This thread is still open, so here goes.
I have read this thread completely, but am still unable to positively recognise "Spam". If I see black paint - it is black, if I see white paint - it is white, no problem. If I see a post in a Forum, giving quotes and looking quite a normal post to me, but it is spam to you, what is the vital decider in classifying it as true spam ?
Many times in Forums, I have seen posters accusing others of spamming when they are not, but simply posting counter arguments which the accuser finds difficult to tackle, so he calls the legitimate poster a spammer or troll. Spamming and trolling have lost their official definitions and have been adopted as general derogatory slang terms.
I feel we are on dangerous ground here where true spamming is being commonly used as an excuse by highly sensitive and often immature posters, who are unable to compete in an adult theatre of serious discussion and everyday expression. This includes some Mods and even Admins. I am talking about Forums in general and not TPU in isolation.
Most of these spam calling examples are suffered by ordinary posters and not professional spammers as you try to define. I have been called a spammer and troll on numerous occasions by these misguided, inadequate individuals, simply because they have not the intelligence or literary capability to know better and thus resort to name calling.
TPU is guilty to some degree of behaving as I have described, but not by far as bad as some other Forums.
It all centres on whether the poster or Mod is capable of dealing with others in a civilised manner with a good command of judgement and not resort to gutter jargon and wrongly accuse people of being trolls and spammers when they most certainly are not.
I am appalled frequently by an agitated poster being insulting and abusive to another poster for no reason, who when he reacts with similar disrespect, gets an infraction or is banned by an inconsistent and inadequate Mod. A case of the victim being punished and the guilty getting a pat on the back from Big Daddy. You think that is fair ? I don`t.
Finally, I do find that TPU is so far the best of a very large bunch. Not perfect by any means, but the ideal is an impossibility. Nobody is perfect.