Sunday, September 16, 2012

An Influx of Spam

I don't know about anyone else, but I've seen a sudden increase in the number of spam comments being submitted to my blog posts.  This started about a month ago, and it just keeps getting worse.  It seems I have a spam comment every day, and never on the same blog post or from the same spammer.  It is a growing annoyance.

Basically, this is what happens; someone submits a comment, often in broken English, saying something like "Wow, you blog is some good.  You give me insight I never had before on this subject.  You really nailed it. I love to read about you, hope to share good word.  Visit my website: ~stupidspamshop."  Sometimes they get more creative with their praise, talking about how I've changed their outlook, or "You have tackled this subject so well," never giving specifics about the post they're supposedly commenting on, just a typical cookie cutter response they must throw down on a thousand different blog posts each day, hoping to promote their online pharmacy or other venture.

This is one of the main reasons I have "comments by approval" set on my blog.  When someone posts a comment, I have to approve it before it gets out there for all to see.  This means that dumbass spam artists don't get any exposure when they submit a post that is nothing more than bad advertising.  Nobody but me will ever see that comment, and guess what.  I'm not buying.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate self promotion, and when someone actually visits the blog and gives a serious reply, I don't mind if they share a link to their own blog or writing website.  However, I don't accept people spamming the blog, having never even read the post they're responding to, on the vain hope that someone might buy whatever crap they're peddling.  It is discourteous and has no place being attached to any of my posts.

Well, that's enough for this rant.  Now to sit back and read the onslaught of spam replies trying to sell me male enhancement products and cheap nick-knacks.  How glorious that will be!


Sample


7 comments:

  1. I've never received a single spam. I'm feeling positively deprived.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Be careful. Several bloggers have had their blogs taken over by someone named Desi. She's taken over 250 blogs. So far, Google has only fixed 55 of them.

    Hugs,
    Shelly

    http://www.shellysnovicewritigs.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've never received spam on my blog, though for personal reasons I've had to move to moderated comments. However, I've had authors post on my Facebook page (normal, not author page) thanking me for reading their book. I haven't and their comment is immediately removed. Irritates the hell out of me.

    Like you, I don't mind someone linking back to their blog/website/book, as long as they make a worthwhile comment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My spam comments tend to be caught by the spam filter. I've removed any that haven't.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Here's an example of spam submitted to this very blog post:

    What i don't realize is in reality how you're now not actually a lot more neatly-preferred than you may be now.
    You're very intelligent. You understand therefore considerably with regards to this topic, made me in my opinion believe it from numerous various angles. Its like men and women are not involved except it is one thing to do with Girl gaga! Your individual stuffs excellent. All the time maintain it up!
    Visit my web site -Link Deleted-

    Uh, yeah, that really has a lot to do with this post, right?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've noted the same thing. I'm now up to about 6 spam comments a day. I moderate all comments on my blog, but just dealing with this stuff is such an annoyance.

    ReplyDelete