I'm active on quite a few forums, and I always see spammy threads pop up. What effect does this do to a company's reputation?

Personally, will you ever purchase from a company that you know has spammed forums, via email, etc..?

If spamming (via any medium) is effective in generating leads and sales, is it then ok?

Its always interesting to see the different positions on this topic, which has probably been discussed a million times already.

No, I'm not talking about the Minnesota native Hormel Luncheon Meat.

I hate spammers!

I don't like to see it in forums, and I dislike it even more if I get it in my email.

I will absolutely under no circumstances use a company that has spammed me.

Spamming in forums can make the forum or site owner look unprofessional, spam from companies shows that they have a grasp of one possible marketting strategy, but surely these companies must see very little revenue generated from such tactics.

As a spammer, your only opportunity to benefit from such an action, is when you are lucky enough to spam an un-suspecting new comer to the internet.

Spammers should be lined up and shot!



SE (dave)

Spamming does not have enough of an impact. there should be a national directcory of spammers where people can search for a company's name when considering doing business with them.

Spamming can work wonders for you in the short run, you will get alot of hits, sales, members whatever you like to call it to start of with but it will die down eventually and your reputation will suffer a big blow in the short run specially among your competitors, I have always belived in the fact that you should be respected by your competitors not hated.

Definitely a very negative impact - especially if the spam is to the point of being banned on a forum. There is nothing worse than a username reflective on your company being labeled as "banned" or "spammer" on a forum.

That is part of the reason why the just released Google patent takes into cocnsideration the time a domain name is registered for.
Spammer go thru names and IP addresses like underwear.
Being in it long term is the key.

Yes, I've been hearing that. I just replied to a blog entry on it actually.

I forward all my SPAM emails to the ftc...here's the email address if you don't have it - spam@uce.gov.

I have been getting a lot of emails lately to buy drugs on line....at least 2-3 a day. :evil:

I don’t like receiving Spam to my private email address. But what really gets my feathers ruffled is when I get tons of Spam to my business email address.

At the company I work for, we send out emails of software updates as well as when we are running sales. We get maybe 70 out of like 70,000 that want to be removed from our list and sales skyrocket so I think spamming can be a good thing, moreso when it is used with a customer database and very rarely.