"...and sorry for the spam."

Pet peeve:

Any email you send to which you append "sorry for the spam" you should not send. Ever.

"I'm sorry for the spam, but does anyone have spare tickets to the concert on Saturday?"

"I wanna go out for ice cream right now -- who wants to join me? And sorry everyone for the spam! :-)"

If you ever get tempted to type this phrase, you have two choices:
1) You realize your message is 100% trivial and no one cares at all, in which case it's truly spam, so don't send it.
2) You believe your message has actual value to the recipients, in which case it's not spam and you should remove the phrase, then send it without guilt.

There's no middle ground on this, everyone. Either you believe your message is spam that no one wants, or you believe it isn't spam and is worth bringing to the attention of the people you send it to.

Note, by the way, that I don't think either of my example messages up at the top of this rant are spam (assuming they were sent by friends, family, co-workers, or acquaintances). Most spam is True Evil (of the "buY C1@LiS che@@P" variety) and I don't think your invitation to go out on a quick Starbucks run or plea for assistance picking a baby shower gift is on that level.

And if you don't agree with my analysis, can I at least beg your assistance moving some funds out of Nigeria?