"Spim" is Latest Online Annoyance 292
Pcol writes "The Washington Post reports that 'Spim,' as people are beginning to call unsolicited instant messages, is the latest sign that online marketers will seek to take advantage of other communication tools, not limiting themselves to spam or pop-up ads. The good news is that it's not easy for spimmers to send unsolicited instant messages. Instant message providers like AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo have a lot of control over their instant message networks, and since they look at their IM offerings as gateway services that help draw customers in to their paid Internet offerings, these firms are already committing resources to making sure the spim problem never reaches the same scale as spam." Even without the providers assistance, many people who use IM systems are smart enough to limit incoming messages to those from their buddy lists. Still, there must be enough of a success rate to move spimmers to continue messaging users.
It'll never be a real problem because... (Score:5, Insightful)
Simon
Stopping sp(a || i)mmers... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's sad, but just logical that spammers will switch to IM. We should stop trying to stop spammers by technological means, they will find ways around it or we will end op with a hardly usable messaging system. What we should do is find ways of taking the profit away from them. Either by educating people not to by spamvertized products, by sueing their ass off or just 'SlashDot' them in some dark alley. As long as it possible to make profit from spam ther will be spammers...
not smart vs dumb (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, but it's not a matter of smart vs. dumb; it's also concerned about SPIM enough to take that kind of step vs. wanting to be open to chatting to new people. Part of the promise of the Internet is making NEW interpersonal connections, and having to establish contact outside the communication form in question is a huge drag.
I suppose there might be some tag that lets you launch AIM or whatever via a browser, but luckily it's not used as much as mailto: , so it's less trivial to harvest these addresses. Also, since userids are generally small, and don't come bundled in some obviously reg-exable form like URLs and email addresses do, there is less harvesting going on.
I've been using AIM (hi, I'm kirkjerk) since the late 90s, and only every once in a while is there any SPIM. There was a time when I'd get one or two a day (suspiciously, generally right after I came back from idle) but now its one or two a month. When I tried ICQ in the late 90s, it was more of a steady flow.
AIM has "Warn" (Score:5, Insightful)
Good old CompSci days ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Easy to block spim when I'm on the computer but (Score:2, Insightful)
Disconnect, take a shower, read a book, you don't have to be *connected* round the clock, if some friend needs you that bad, use your phone the way it was designed and have them call you.
Perpetuating the myth - creating the market (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:SPAM by any other name (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Stopping sp(a || i)mmers... (Score:2, Insightful)
This is what I've been preaching for a while to anyone that will listen. Spamming is around for one reason, and one reason only. "It works" How do we stop it, simple... We break it.
Re:It'll never be a real problem because... (Score:2, Insightful)
In actuality, the big three IM companies have the luxury of developing their own protocols and applications, and to have the opportunity to make changes to their own code and specs to stop SPIM.
Nothing short of a massive rewrite of the RFCs *and* mass migration to new MTAs compliant with the new RFCs will accomplish the same for SMTP.
Re:Meh, relatively easy to get around. (Score:2, Insightful)