The Anger of the Blogger Spammed

There's something just so lame about comment spam dressed up as a legitimate comment that it gets me angrier than I do with ordinary spam, blog or otherwise, for some reason. (Comment spam/blogspam/linkspam is when individuals automate posting of comments on blogs to build traffic and Google rankings by having links to their sites on other sites. Some comment spam is just gibberish, but would still boost Google rankings because of the links contained somewhere in the comment, while others pretend to be legitimate comments.)

I think it's because I'm as much a sucker as the next guy for anyone saying anything nice about me or my blog, and the anger of realising I've just been spammed by some dork who wants to promote their website on your real estate is of a deep, visceral kind.

This I just got on a posting about the weirdness of online auctions in Singapore:

 

Excellent Blog. Very informative. And very well organized.

Online Auctions are really looking up with more and more people interested in buying and selling product online.

Keep it up. We need more such blogs which provide quality information.

No sign in there the writer has actually read the blog. Clearly just a blast at all blogs mentioning the word 'auction'. In the name and URL field of the comment the sender gives his name and his website. I would publish both here but it would just drive traffic, and I'm guessing if the guy is already stooping to comment spam he's not going to be shamable. Still, if you were to block all comments from 202.65.144.5 you might be doing yourself a favor. And let's just say the spammer in question is quite prominent in Indian circles as "an Internet Entrepreneur, Online Biz Consultant, Hypnosis & NLP "Guru" and a Prolific writer." Prolific as in prolific spammer?

Bottom line: Please don't comment spam me. All comments have to be approved first so you're just wasting my time and yours, not the reader's.  And shouldn't we be treating comment spammers like ordinary spammers, and making all efforts to shame them and inform their ISPs?

 

technorati tags: blogspam, linkspam, comment_spam

Comments

[Andreas]

I had the same visitor to two of my blogs. First, I was, well, impressed. A leading hynotherapist coming to my webpage and he actually likes it? Great. Nice as I am :), I naturally tried to get in touch with him, - to no avail. Then he visited my second blog and I realised the intention behind. I saw his comments elsewhere.

The "bad" part is that initially, the blogger is proud to receive the visit. Until... as said.

What I usually do is to keep the comment (hey - it is a nice comment, when you read it without the background what!). Sometimes, I take the web address out to take the real intention (Google ranking) out. Just my seven cents.

Have fun!