[from "Monty Python's Flying
Circus"] 1. To crash a program by overrunning a fixed-size buffer
with excessively large input data. See also buffer overflow,
overrun screw, smash the stack. 2. To cause
to be flooded with irrelevant or inappropriate messages. You can
spam a newsgroup with as little as one well- (or ill-) planned
message (e.g. asking "What do you think of abortion?" on
soc.women). This is often done with cross-posting
(e.g. any message which is crossposted to alt.rush-limbaugh
and alt.politics.homosexuality will almost inevitably spam
both groups). This overlaps with troll behavior; the latter
more specific term has become more common. 3. To send many
identical or nearly-identical messages separately to a large number
of Usenet newsgroups. This is more specifically called `ECP',
Excessive Cross-Posting. This is one sure way to infuriate nearly
everyone on the Net. See also velveeta and jello. 4. To
bombard a newsgroup with multiple copies of a message. This is
more specifically called `EMP', Excessive Multi-Posting. 5. To
mass-mail unrequested identical or nearly-identical email messages,
particularly those containing advertising. Especially used when
the mail addresses have been culled from network traffic or
databases without the consent of the recipients. Synonyms
include UCE, UBE. 6. Any large, annoying,
quantity of output. For instance, someone on IRC who walks away from
their screen and comes back to find 200 lines of text might say "Oh no,
spam".
The later definitions have become much more prevalent as the
Internet has opened up to non-techies, and to most people senses 3
4 and 5 are now primary. All three behaviors are considered abuse
of the net, and are almost universally grounds for termination of
the originator's email account or network connection. In these
senses the term `spam' has gone mainstream, though without its
original sense or folkloric freight - there is apparently a
widespread myth among lusers that "spamming" is what happens
when you dump cans of Spam into a revolving fan.
