Would Spam Work Better If It Were Funny?

from the well,-people-might-pay-more-attention dept

Wed, May 3rd 2006 10:31pm — Mike Masnick

Jeremy Wagstaff has been collecting amusing names that spammers use in their messages. He's far from the only one to do so. There are various collections of the more amusing spammer names out there. However, Wagstaff suggests in putting out this latest list that spam might be a lot more effective if the spammers actually figured out a way to be amusing in their spam messages. While most people probably have an emotional belief that spam is bad... perhaps more people would read it if the spam was amusing. Of course, given the typical content of spam messages these days, it seems hard to believe that most spammers have much in the way of a sense of humor. And, given the intensely negative reaction that so many people (including us) get to any spam message -- it seems like the comedic bar would have to be pretty high to get most recipients past the feeling of being pissed off at the spam.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

15 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Logan, 4 May 2006 @ 12:12am

Hi, Nice to acquaintance meet!
I am man of business from Nigreia. Mind not my pour spealing. Instead be funnied by my pour use of inglish to con yuu from your monies.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Louis, 4 May 2006 @ 6:42am
  
  Re: Hi, Nice to acquaintance meet!
  ROFL!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
throbi, 4 May 2006 @ 12:20am

Gimmi ur jockes!
I live in China and I do spam. I generate sender names out of a dictionary. I randomly pick 2 words.

Thank you for the ideea. I`ll go out and buy some dvds with jokes in english and I will randomly attach one to each spam.

Or maybe I'll do some content matching: viagra-jokes for viagra spam :-)

Just wait for the fun!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
?, 4 May 2006 @ 1:58am

All Your Base Are Belong To Us!
Viagra for only $10!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
spam happens, 4 May 2006 @ 3:47am

Of course...
This is a no-brainer In the same fashion that many of you will forward jokes and chain emails to your entire address book, you would be delegated spammers. Even in "white-list" email environments, spam would find it's way to you. Of course, if it actually gave something (entertainment, in this case) back to you other than increased network traffic, decreased hard disk space, and a complete waste of time, would it still be considered spam?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dale Albiston, 4 May 2006 @ 6:14am

Spam funny?
to me a definition of spam that works is as follows:
"Email i didn't want"
Make it funny, as in actually worth while reading and its closer to one of the better TV ads. I.e. a sometimes funny distraction, yes its selling but so what?

it would make a nice change anyway. and if well done would be one way round some of the better spam filters out there, since in way it wouldn't be spam...

light at the end of the tunnel?

probably not, but who knows?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Aaron, 4 May 2006 @ 7:23am

Maybe, but....
I think when there are millions of spam messages sent every hour, the 'evolution' rate would be pretty high. You'd think spammers should be able to learn very quickly what works and what doesn't, and with a cost near zero, there's no disincentive to trying new things to see what works.

IOW, if spammers had half a brain, they would have figured out the most effective ways to get responses a decade ago.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2006 @ 8:13am

Spamusing
Spammers' names aren't the only things amusing, as evidenced by Spamusement, an occasional webcomic based on subject lines. you were wrong cabinet sanchez!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Myself, 4 May 2006 @ 8:21am

Cabinet Sanchez!
Ahhh, you beat me to it, Anonymous Coward!

I personally wish "Live without fear in America" was available on a t-shirt, I'd wear that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Ben McNelly, 4 May 2006 @ 11:27am
  
  Re: Cabinet Sanchez!
  lol, here you go...
  
  http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product.aspx?clear=true&number=56679504
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Topher3105, 4 May 2006 @ 8:23am

What, it ISN'T funny?
Sorry, when I get spam from Georgeta Demertitis about CtAl1ds and V1aGta or from Nilofer Blakeslee asking me if I want to be an FBI or CIA agent, I find that pretty humerous.

The way to make SPAM work, is not to make it spam, period. If spam was legitimate advertising for legitimate products by legitimate companies, then I would consider looking at spam. The problem is, they tend to be from phishing websites or scam artists trying to rip me off or finding ways of corrupting my computer.

The best way to make spam work is to get rid of the scam!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
MobileConcierge, 4 May 2006 @ 12:12pm

How about just get rid of Spam at the Source!
We just got a DS200 Anti-Spam device which is based on Connection Scoring. Kills spam from the source.
Read Brian Livingston's article at WindowsSecrets.com -
http://www.windowssecrets.com/comp/060126/?PHPSESSID=f25cd2ca4a031a87629d4b30bce2276a#story1
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward #7, 4 May 2006 @ 12:22pm

Filter
I don't really care about spam (I agree it should go), because none of it actually gets to me. =) Gmail has blocked every spam message I have received and not blocked any of my personal messages as spam.

Just a recommendation.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
michael, 22 Aug 2006 @ 7:55am

Does spam work? Do the senders of it actually get anything sold? I suspect not. If I am right, it might be wortwhile to popularize this fact. Then spammers would stop. What do you think?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
michael, 22 Aug 2006 @ 7:57am

Does spam work? Do the senders of it actually get anything sold? I suspect not. If I am right, it might be wortwhile to popularize this fact. Then spammers would stop. What do you think?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]