14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo! Messenger is the number two Instant Messenger in the world (behind Windows Live Messenger) and thus it's exposed to a lot of hype and criticism. Larry Dignan of ZDNet was the latest one to rant about it. He plans to follow up with Yahoo on the matter, as the company seems not do anything about the increasing number of spam that is being sent to its users... except the banning of the reported spam sender. But what good might that do against users like "lkfdkvbvasjhgfvcsac6324j" (that's who I got my last spam message from) who are actually bots that just keep creating account after account? None, I can tell you this much.
Of course, there's always the option of ticking the "ignore anyone who is not in my list" box, but that might not be the best of solutions; after all, a social network is built to continually expand. With the click of a mouse, you could lose any chance to meet new people or get in contact with someone you haven't heard from in a very long time.
While some say that "Yahoo! users (in general) are quick to jump on every flashy, gaudy, annoying, stupid feature that can be stuffed into an IM, with no thought at all to how badly it might piss off the recipient." (anonymous comment on a forum), others are determined to do something about it and chose to start reporting all the spam, instead of simply ignoring it. And they are provided with this option by Yahoo! itself: "Yahoo! Messenger gives you the opportunity to report instant messages you receive as spam (also known as "spim"). If you choose to report spam, Yahoo! will be sent information about the conversation including the Yahoo! ID of the Messenger User being reported, text of the conversation, and your Yahoo! ID", according to the Privacy Policy of Yahoo! Messenger.
So whether you're on one side of the barricade, a fatalist that just lets it be or you've just decided to get actively involved in the fight against spammers, now is the best time to voice your opinion!