Is sending one tract notecard unsolicited to all people near me in a place considered spam?

[GedaliahTobiah]

I would like to pass out notecards with philosophical/religious information written in them. I intend to send one tract per person that I come near, although I expect that over time some people may receive it again if I come across them again without realizing it. The notecards will not contain any anything profane, sexual, abusive, or related to business, such as advertisements. The notecards will contain information relating to religion or philosophy and often goes by the term 'tract'. I see this as similar to standing on a public sidewalk and handing out such tracts, one at a time, as people are welcome to take them or reject them and those that receive them can simply throw them away or otherwise ignore them. The information would otherwise be copied into local chat except that it would be too long, the purpose of notecards from what I understand. All people I send a tract to are able to respond by nature of knowing who sent it as well as it instructs all those who read it to contact the creator, me, for questions, comments, and complaints.

That all being said, I am curious at what scenario below (or any other not listed), if any, would it be considered spamming?

1. I enter a place, especially a popular one, and send a tract notecard to everyone near me unsolicited at the same time and then field any responses to the notecard while I am there.
2. I do the same as number 1 except that I leave after I send the notecard but still field responses from the next place, perhaps sending the tracts while there.
3. I repeat number 1 except that I limit the number of people I give to at one time to about a dozen or so.
4. I go to a place and go through the list of people there one at a time and send the tract unsolicited, also fielding all responses.
5. I do a search for people with a given string in their name and send it to all or many of them at once, fielding all responses.
6. Repeat number 5 but sending to one person at a time.
7. Using a script to send the tract to people in batches (perhaps dozens or hundreds) at a time, prompting me before every batch is run, as always, with me personally fielding all responses to the tracts.

If all such scenarios are not necessarily considered spam, please provide a scenario that would be a minimum to be considered spam. Also, the converse: if all are considered spam, please provide a scenario that would be the maximum that would not be considered spam.

In addition, are there limits to the number of people to whom a notecard can be sent at the same time? In a single logged in session? In a minute, hour, day, etc.?

I know this question is somewhat elaborate, but the Linden terms of use did not seem to include what I wanted to do (mostly scenarios 1 through 4) under the definition of spamming. I would like to share the information in my tracts with as many people as possible while still following the terms of service and community guidelines both in the letter and in spirit, as well as trying to respect people and their wishes wherever reasonable. I appreciate all real answers and hope I would receive the sources of the reasoning behind your answers cited as well in the answer, if possible. Thank you, kindly. Have a great day.

[Rolig Loon]

Thjat is open to some interpretation.  If you look at the Community Standards, you will find the definition

 

• Disturbing the Peace

  Every Resident has a right to live their Second Life. Disrupting scheduled events, repeated transmission of undesired advertising content, the use of repetitive sounds, following or self-spawning items, or other objects that intentionally slow server performance or inhibit another Resident's ability to enjoy Second Life are examples of Disturbing the Peace.

The phrases "repeated transmission", "undesired advertizing content" and "inhibit another Resident's ability to enjoy Second Life" are intentionally loose, but suggestive of what at least some residents may consider offensive.  Any resident may submit an Abuse Report if s/he feels offended.  If Linden Lab agrees, you will get a warning or worse, especially if they feel that you are slowing server performance.  Notwithstanding that possibility, you will almost certainly find that many landowners will eject or ban you outright for disturbing the peace, as is their unquestioned right under the TOS.

On a purely personal note, I have been in SL for a long time and have generally found that residents -- although rather tolerant in general -- have little patience for anyone who showers them with unsolicited messages of any kind.  Your well-intentioned actions may earn you many more hostile responses than friends.

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hi Gedaliah,

The Jehovah's Witnesses knock on my RL door about once every decade. I consider that spam. My lifelong neighbor knocks on my door every day, bringing me goodies I can't possibly eat without needing my own zipcode. I don't have a word to describe that behavior, but it's not spam.

;-).

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Yes it's all spam, IMO.  Its one thing if you ask people if they are interested in getting the information, quite another to dump it on people without warning.  While I realize people can reject the offering, it is still an unwelcome disturbance to many people, especially if they have their viewer set up to receive inventory offers.  Then they get the notecard without being asked if they want to accept or reject it.

Many places specifically forbid sending unsolicited information or any kind and most public places will take action against you if they get a complaint, even if they don't have a specific rule against.  While some may just tell you to stop, you may find your self ejected and banned without warning.  Some people may AR you.

While LL may not act on one AR, if they get enough of them they very well may suspend you. 

My advice is not to do this.  If you want to spread the word about your beliefs, set up a speaking event or discussion group for this and post it in Events.  

