Spam
1. Alternatively referred to as UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email)
and bulk e-mail, spam, not to be confused with the meat product, is slang commonly used to describe junk e-mail on the Internet. Spam is e-mail sent to thousands and sometimes millions of people without prior approval, promoting a particular product, service or a scam to get other people's money. The first spam e-mail was sent by Gary Thuerk in
May 1, 1978 an employee at Digital who was advertising the new DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, AND 2060T on ARPAnet.
In some cases replying to that e-mail indicates that your e-mail address is valid and your e-mail address may be sent to other spam lists, although this is prohibited in many countries. When receiving any e-mail that is clearly spam it is usually best to delete the e-mail.
Below is an monthly poll we conducted August 1 - 31, 2003 to help see how much spam messages our visitors receive weekly.
None 
6.26%
1 to 50 31.54%
50 to 100 22.74%
Over 100 37.51%
Not sure 1.95%
2. When talking in chat or a newsgroup, spam, also known as flooding, is the process of posting multiple lines of the same text two or more times. In a newsgroup, if a message is posted two or more times, this is also considered spam or a flood of messages.
Also see: Blacklist, Chain mail, Chat definitions, E-mail, E-mail bomb, Flood, Internet definitions, Joe Job, Mail relay, MAPS, Opt, Phishing, RBL, RSS, Scam, Security definitions, Spim, Spit, Splogs