May 02, 2003

Spam, Viagra, and saying Jehovah

[This was for Dave Farber's list, to explain why an editorial on spam ended up regarded as spam. Didn't make the cut - or maybe it got rejected somewhere along the way as spam ...]

[For IP] Ah, another easy one. Just from my experience, the problem is with the sentence:

"One technique is to misspell words, like "Viagra" or "pornography," that set off the filters.

You can't say "Viagra" or "pornography". Because if you say "Viagra" or "pornography", even in the context of discussing why you can't say "Viagra" or "pornography", well, we see what happens :-)

I'm reminded of this scene from the movie Life Of Brian:
http://www.stone-dead.asn.au/movies/life-of-brian/scene-05.html

MATTHIAS:
Look. I don't think it ought to be blasphemy, just saying 'Jehovah'.
CROWD:
Oooh! He said it again! Oooh!...
OFFICIAL:
You're only making it worse for yourself!
MATTHIAS:
Making it worse?! How could it be worse?! Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!
CROWD:
Oooooh!...
OFFICIAL:
I'm warning you. If you say 'Jehovah' once more--
[MRS. A. stones OFFICIAL]
Right. Who threw that?

By Seth Finkelstein | posted in spam | on May 02, 2003 11:58 PM (Infothought permalink) | Followups
Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog (Wikipedia, Google, censorware, and an inside view of net-politics) - Syndicate site (subscribe, RSS)

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