What is spam?
Spam is a meat-like product, rumored to contain a mixture of ham and pork (the word is an abbreviation of “SPiced hAM”), made popular when it was distributed to soldiers on the fronts during World War II. It was also the focus of a sketch on Monty Python’s Flying Circus involving a diner which featured meals such as “spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam” and “spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam, and spam”. Also in the diner were several Vikings, who would break into “The Spam Song” whenever someone mentioned “Spam”. Trying to find anything in that diner which was not Spam quickly became quite difficult. This idea has been carried over onto Usenet, so that when someone posts the same thing in thousands of newsgroups, or when one person (or a group of people) fill up a newsgroup with off-topic posts or many copies of the same off-topic post, it is called “spamming the net”; the individual posts are called “spam”.
Spam OTF is anything that increases the post count, but doesn’t add anything to the discussion.Posts that fall under spam are:- Topics that have been addressed recently (still on the first two pages)- Topics mentioned in sticky and any “Official” threads – Replies that only include a quote of someone’s earlier response (boxed quotes) – Replies that excessively quote others’ earlier responses, typically more than 3-4 quote-backs.- Replies with only a smiley face or a single word/character response, or a repetition of same- Replies that only contain an image in them- Replies that consist of an overly large image, or otherwise contain text that disrupts the flow and readability of the page- Replies that violate or perpetuate anything determined as “no-topic” above.Now obviously this happens a lot and we don’t always erase them all. However, if the post disappears and is replaced by a “Deleted by moderator message” and/or you receive a moderation PM, consider this your warning.
Spam is any off-topic post. Off-topic can be off-topic for the board (for example, Shop Ads on the Quests Board) or off-topic for Neopets (for example, personal life questions). Spam is any useless post such as random smilies for no reason or “I’m bored – entertain me!” posts. Spam is also unsoliticed neoMailed ads, such as Shop Ads or Beauty Contest Ads. Chain messages (“copy & paste this on 10 boards and…”) are spam. They also do not work and are against the Rules.
