I try to be somewhat tolerant and kind in my life, but I flat-out hate spammers and boycott businesses that spam.
I fight a monumental daily battle against spam and other unwanted emails — it wastes about 10-30 minutes of my day every day (depending on if I start messing with my email rules).
What about petitions for good causes?
Many petitions come across my Facebook wall and other places, but I generally ignore them because I know from direct experience that I’ll be added to yet another list and it will add one more to the hundreds of emails I get every day.
Other people I have talked with say the same thing: they don’t participate in online petitions because they know they will be spammed. I think there is an untapped legion of people who care about causes but will not sign petitions because they, like me, are battle-scarred from fighting a war against spam. If these petitioners would consider a pinky-swear that signing a petition wouldn’t yield any unrelated emails from them in our in-boxes (unless we specifically opt-in for it), they might get better results. As for me, until I see that no-emails pinky-swear, I will never sign a petition again.
Facebook Shares
If you see a funny or poignant meme on Facebook that has “Like if you agree” or “Share if you agree” on it, then Do not share or like it! If you love the meme and want to share the sentiment, then write a post about it and share your thoughts. But do not share that meme!
This is called “Like Farming,” and here is a link about how these help contribute to scams and spammers.
Not to mention, they are annoying as hell. My first reaction, even if I agree with the sentiment, is “Don’t tell me what to do.”