Slashdot Mirror
"Spim" is Latest Online Annoyance
Pcol writes "The Washington Post reports that 'Spim,' as people are beginning to call unsolicited instant messages, is the latest sign that online marketers will seek to take advantage of other communication tools, not limiting themselves to spam or pop-up ads. The good news is that it's not easy for spimmers to send unsolicited instant messages. Instant message providers like AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo have a lot of control over their instant message networks, and since they look at their IM offerings as gateway services that help draw customers in to their paid Internet offerings, these firms are already committing resources to making sure the spim problem never reaches the same scale as spam." Even without the providers assistance, many people who use IM systems are smart enough to limit incoming messages to those from their buddy lists. Still, there must be enough of a success rate to move spimmers to continue messaging users.
... it's obviously in someone's best financial interests to make sure it's not a problem, and they have the means to ensure it - if only it were the same with email...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Email spam is getting filtered and blocked more and more by email users and ISP's. Gives a lot of hassle. This makes email more and more a ineffective medium for spammer. The people that don't have their email filtered are switching to IM because the anount of spam they get with email.
It's sad, but just logical that spammers will switch to IM. We should stop trying to stop spammers by technological means, they will find ways around it or we will end op with a hardly usable messaging system. What we should do is find ways of taking the profit away from them. Either by educating people not to by spamvertized products, by sueing their ass off or just 'SlashDot' them in some dark alley. As long as it possible to make profit from spam ther will be spammers...
Even without the providers assistance, many people who use IM systems are smart enough to limit incoming messages to those from their buddy lists.
Yeah, but it's not a matter of smart vs. dumb; it's also concerned about SPIM enough to take that kind of step vs. wanting to be open to chatting to new people. Part of the promise of the Internet is making NEW interpersonal connections, and having to establish contact outside the communication form in question is a huge drag.
I suppose there might be some tag that lets you launch AIM or whatever via a browser, but luckily it's not used as much as mailto: , so it's less trivial to harvest these addresses. Also, since userids are generally small, and don't come bundled in some obviously reg-exable form like URLs and email addresses do, there is less harvesting going on.
I've been using AIM (hi, I'm kirkjerk) since the late 90s, and only every once in a while is there any SPIM. There was a time when I'd get one or two a day (suspiciously, generally right after I came back from idle) but now its one or two a month. When I tried ICQ in the late 90s, it was more of a steady flow.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Could this problem be solved with use of the "Warn" feature? Spimmers could change their screen name and keep spimming, but the warn feature could be changed to warn an IP? If it already does, just warn the spimmers and they won't be able to send out messages nearly as massively as email spammers.
frankly, i never thought that the MIPS Simulator was that much of a headache. I mean, the instruction set was pleasantly simple.. a toy, really.
Disconnect, take a shower, read a book, you don't have to be *connected* round the clock, if some friend needs you that bad, use your phone the way it was designed and have them call you.
"Still, there must be enough of a success rate to move spimmers to continue messaging users." I disagree. There must only be enough perception of a success rate for the spammers to be able to charge advertisers a rate high enough for them to turn a profit. Such throwaway comments only add to what is a growing problem. Darnit! I've gone and done it now!
Yea, that's great until you start getting competitors DoS'ing each other... ie. Microsoft hires a spammer to send out spam advertising Sun's products. All of a sudden you've got innocent companies getting sued and/or shut down for the actions of a third party.
The problem with auto-replies is that someone that's trying to be annoying can make lots of screen names and warn you to 100% when are you at your computer.
Centralization breaks the internet.