I’m not a spammer: I don’t send e-mails promoting my products unless people opt into my list.

Occasionally, though, people think I am spamming them: they either didn’t opt into the list and somehow got my e-mail by accident (how I have no idea) — or more likely opted into my list but forgot they did so or did not recognize my name in the from line.

What shocks me is that this (to me) mild inconvenience — a person getting an e-mail he doesn’t want and can delete with the click of a mouse — prompts unbelievably outraged and rude responses.

Example: “You #$&*&(#$! STOP SENDING ME THIS CRAPPY EMAILS FOR YOUR IDIOT STUFF YOU LOUSY SPAMMING SCUMBAG!!”

Is this an appropriate or acceptable reaction? No. Not even if you ARE being spammed.

A few months ago, a waiter in a restaurant tripped and literally spilled a bowl of drippy, stinky cole slaw all over my head.

Did I swear, rant, or rave?

No: I told the (visibly upset) young man, “No problem, accidents happen.”

But the person who told me to go #$&#*& myself because he received an e-mail he didn’t want apparently doesn’t think accidents happen — or that even if they do, the victim should be graceful and abide by the accepted rules of behavior in polite society.

What do you think? Was my e-mail correspondent way out of line? Or do you react the same way to things you don’t like when online?