What is SPAM?
Why SpamAnti.net?

SPAM is unsolicited electronic mail

SPAM is describing what others call "junk mail" or unsolicited mail. If you have lived in the Internet for some time now, chances are that you are or have been suffering from this "activity".

How did the term "spam" come to represent this?

Bruce Spielbauer writes:

Nobody can say definitively, although many have tried to take the credit.

The prevailing theory (and it is only theory) is that the term derives from a sketch which used to be performed by the comedy troupe known as Monty Python. In the sketch, people are trying to hold a conversation. In the background is a chant: "Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam!" This background noise gets louder, until it becomes annoying, and it finally becomes so aggravating that no conversation can be held. Thus, "Spam" has taken over. It is everywhere.

As to who first borrowed the term and used it for unsolicited or undesired communication, no one can truly verify. Most believe that it originated on one of the Usenet Newsgroups, referring not to E-Mail, but to off-topic nonsense, commercial and otherwise, which was posted and wasted people's time (and, indirectly, money).

Jim Casey adds:

In the Monthy Python skit you are referring to, the restaurant menu has Spam in each dish: egg and Spam; egg, sausage, and Spam; egg, bacon, and Spam; ... Spam, sausage, Spam, tomato, Spam, and Spam. The idea is that the same (noxious) thing is everywhere. It did indeed originate with Usenet, not e-mail, and is still a big problem there.

I will add that the singers in the background appear to be Vikings. I don't see any reason for it, but the Monthy Python seemed to see one. [grin]

For those who don't live in English culture countries

SPAM is also (and this is the origin of the word) some kind of canned beef ("luncheon meat") as can be found in some countries and in the US. It seems to be considered a rather poor product (to say the least) but I did not have the chance of trying it...

Why SpamAnti.net?

You may ask why I got to this extreme end of publishing this kind of information. You may ask why SPAM can be considered a problem. Then, I answer that most users actually pay for the mail they receive and they do not welcome additional unsolicited mail from diverse sources that will clutter their mailbox. In my case, it's come to a rather high level of about two spams per day on my personal mail account. I guess it may come down slowly in the coming months, but I wanted to help people handle this burden as lightly as possible.

SpamAnti.net is my trial at what could become a rather wide source of information about SPAM and unsolicited e-mail. I intend to develop it along the lines its users (YOU!) will push it, taking into account the actions I will keep on developping while receiving more and more of this.

What insures a rather good result in return to the actions I advise here, is the fact that after months of SPAM, I now start to see this declining (but slowly).

This is happening in a world of electronic mail where SPAM has grown to 80% of all e-mail communication. And I can manage to keep my "very public" e-mail addresses.