# UncleBeer doesn't know what 'spam' is! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 20, 2004, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383 "2004-03-20T13:30:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/1 "2004-03-20T13:30:51Z")
[And deserves the appropriate ridicule.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=246056) If Unc was born yesterday, I’d assumed it was at least early in the day. > [@UncleBeer](#): > > Lemme get this straight. Out of feelings of pathos, or empathy, or charity, or whatever, you’re actually Spamming the SDMB? Doesn’t matter the tiniest bit whether or not Opal knows about what you’re doing. This is Spam. Only it’s not. It’s a single post recommending Fathom as an alternative venue for those who don’t like having to pay to post. I quote [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com): > [@](#): > > **spam** _n._ Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail. And [m-w.com](http://m-w.com): > [@](#): > > unsolicited usually commercial e-mail sent to a large number of addresses IOW, if it didn’t get posted/sent to a bunch of different places, it’s not spam. Fercryinoutloud, Unc, as a longtime moderator on an Internet message board, you at least ought to have the basic vocabulary down, after all these years. And especially if you **rebuke** someone, in your official capacity, for having done X, you ought to know what X _means_ before doing so. Geez. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/2 "2004-03-20T13:35:23Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > And especially if you **rebuke** someone, in your **official capacity** , for having done X, you ought to know what X _means_ before doing so. Geez. What official capacity? Look again. **Beer** isn’t a moderator, and hasn’t been for some time now. Best rethink this. ---
**Author:** ![Never\_Have\_I\_Because\_I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Never\_Have\_I\_Because\_I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_Have_I_Because_I)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/3 "2004-03-20T13:37:04Z")
> [@Desmostylus](#): > > What official capacity? Look again. **Beer** isn’t a moderator, and hasn’t been for some time now. > > Best rethink this. He may not be a moderator, but he still thinks he has enough former-mod clout to strong-arm RTFirefly into pitting him! ---
**Author:** ![imthjckaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/imthjckaz/32/3223_2.png) [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/4 "2004-03-20T16:18:55Z")
Former-mod clout? Strong arm tactics? HAHAHAHA!! That is laughable. I don’t think UncleBeer was twisting RT’s arm to force him to do this Pitting. RT did it to attempt to ridicule the former mod. Whether or not he succeeded is a matter of opinion. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/5 "2004-03-20T16:29:03Z")
I think the problem here is that **RTF** is confusing connotation and denotation. Publishing companies are unfortunately unable to walk around forcing people to stick strictly to the literal meanings of every word as listed in their dictionaries, so every once in a great while (like, daily) the common usage of a word or two (like, hundreds) may change, and oftentimes, the dictionaries take quite some time to reflect the change. Most people that I know do not restrict the term “spam” to only mass email any longer. It’s used to refer to any unsolicited electronic commercial message: emails, message board posts, journal comments, etc., posted many times or only once. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/6 "2004-03-20T17:47:17Z")
Sorry, I’d forgotten **Unc** was no longer a mod. Maybe it was just that his post sounded so much like modding, it pulled me into a time-warp. (It’s just a jump to the left…) Anyway, it doesn’t change anything: Unc’s been around long enough to know a single post isn’t spam. And if you’re gonna dump on somebody for doing X, you still should know what X is, so you can tell if they’re doing it or not. And **Kat** , that’s just absurd. Lots of people here recommend other sites for one reason or another, some commercial, some not. If every such post is now defined as spam, the board is full of it (spam, that is, not the generic ‘it’), and a great many threads should be shut down as a result. If you want to be that liberal about the definition, every link to a for-profit news site to support a point in GD could be considered spam. We’d have to shut down the forum. And it’s not like Opal’s board is a commercial site in more than a trivial sense; she’s not trying to make a profit off of it, although she runs ads that apparently more or less pay for the bandwidth the board uses. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/7 "2004-03-20T17:49:12Z")
And, of course, “spam” didn’t originally mean mass e-mail anyway, even if we only consider Internet related meanings. It started out meaning messages that made sensible communication on a mailing list or Usenet newsgroup impossible. It comes from a Monty Python sketch in which a bunch of Vikings at a restaurant repeatedly chant “Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam” so loudly the waitress and the other customers can’t hear one another talk. These messages weren’t necessarily ads, just unwanted and disruptive. It came to mean mass e-mail because all the stoopid ads piling up in your inbox make it hard to read the e-mail you actually want. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/8 "2004-03-20T17:56:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Unc’s been around long enough to know a single post isn’t spam. Actually, we’ve often called single posts spam. What else would we call a “live forever with Alex Chui” post, even if it is just one post? We remove the spam (as we call it), even if there’s just one. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/9 "2004-03-20T19:20:02Z")
We call it the same thing over at PF. We just banned a guy whose first OP was basically an ad for his own site. The note in the Mod forum said, “Spam”. ---
**Author:** ![trudi\_fermelli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@trudi\_fermelli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trudi_fermelli)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/10 "2004-03-20T19:49:03Z")
Ever had a spam sammich? Mom used to make those back in the 70’s…ewwwww. Perhaps we can all understand that definition of spam anyhow 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/11 "2004-03-20T19:51:03Z")
But you have to fry that stuff until it’s burnt, and then bury it in mustard on very thick bread. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/12 "2004-03-20T20:02:35Z")
So at that point you basically can’t taste the spam?😃 Mind, that’s a good recipe for, among other things, liver and grits- (preferably not at the same time. One evil per, please. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/13 "2004-03-21T06:30:27Z")
No, day-old grits, chilled until they congeal and then sliced and fried, served with fried Spam, and maple syrup over the lot. And this question will betray that I know as little about what goes on in MPSIMS as I do about what constitutes good eating: UncleBeer isn’t a mod anymore? Snce when? I thought I was being rebuked by a mod. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unclebeer-doesnt-know-what-spam-is/235383/14 "2004-03-21T06:32:46Z")
MAN, I’m hungry!