No more "friendly" spam!

Anyone else having this problem? Anyone else really like it to stop?

Over the past few days I have received a barrage of email messages that have been bouncing around among a large group of people with whom I have only an interest in racing in common - which is why I'm posting this plea here; I know this campaign originated within the racing community.

Regardless of the content, that sort of mass circulation of anything unasked for amounts to spam. I don't care who's sending it - even if I know you, and I'm in your address book for a legitimate reason, mass emails I didn't ask for are spam.

(And the assumption that everyone you're sending it to shares your views and values about whatever it is - from humour to politics - may be quite mistaken.)

So please - don't abuse the camaraderie of the racing community by starting or perpetuating these things. There are a million venues on the web for discussion of just about anything, or if you really think you have something unique to share, start a blog... but stop with the spam already.

I haven't been receiving anything, but then maybe the gmail filiter is capturing it all.

Nothing unusual in my E-mail box.

I'm on the SCCA, SOVREN and Apexspeed mail list but don't get anything in E-mail from ICSCC unless it's a direct one-on-one communication with somebody.

I know what you mean about getting on a friend's (or family member's) joke list, but also keep in mind that sometimes computers get infected by viruses resulting in spam getting sent to everyone on that computer's address book.

Nope, this is just a case of sending a message on a pet subject (totally unrelated to racing) to an extensive list of racing people. So we all get the original message, and then we all get every reply that's sent by anyone on the list... I know I'm not the only person who's unhappy about it, because others have also written back requesting to be spared such mailings.

I posted here about it because a) my request fell on deaf ears, and b) it's hard enough for those of us working in administrative capacities to get our jobs done, without discovering that the people we need to communicate with for legitimate racing-related business have set up high-powered spam filters in response to this sort of stuff, so that they also don't get requests for info or reminders of meetings and deadlines, etc.

It's about basic netiquette, and also the importance of not abusing your volunteers - unless you have so many you don't mind alienating a few, and last time I checked we didn't have this luxury.