Blogging, Spam and Dumb Comments

My web site is designed to encourage readers to root around it and read some of the pages. I keep adding to it and if you rummage though the web site, it is pretty clear that it is all about Naval Aviation, flying helicopters and what I hope will be a successful series of novels. With the blog, I wanted to encourage others to post comments which I would answer and readership would grow.

The good news is that the number of comments is growing and it is gratifying that people out there who surf the internet find what I have to say as interesting. When I first started, there were only one or two a week, if that. Now, there seems to be eight or nine every ten or twelve hours. So, I am grateful that people are reading my blog. Just so you know, I read every one of them and some I answer, some I approve with no comment or answer and the rest, I delete.

When the web site was first launched last summer, I would get maybe a comment a week. Most of them were folks trying to sell me services to make it load faster, get more people to read it, etc. etc. Some of which I actually contacted, but when push came to shove, they couldn’t answer the tough question of how would their services help me sell more books? Needless to say, none of them had an answer.

Being the diligent sort, I read every one and some were clearly spam. No problem because as the owner of the web site, it is set up so that I can approve, disapprove, mark as spam, etc. Reading the comments, I was amazed at what some folks wrote, or better stated, tried to write!

Then, I started seeing the same comments over and over again and it became obvious that no one was really reading the material. I got comments about furniture, dieting, how did I design the web site and lord only knows what else. Some moron sent an email saying I’ve said that for XXXXX number of times. In a period of three days, I got three different e-mails, each with a different number.

So, I called my web designer and asked what was happening. The explanation was simple. There are people out there who harvest e-mail addresses and they are constantly sending e-mails out to see what they can find so they can build lists that they can sell. Others like to send out spam. Why? The only logical reason is that they can

The spam came in two different categories. The first are those make absolutely no sense. I wonder what the writer was smoking/drinking/inhaling when they typed it. See below for two that are typical of the less bizarre ones and presented in their entirety exactly how they appeared in the comments section:

What i do not realize is actually how you’re no longer really a lot more well-preferred than you might be now. You are so intelligent. You realize thus significantly relating to this matter, produced me for my part believe it from so many various angles. Its like women and men are not fascinated unless it is one thing to do with Woman gaga! Your individual stuffs nice. At all times maintain it up!

There are certainly a variety of details like that to take into consideration. That may be a great level to convey up. I offer the ideas above as common inspiration however clearly there are questions like the one you bring up the place crucial thing shall be working in trustworthy good faith. I don?t know if greatest practices have emerged round issues like that, however I am sure that your job is clearly identified as a good game. Each boys and girls feel the affect of only a moment’s pleasure, for the rest of their lives.

In the second category, there are those comments from individuals who either clearly don’t know what I am blogging about and want to start a discussion thread on my web site. I saw several comments about diets, fashion and other stuff. Rather than allow the comments to appear, I classify them as spam and they are sent to the land of dead ones and zeros. Sorry, guys and gals, if you want to have a go at it, use someone else’s web site because am not going to you do that to mine.

The junk comments on the site got so bad that I had to add a piece of software that requires one to enter in those odd shaped letters before one could make a comment. Why? Because I found out that there are those who like to harvest e-mail addresses and use software to surf the net looking for new sites that they can add to their lists that they sell.

Net net, if you want to make a comment, ask a question, please DO! I’ll be happy to answer it if I can.

Marc Liebman
11/26/2012