email from the owner and possibly other members. You see where I am going with this? You could be accused of spam, and if the accuser is right regardless of whether or not he is wrong... well... you are a sp

I just ignore the stuff and delete it that I don't consider useful with my type of business. I think removing the "Spam" option is a good idea. This is for business, and if you want a personal network community not for business, there are plenty out there...

written several days ago...

I took a few days off to rest my eyes from the strain
of the monitor only to return to be confronted by
many changes.

It seems it isn't enough to delete spammers' posts
from your group. Now, if you have enough honor points,
(10 honor poins is the magic number!)
you can report spammers.

What if you have [b]ZERO[/b] honor points and have a
spammer sending you messages and posting to your group
and being a total annoyance...how do you report this?

OK a slight change of direction for this one. Spam can also be constituted as an act of ignorance. Try that one for size the see how far you get before somebody chews you up and spits you out...

As an aside, people also hate getting emails that contain multiple addresses in them as they believe that their email address will end up where it doesn't belong. Let's suppose you want 10,000 people to read your email advert. (Nobody actually knows that many people but it makes the point) BJ some whi

Thanks Valerie for posting this here...

Now I will go find a version or two of mine and post it here also!

Beth

Rose, it is not about taking advantage of spammers. Not at all. It is about replying to emails you receive - thanks for the email... and a link to a lead capture page. It is about potentially reaching people who don't know what they are doing.

~ Karen ~

Spamming The Spammer:

For those of you who claim you take advantage of the spammers-don't do it. You will find yourself in trouble. The rules of spamming are:
You need permission to send information or an advert to someone. Irregardless of whether the person sent you an advert that you didn't want or ask for or gave permission for, which constitutes spam on his part-your answering him means you accepted his spam, but he did not accept yours. You are a spammer and he could report you as s

Hi Sheri,

There is nothing good about spamming a spammer. it makes you just as bad as they are and you in turn become a spammer.

Also I have known cases where someone has responded to a spammer and the spammer turned round and reported the person for spam. So think twice, brefore you get yourself in trouble.

Bj
Bill Brown aka Bjantiques

Dale, you just made me knock myself in the forehead. I would have never thought to use spam to my advantage, but you know, it's a great idea.

Karen said, and I quote:

"In addition to those who just don't understand and think that by reporting spam they are doing good, I am sure you are aware that there are people who are angry, resentful and vengeful. If you are going to give people the power to damage others reputations, there should be some accountablility on the part of the reporter. "

I could not have said it better myself. As I said in my previous comment, I was irreparably harmed by an accusation of spam, even though I wa

Eric,

I'm not sure where you are getting that anybody likes or wants spam - in email, on search engines or in communities. The discussions are on how best to deal with it. In my opinion, it is clear that there is no concensus on what constitutes spam, and there are many people who don't understand what real spam is, how it is generated, or even if they are doing it. Those lines become even blurrier in a community such as Apsense.

In addition to those who just don't understand and thin

Although this thread is focused on APsense spam issues, one thing that hasn't been mentioned is the viruses and back door programs that are often attached to spam mails and wesites. By accepting and saying that spam is ok and tolerating it, we are also saying the by-products that are often associated with these emails are also acceptable...