[Theresa Tennyson]

---

GedaliahTobiah wrote:

I would like to pass out notecards with philosophical/religious information written in them. I intend to send one tract per person that I come near, although I expect that over time some people may receive it again if I come across them again without realizing it. The notecards will not contain any anything profane, sexual, abusive, or related to business, such as advertisements. The notecards will contain information relating to religion or philosophy and often goes by the term 'tract'. I see this as similar to standing on a public sidewalk and handing out such tracts, one at a time, as people are welcome to take them or reject them and those that receive them can simply throw them away or otherwise ignore them. The information would otherwise be copied into local chat except that it would be too long, the purpose of notecards from what I understand. All people I send a tract to are able to respond by nature of knowing who sent it as well as it instructs all those who read it to contact the creator, me, for questions, comments, and complaints.

That all being said, I am curious at what scenario below (or any other not listed), if any, would it be considered spamming?

1. I enter a place, especially a popular one, and send a tract notecard to everyone near me unsolicited at the same time and then field any responses to the notecard while I am there.
2. I do the same as number 1 except that I leave after I send the notecard but still field responses from the next place, perhaps sending the tracts while there.
3. I repeat number 1 except that I limit the number of people I give to at one time to about a dozen or so.
4. I go to a place and go through the list of people there one at a time and send the tract unsolicited, also fielding all responses.
5. I do a search for people with a given string in their name and send it to all or many of them at once, fielding all responses.
6. Repeat number 5 but sending to one person at a time.
7. Using a script to send the tract to people in batches (perhaps dozens or hundreds) at a time, prompting me before every batch is run, as always, with me personally fielding all responses to the tracts.

If all such scenarios are not necessarily considered spam, please provide a scenario that would be a minimum to be considered spam. Also, the converse: if all are considered spam, please provide a scenario that would be the maximum that would not be considered spam.

In addition, are there limits to the number of people to whom a notecard can be sent at the same time? In a single logged in session? In a minute, hour, day, etc.?

I know this question is somewhat elaborate, but the Linden terms of use did not seem to include what I wanted to do (mostly scenarios 1 through 4) under the definition of spamming. I would like to share the information in my tracts with as many people as possible while still following the terms of service and community guidelines both in the letter and in spirit, as well as trying to respect people and their wishes wherever reasonable. I appreciate all real answers and hope I would receive the sources of the reasoning behind your answers cited as well in the answer, if possible. Thank you, kindly. Have a great day.

---

Many of those in Second Life are non-religious or even anti religious, often for good reasons. Also many are angered by unsolicited notecards/IM's of any kind. Your plan will almost guarantee many who you meet will actively dislike you and treat your message negatively even if they would otherwise be receptive to it.

There's a significant difference between your "streetcorner" analogy and what you're proposing. On the streetcorner the passers-by must take action to take the handout instead of having it physically forced into their hand, while you are "forcing" the notecard on them and they need to take action to reject it if its unwelcome. I should also point out that there are malicious acts such as phishing that are done by similar means to what you're proposing so many won't even open the notecard.

You might consider wearing a "titler" with a brief message inviting people to ask you for information and/or wearing an object that they can click to get the notecard themselves. Even at that you may find yourself unwelcome in many places.

 

[Pamela Galli]

I always dislike seeing people being annoyed in the name of my religion.

[Innula Zenovka]

You don't differentiate in your question between Linden-owned land and privately-owned land.    

This is important because, on privately-owned land, it's what the landowner considers spam that counts.    Personally, I'd be very annoyed with someone who decided to send out unsolicited notecards (or requests of money, or  vampire bite requests -- much the same kind of annoyance) to people on my land without having the good manners to ask me first, and I'd certainly ban them.

On LL-owned land, it's more a question of how many ARs you collect before LL decide to do something about it, I think.   That's what they'll look at, rather than the content of your cards, since whether or not people AR you is a reasonable index of how great a nuisance they find your distributing your cards.    

I'd advise against it.     People aren't going to thank you for your activities, by and large, and you're more likely to find yourself getting into public fights with trolls (to the annoyance of everyone other than the trolls) than achieving any benefit for yourself or anyone else.   If you're particularly unlucky, you'll one day find you've collected enough abuse reports to prompt LL to suspend you for a few days.    

I think you'll be wasting your time and everyone else's distributing your cards on anywhere other than private land with the landowner's prior pemission.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

...unless a delicious offering with SPAM in it is included in the offering... Yum!

[Madelaine McMasters]

Well, I do toss a spider (usually dead) into my chili now and then (only when there's a witness) so, if the ratio is right, SPAM could be worked into a delicious offering. It's also possible that spiders are delicious.