See, at the time of my postings I was unaware my posts would be considered spamming.
Before I posted on those boards, many of which I have bookmarked, I carefully read their iBox. Basically I wanted to be sure, that that kind of information is not only not forbidden, but also strongly encouraged to post and matching the underlying idea of the board (being ON-topic). In case I wasn't assured by the iBox or by the type of common posts on that board I didn't post since I wanted to avoid spamming.
I also made sure by the means of a board search, this information/stock wasn't posted on the board already. For that reason I didn't post on the Early Bird for example since that stock was mentioned already and I would consider that spamming.
Furthermore I looked at the regular posters on the boards. If some would show up en masse on another board besides the one I posted already, I wouldn't post, because those people would probably feel spammed. Well, nobody is perfect anyway.
As you can see I did a lot of work to get myself into jail. LOL. Well, many of those boards would have posted that stock news in the course of the day anyway, throught volume alerts, price alerts etc, since they always did in the past on similar occasion. Basically I wanted people trading this kind of things to take a look at the stock early. I didn't hype them into shorting or buying, just mentioning some essential news, essential because it marks the shift of a company from a money loosing semi company into a money making IP company imho. I didn't see it as hype or spamming.
Now, after I got jailed I reread the TOU. 2 definitions of spam could indeed be used to classify what I did as spam:
1. Posting excessively on one or more message board(s); Continually posting the same or similar information;
Well, you have to admit that this paragraphs are somewhat "elastic" and don't constitutes exact rules of behavior. For example it doesn't state the exact number of same posts allowed, does it? Also as for my interpretation "excessively" definately means more than 1 post a board. "Continually" imho involves a repetitive process that goes on through time after an initial action, but nowhere doesn't it state "few" or "2-3 boards" for the initial action. As far as I know no moderator deleted any of my post as spam.
Well I would even suggest that 10-20 postings per hour about one stock on one board by different posters looks to be matching that "Continually posting the same or similar information;"-rule closer than posting one message on 10-20 boards by one poster.
Now I really don't want to argue about the rules, but simply show you that I know the difference between spam and sharing the news. And while I don't agree with your interpretation of it, I will guarantee you, that i will respect them from now on. So whenever I feel the urge again of spreading the news (might happens once in a couple of years), I make sure that the main part of the message will contain a unique part On-topic to each boards rules, but please don't jail me for a repetitive "signature".
s.
