Spam This
Whew. Close call. For a moment I thought someone besides me was reading this stuff. That wasn't my intent. I'm not venting here for your entertainment. I'm doing it for mine.
When I first started "blogging," which sounds so inelegant that I hate to call it that, a few people noticed and passed along compliments. I think that new blogs get put into heavy "Next Blog" rotation. If it's any good, people will offer comments and that will inspire the author to continue adding to it. That's what happened to mine. And then I started thinking about writing for an audience instead of writing for myself. I already have a web site in my own name. I don't need an audience for this one.
And while people are welcome to read it if they want I figured any interest would die off when I let the blog sit idle for two months before firing up the browser yesterday and adding another two cents to the pile of pennies that constitute it.
So what happens when I visit again today? Somone had left a comment. Two someones, in fact. Or so it appeared. Then you read them and discover they're spam. Someone, I'm sure by some sort of remote control, had left what looked like praiseful thoughts about something I, of course, thought praiseworthy. A closer look reveals that the comments are generic. And come with an invitation to visit the commentator's blog, which is always a business site.
Hey, nice job. Liked your blog. Mine's about different kinds of acne treatments. Check it out and tell me what you think.
That's not verbatim but one of them actually was spam for an acne product site. The comment, if you call it that, had a picture of a teenage boy next to it. I'm sure the real owner of the site is a middle-aged man. And I don't want to know what's going on between him and the boy.
It is testament to the influence of the blogosphere that spammers had to break their way into it. I am grateful that blogger put in a verification system to combat the automated replies to blogs. I don't remember its existence just months ago when I signed up. But things move fast here in cyberspace. I'm sure those who try to pollute our e-mail inboxes won't stop finding ways to soil our blogs with uninvited and unwanted commercial messages.
But, for now, spam this!
When I first started "blogging," which sounds so inelegant that I hate to call it that, a few people noticed and passed along compliments. I think that new blogs get put into heavy "Next Blog" rotation. If it's any good, people will offer comments and that will inspire the author to continue adding to it. That's what happened to mine. And then I started thinking about writing for an audience instead of writing for myself. I already have a web site in my own name. I don't need an audience for this one.
And while people are welcome to read it if they want I figured any interest would die off when I let the blog sit idle for two months before firing up the browser yesterday and adding another two cents to the pile of pennies that constitute it.
So what happens when I visit again today? Somone had left a comment. Two someones, in fact. Or so it appeared. Then you read them and discover they're spam. Someone, I'm sure by some sort of remote control, had left what looked like praiseful thoughts about something I, of course, thought praiseworthy. A closer look reveals that the comments are generic. And come with an invitation to visit the commentator's blog, which is always a business site.
Hey, nice job. Liked your blog. Mine's about different kinds of acne treatments. Check it out and tell me what you think.
That's not verbatim but one of them actually was spam for an acne product site. The comment, if you call it that, had a picture of a teenage boy next to it. I'm sure the real owner of the site is a middle-aged man. And I don't want to know what's going on between him and the boy.
It is testament to the influence of the blogosphere that spammers had to break their way into it. I am grateful that blogger put in a verification system to combat the automated replies to blogs. I don't remember its existence just months ago when I signed up. But things move fast here in cyberspace. I'm sure those who try to pollute our e-mail inboxes won't stop finding ways to soil our blogs with uninvited and unwanted commercial messages.
But, for now, spam this!
posted by jack at 8:33 PM
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