Monday, July 8, 2013

Spam is Spooky

I've just been clearing my comment filter of spam comments, which had built up into the hundreds. I have to admit, I find spam oddly spooky. (I find many things oddly spooky.) What I find spooky about spam is that it seems to occupy a kind of limbo, a netherworld, a basement existence of its own. Within its own crazy world, a comment like this makes perfect sense:

Nixon was not discouraged when the large organizations became bankrupt. Surface out for designs for example leather-primarily based cowboy hats also! There are essentially abounding spots that settle for the two accent Remaining Kings hats for sale. Very first of all make certain the high-quality of wholesale hats

It's the sheer randomness that I find unsettling, like when the person beside you on the bus launches into a senseless and disconnected lecture about nothing in particular. I find spam spooky in the same way I find the idea of empty haunted houses spooky. Seeing a ghost is scary. But a ghost that flits around all by itself is even scarier.

Spam folders are like the sewers of the internet. And sewers are pretty spooky, too. That's why we make urban legends about alligators in them.

3 comments:

  1. I know this is old, but I once saw spam on a programming website that was about a guy escaping the CIA, among other things, and the whole point was that they were trying to sell runners.

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