Don't pull the usual "oh, gosh, I had no idea, we were just trying to
spread the word". It's tiring, and EVERYONE who resorts to plowing
into some place they don't actually PARTICIPATE in to they can bomb it
with advertising always tosses that up as their defence.

Oh dear my! I didn't think this was the atmosphere on this website... I
was here for advice and all that feeling of belonging to a community and
I see this! I don't know what to think now... Maybe I am just too old
for this hate...

SPAM is SPAM. Telling someone off for abusing a resource isn't
"hate". You may not care for my tone, but then, I don't care for
spam.

Further, "this website" you're referring to - gardenbanter.co.uk - is
a site that provides a web interface to the worldwide usenet - which
is where all the postings are sent, and many of the replies come from.
The spammer posted their promo to the world, not just their little
corner of it.

Simon sez:

Well thank-you very much Sean for that warm reply! I trust you have no
idea about running a small family nursery with an ethos on plants and
not just money?

If that were truely the case, why resort to spam? Perhaps I misread,
but it sure seemed like you were soliciting people to come to your
business to purchase things, a process which generally involves
exchanging money for goods.

There's also no evidence of prior participation here on your part -
you found somewhere to post your advertisement, and boom, off it went.

Margins are very little in this industry, so if it were for the money
I'd go and work in the city!

Well, if it weren't for the money, people wouldn't resort to spam.
They might use word of mouth, which is usually local and based on
quality of product and service actually experienced by customers.

have a passion for plants and am very proud of my business. To call me a
spammer I find very offensive!

The act of spamming is offensive. Everybody who does it thinks the
rules somehow don't apply to them, and that THEIR advertisement isn't
spam, because they're not a spammer. Spammers are filthy people in
some dark room sending advertisements for sex sites, pirated software,
and bogus prescription drugs, not someone with a real brick-and-mortar
establishment, right? The fact that a small business can blast their
notice out in front of thousands to millions of people (nevermind that
most of them are not in your region) for zero cost (to them at least)
makes it really appealing, but it still doesn't make it right.

If you want to make capatalist rants, I suggest you take them to another
site!

Capitalist rant? If anything it's an anti-capitalist rant, but it
isn't - it's about the abuse of communication resources for the
purpose of advertising.

We make charitable donations every year,

I'm quite sure you do. What bearing does that have on whether spam is
an appropriate advertising mechanism?

so don't lump me in with MacDonalds, Facebook etc!

Checking... nope, McDonalds hasn't spammed me, and the only spam I get
from facebook is by proxy - people I don't personally know uploading
their addressbooks and using their service trying to get me to visit
their page.

I still don't see the bearing that has on you posting spam to usenet
though.

Having said all this, you are very welcome to visit us for our open days, where
you'll be welcomed with open arms!

Not worth the airfare (about US$14K for upper class, and over $1400
for economy), and the plants would all assuredly be quarantined by the
agricultural department on my return.

It sure would be spiffy if gardenbanter made more of an effort to
educate its users of the fact that they're NOT posting to some local
garden forum, but are instead posting to the worldwide usenet - it's
referred to in their FAQ, but who reads those? Sadly, gardenbanter's
user agreement makes absolutely NO mention of not using the service to
send spam (really!). The core of their user agreement (outside of
'don't hold us responsible') seems to be this one passage:

"By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any
messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful,
threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws."

They totally dropped the ball on that one - they don't even specify
what country those laws are to be interpreted within. Agreements and
contracts should not be based upon assumptions.


Spam is bad. People who post it are "spammers". Don't want to be
called a spammer? Easy. Don't post spam.