First let me say that I do acknowledge, that Spam, like Beauty – is in the eye of the beholder.

I am “linked” to many self-proclaimed “Open Networkers” with hundreds and thousands of contacts – from whom I receive emails frequently – advertising their areas of expertise, their classes, their events.  I view these as celebratory announcements, because I view receiving these as part of opting in to an Open Network.

I do not report them as spam if they are from someone I am connected to  – if it is something I don’t want to read I simply delete it.  I receive upwards to 500 emails daily in my various accounts, and while I would love to have less, I have found some gems hidden among the unsolicited emails that I would not have had exposure to otherwise.

An Open Networker that  I am connected to recently reported my email to them announcing the launch of the application I have been working on, as spam.   Again, I understand that it is in the eye of the beholder, I would have liked the benefit of the doubt, though.

Many other folks who were not sure if the email was really from me, emailed me and asked – which is probably because I used an html template for my email – and I was happy to hear from them, and know they were being cautious.

But this does illustrate one of the challenges with “Open Networking” – there is an implied consent when you join an open networking tool or community, that you can contact each other.  If this is not the case, why be open?  The answer is that the Open Networker wants a wide reach… but then, if you don’t want a zillion emails you have another challenge – which is how to deal with them all.

Which brings us back to spam.   If you think you have been spammed, and it is someone who tells you that you are connected in some group or another – check first, and if you are connected – grant them the benefit of the doubt, or remove them from your connections and ask them to do so as well.

Spam is serious business, none of us want to do it – and none of us want to be financially dinged by being blacklisted at the ISPs either, especially when we are reaching out to people we thought we could reach out to ….

I doubt if the gentleman who decided my email was spam will read this, although I have read all the emails he has sent to me… and I have now removed him from my connections on Linkedin, and asked him to remove me.   Hopefully now that it is formal, I will not receive any more from him either… but if I do, I will simply delete them.