i'm thinking spam, i've emailed alex and holly to get removals. On Jun 12, 2006, at 8:13 AM, Nils Zurawski wrote:

I am with you Alan.. wondering for the past few days about numerous posts appearantly originating in South Korea... advertising some phone services or whatnot... in what seems to me not alwayss correct English... maybe it is content and we did not catch the latest posting fashion in the far east or it is plain spam...

best

nilz

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Since when are typos and punctuation errors 'incorrect English'? I don't think anything's been stigmatized. Anyone with an email account knows that the non-standard syntax, the varying sentence length and structure, and some of the other features of the South Korean emails already mentioned are just as common to spam emails as they are legit emails from non-fluent speakers of English. The fact that these emails came in a rush at around the same time period and had similar FROM headers from different addresses certainly adds to the idea that these emails were spam, but the 'Engrish' used therein had just as much to do with that idea. There's no point in berating the list for not being above simple linguistic prejudices. Joshua Raclaw - PhD student Department of Linguistics Culture, Language & Social Practice University of Colorado at Boulder http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~raclaw/ Quoting Ellis Godard <ellis.godard@csun.edu>: * Nilz mentioned: * > or whatnot... in what seems to me not alwayss * > correct English... maybe it is content and we did * > not catch the latest posting fashion in the far * > east or it is plain spam... * * I'm surprised that anyone on this list, particularly a German whose messages * (even here) include typos and punctuation errors, would risk stigmatizing * incorrect English by identifying it as an indicator of spam. * * I, too, offer humble apologies if the poster(s?) is/are legitimate * inquirers. But what concerned me wasn't the citation of commercial services * (which happens here frequently), or the incorrect Engrish (isn't AOiR trying * to be more international?) but (a) use of the same sentences with varying * FROM headers, and (b) the haphazard mix of perfect sentences ("people even * in remote villages of the world can use telephone and high-speed internet * connections at the same time") with those not quite that ("It can make some * change a paradigm related with phone"). * * -eg * * _______________________________________________ * The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list * is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org * Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: * http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org * * Join the Association of Internet Researchers: * http://www.aoir.org/ *

I didn't berate the list. I cautioned, in an international context of studying online interactions, that concerns about "incorrect English" might be suspect if not hypocritical. ;) -eg

-----Original Message----- From: joshua raclaw [mailto:Joshua.Raclaw@colorado.edu] Sent: Monday, June 12, 2006 10:17 AM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org; ellis.godard@csun.edu Subject: Re: [Air-l] <Introduce interesting News about Wibro>

Since when are typos and punctuation errors 'incorrect English'?

I don't think anything's been stigmatized. Anyone with an email account knows that the non-standard syntax, the varying sentence length and structure, and some of the other features of the South Korean emails already mentioned are just as common to spam emails as they are legit emails from non-fluent speakers of English. The fact that these emails came in a rush at around the same time period and had similar FROM headers from different addresses certainly adds to the idea that these emails were spam, but the 'Engrish' used therein had just as much to do with that idea. There's no point in berating the list for not being above simple linguistic prejudices.

Joshua Raclaw - PhD student Department of Linguistics Culture, Language & Social Practice University of Colorado at Boulder http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~raclaw/

Quoting Ellis Godard <ellis.godard@csun.edu>:

* Nilz mentioned: * > or whatnot... in what seems to me not alwayss * > correct English... maybe it is content and we did * > not catch the latest posting fashion in the far * > east or it is plain spam... * * I'm surprised that anyone on this list, particularly a German whose messages * (even here) include typos and punctuation errors, would risk stigmatizing * incorrect English by identifying it as an indicator of spam. * * I, too, offer humble apologies if the poster(s?) is/are legitimate * inquirers. But what concerned me wasn't the citation of commercial services * (which happens here frequently), or the incorrect Engrish (isn't AOiR trying * to be more international?) but (a) use of the same sentences with varying * FROM headers, and (b) the haphazard mix of perfect sentences ("people even * in remote villages of the world can use telephone and high-speed internet * connections at the same time") with those not quite that ("It can make some * change a paradigm related with phone"). * * -eg * * _______________________________________________ * The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list * is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org * Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: * http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org * * Join the Association of Internet Researchers: * http://www.aoir.org/ *

Nothing wrong with being a German, of course. (I'm Bavarian by birth - born in Nuremburg and lived in Oberkatasu while my father was stationed in Hof on the Saale.) I meant German as distinct from English - that is, ESL of any sort. :) Bitte, annehmen meine bescheidene entschuldigung - und meine schrecklicher Deutsche. :) -eg

-----Original Message----- From: Nils Zurawski [mailto:nils.zurawski@uni-hamburg.de] Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 1:47 AM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org; ellis.godard@csun.edu Subject: Re: [Air-l] <Introduce interesting News about Wibro>

Dear Ellis and other list members,

just to explain my posting, which seem to have irritated you. I was not sure if these postings were spam or legitimate postings by some student, who were not aware of the lists content and the appropriate forms of communication on a list. Because the English was not always correct, I was assuming this, as I thought that plain commercial spam would not contain such mistakes. I did not want to stigmatise anyone. But I have to ask what you Ellis mean by "particularly a German"? Is there any problem with me being German? Or was this a general remark on me not being a native English speaker.

I hope I watched out for typos in this posting and for punctution as well. best wishes nilz

...

I'm surprised that anyone on this list, particularly a German whose messages (even here) include typos and punctuation errors, would risk stigmatizing incorrect English by identifying it as an indicator of spam.

-- Dr. Nils Zurawski Universität Hamburg Inst. für kriminologische Sozialforschung Allende-Platz 1 20146 Hamburg Germany tel. +49 (0) 40 42838 6185 fax. +49 (0) 40 42838 2328

Projekt zu Videoüberwachung: http://www.surveillance-studies.org/blog