>Is it considered spam if I post an advertisement of mine on 3 or 4
>newsgroups?

Not necessarily. Advertisements, at least legitimate ones for
legitimate products and services, often fall under a class of their own.
Traditionally, advertising on the net has been frowned upon, though I
think that there is a sizable population out there on the net -- it may
be a minority, but sizable nonetheless -- who find judiciously placed
and written ads useful. The key is whether or not it's useful to the
target audience and therefore in the right place. You shouldn't just
look at a list of newsgroups and think to yourself, based on the
newsgroup names, "Hmmm, they might be interested. Let's post the ad."
This mentality often backfires very badly.

Things you have to consider are whether the ad is relevant to the
newsgroups you're sending to, whether the potential users of the groups
are receptive to ads, and things like whether it will elicit lots of
negative responses.

You might have a good success rate if you post a short piece that very
quickly describes the product or service, then include a web address
where people can find more information.

**

>>>Here in alt.surfing, our souls are satisfied by getting in the waves
>>>of Mother Ocean, not stupid get-rich-quick-and-lose-your-soul games.
>>>
>>>There oughtta be a law.
>>
>>Yup. Against idiots who crospost responses to those scams.
>>
>Whatever.
>
>I just had to get my two cents in to the worm that sent the scam in the
>first place. If that makes me an idiot, whine man, so be it...

May I suggest my humble anti spam page at:

http://www.pobox.com/~malak/spam.html

There are a few suggestions as to what to do that are more effective
than responding to spam in public forums.

>P.S. Sorry you had to be a recipient of my reply to the scammer, tho.
>I'll not bother wasting my time on negative energy next time...

I know that my little email campaigns that target those who reply to
spam -- and the spammers too :) -- comes out as my sounding like a
net.cop, but it just bugs me to see it when there are different ways to
fight it.

If you take other routes, you CAN fight spam without wasting your
energy.

I hereby would like to declare peace and wish you well in your surfing.
:)