You may have noticed that spam comments have been on the up-tick in these parts. For awhile, they seemed to always spam posts that were older, which was no big deal since I have it set up that any comment on a post that is a week or older has to get moderated first. But those spammers (and I'm talking like they are a person, which they probably aren't) got craftier and now are posting to the new stuff. This stuff goes "live" without approval, so they are much more annoying. I've been deleting them as fast as I can (and I've also switched moderation to 3 days) but it's frustrating. I don't want to switch back to full moderation, but feel that I might need to.
The biggest frustration is that 90% of these spam comments come from the same "person". This "person" has "her" Blogger account under her "name". I won't say what that name is besides "she" shares the same name as the capital of Montana. "She" also has a blog that has exactly one post consisting of someone typing a few characters. The comments on this one brilliant post are from other frustrated bloggers telling "her" to stop spamming them.
But that ain't all. I've been getting solicitation emails as well. Most of them are from people wanting to write "guest blog posts" on subjects that have nothing to do with anything on this blog. I've also gotten solicitations from a marketer who wants me to watch "live webcasts" with some pro racer. Pro racer? Does this blog have anything to do with bicycle racing?
I guess my blog has gotten "big enough" to attract the attention of these folk. Maybe I should be flattered. But I'm not. I wish that they would go away. So much so that I've put up a special page to respond to them. Feel free to read it and tell me what you think.
Now that's not to say I would never entertain a solicitation. I would love to review products in areas that interest me. I would love it if makers of these products wanted to give me free stuff! Other than that, I don't really have any interest in being a part of someone else's marketing scheme. I know this whole "organic" marketing strategy of using bloggers like me to write glowing praise about other's products is a big thing now. It doesn't mean I like it. Or want anything to do with it.
What do you all think? Has this been happening to you?
On a more positive note, I will leave you with a photo of Tom Baker on a bike.
The biggest frustration is that 90% of these spam comments come from the same "person". This "person" has "her" Blogger account under her "name". I won't say what that name is besides "she" shares the same name as the capital of Montana. "She" also has a blog that has exactly one post consisting of someone typing a few characters. The comments on this one brilliant post are from other frustrated bloggers telling "her" to stop spamming them.
But that ain't all. I've been getting solicitation emails as well. Most of them are from people wanting to write "guest blog posts" on subjects that have nothing to do with anything on this blog. I've also gotten solicitations from a marketer who wants me to watch "live webcasts" with some pro racer. Pro racer? Does this blog have anything to do with bicycle racing?
I guess my blog has gotten "big enough" to attract the attention of these folk. Maybe I should be flattered. But I'm not. I wish that they would go away. So much so that I've put up a special page to respond to them. Feel free to read it and tell me what you think.
Now that's not to say I would never entertain a solicitation. I would love to review products in areas that interest me. I would love it if makers of these products wanted to give me free stuff! Other than that, I don't really have any interest in being a part of someone else's marketing scheme. I know this whole "organic" marketing strategy of using bloggers like me to write glowing praise about other's products is a big thing now. It doesn't mean I like it. Or want anything to do with it.
What do you all think? Has this been happening to you?
On a more positive note, I will leave you with a photo of Tom Baker on a bike.
Yep,been happening over on Wordpress too. Questionable comments automatically go into a SPAM folder for me to manually approve or deny though,so not so bad. I assure you though,sometimes I can't get it to "accept my wordpress credentials" and have to log in anonymously...which in itself is annoying,LOL!
ReplyDeleteThe DC
Dr Who and a bicycle in the same photo. Nice way to start the day :-) As for spam, I find when only 3 bloggers, your brother and next door's goldfish check your blog you're pretty safe.
ReplyDeleteBB, how did you get the goldfish next door "hooked" to your blog? (ha)
DeleteI'm sure the marketeers would love to find that out.
I get quiet a bit of spam and a few ligit offers, but the spam filter seem to catch most of the silly stuff. All of my reviews thus far have been unsolisited and of things I use and like. Gear reviews drive my numbers (although a post on polk salad is the most visited ~ go figure). Of course I'd freely accept anthing shinny from Rivendale (hint hint). Jack
ReplyDeleteWell, I too would love to know the recipe of a salad named after our our 11th President!
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_K._Polk
Lemme guess: it's got a Southwestern flavor using Northwestern ingredients.
;-)
In more seriousness, while the spam filters on comment moderation catch a good amount of that stuff, there is a new problem. Spammers are creating Blogger accounts and also bogus websites. With the Blogger ID they can comment on other Blogger blogs and not get caught by the spam detectors. The only course of action besides deleting the spam promptly is to report these spam-bloggers to Blogger. And I've been doing that repeatedly with my most notorious spammer.
Delete