Anybody who writes a blog that allows comments gets pseudo-comments, otherwise known as spam. Why do spammers want to be published on blogs? I have no idea. As my grandmother used to say, when asked, for instance, how electricity works, “It’s a mystery.” (The Catholic imagination leaves little room for scientific inquiry.)
The language of spammers could be called English as a non-language. No matter how brief a comment, it can be counted on to contain a grammatical error. Its chief characteristic, however, is vagueness. When in doubt, I check the email address. It’s never real.
Below, a sample of comments taken from a typical day. For every comment I publish, there are six or seven I don’t, sometimes more, from spammers. The green circle on the left indicates a published observation. The gold triangle signifies one waiting to join it. In these cases, the wait will last forever.
Anybody know the motive behind this unending quest to penetrate an art blog?
They loves you, Regina, and wants too being near with you.
I get these on my tiny little blog also.
The conspiracy theorist in me (it’s a deeply seated thing I cannot shake – from my conservative upbringing) imagines that they might unleash some nasty virus if accepted.
My paranoid side thinks they all lead to porno sites (after all, don’t all things illicit in the vast void of the internet lead to smut?).
Both make me squeamish so I don’t click on the links to check.
I delete and go on my merry way!
I get these also, altho, lately Akismet on Word Press has been doing a great job of filtering. A techie friend said that the purpose is to try to generate traffic to their web sites. Which is what I am doing when I comment on a blog site, generate traffic.
The ones I get on mine usually lead to some sort of ad for porn or woody meds and they are usually written in a foreign language which is why I started moderating comments on my blog posts. They’re trying to sell something and I’m not willing to promote.
Ha ha ha, haven’t received too many as my art blog is only a few months old but I was always amused at the google search that brought sickos to my yoga satire site.