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the archaeology of spam
``` [For what it's worth I'm pretty sure I got my etymology of "spam" from the New York Times. Goes to show you shouldn't trust the liberal media.]
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 03:39:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: Stanton McCandlish
Feel free to pass this on.
I have first hand experience of a likely alternate philology for the Internetly use of "spam".
Hearken back to the prime days of Monty Python (if you have good cable stations, you don't even have to hearken much, MP is still being syndicated.) One skit had a horde of vikings invading a local greasy-spoon restaurant, whose menu consisted entirely of spam. The clerk/cook/waitress begins a littany of the available menu items which runs something like (I don't have a transcript so forgive the paraphrase), "We've got spam, spam and eggs, eggs and spam, spam eggs and spam, spam and spam, spam spam and eggs, spam spam eggs and spam, spam spam eggs and spam spam, spam spam spam and spam..." at which point the (thoroughly anachronistic and absurd - but this is Monty Python, so it is to be expected) vikings begin chanting, "SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM, SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM, SPAMMETTY SPAM SPAMDY SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM..." over and over again. The effect of course is a complete drowning out of all dialog (especially that of the hapless and confused client) with "spam".
At least as early as early-to-mid 1993, and probably at least a year earlier, on MOOs, MUDs, MUSHes, MUCKs and other "text-based virtual realities" (collectively, M*s), the term was used to refer to the blather and gibberish that appears on one's screen when one's M* persona is "in" a "room" trying to read something or carry on a textual conversation (M*'s are real-time, like IRC) and another person "in" the "room" begins reiterating the same thing over and over again, in rapid succession (usually just to be obnoxious), so one cannot carry on the conversation except with extreme difficulty.
Without specialized client software (i.e., via plain telnet connection), each character's comments and emotes and actions scroll up the screen one line at a time. If many people are "talking" and doing things at once it is all but impossible to keep track of a thread of conversation, because it is drowned out by others' gibberish. If someone is deliberately abusing this fact of telnet life by throwing up garbage at a fast pace (usually with macro keys), your conversation is completely drowned out by the garbage, much like choruses and littanies of "spam":
You say: So, what's up Bob says: Well, I had a really great day at the virtual beach and then the strangest thing happened... Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH You say: Like what? Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Bob says: Well first I was talking to this guy, and then one of the MOO wizards Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH You say: What? Can you re-type that? This dork is spamming us Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH You say: STRANGER! SHUT UP! That's really annoying! Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH You frown in great displeasure Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Bob says: Nevermind, lets go east... Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Bob exits east. Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH You exit east. You are now in a room with a big table and 4 chairs. You say: As you were saying? Stranger enters from the west. Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH
You get the idea.
Incredibly annoying.
As far as I can tell this is the origin of the term. I tend to suspect it next spread to IRC and only after that to Usenet, but I could be wrong.
I've no idea if the term was first used in Usenet to apply to someone posting obnoxious messages to a single newsgroup, or maybe a few cross-posted groups, but tend to suspect this was the case. In fact I'll posit (but cannot at this point prove) that the Sirdar Argic "bot" was the catalyst. The Argic posts, I believe, appeared at first on only one or a limited number of semi-relevant soc.culture newsgroups, stayed there a while, then rapidly spread to other newsgroups when the perpetrators clued to the fact that as long as his/her identity was shielded, what we now call spamming was feasible. If this is the case, and if the term spam was first applied in Usenet to the early Argic posts, the term would have carried over, probably in follow-up (and crossposted) flames against the Argic posts, which by the time of their heyday appeared to be auto-posted by software (a "bot"). NB: Argic was several month before Canter & Siegel. I'm not sure how it compares, age-wise, to "MAKE MONEY FAST". I'd guess MMF is older, but wasn't called spam until later. This is just a guess though.
That's a lot of ifs, but I think the clear analog of "SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM" and Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH Stranger says: I AM THE GREATEST YEAH YEAH YEAH
is at least fairly strong circusmstantial evidence, even if the "migration point" to Usenet from M*s can't be pinpointed.
I'd be grateful if anyone can shed light on the missing pieces (or correct me if I'm astray here.) I don't say that just for the heck of it; I'm genuinely interested in tracking this bit of lost net.history down, and archiving the results if we can ever put together anything serious on this. Blame the linguist in me, I guess.
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mech@eff.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Online Activist ```
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