In the beginning there was a great void and then a wise person started the first blog and all was good. In time more and more blogs came to life filling the great void with information, bad good and indifferent. Then people came to life who saw a way to use the blogs for their own purposes when they found that leaving comments with their url attached impressed the omnipotent Google who would then give them a high PR.

Over time this pissed Google off because it upset his algorithm and Google wanted all blogs to go no-follow. And yet there was a growing number of bloggers who said NO, stuff you Google, we want to reward our commentators and in defiance of Google’s wishes these bloggers went D0-Follow.

Things were going swell for a time but then an evil group of trolls was born who in time were known as spammers. These people were not content with leaving good comments in order to get a link back to their site. No, they would not even read the post and would therefore leave nonsensical comments. They would even fail to follow a blog’s comment policy by leaving a keyword instead of a name.

At first bloggers would delete these comments but there came a time when the spam grew to unmanageable amounts and bloggers were left in despair. Then came the great Akismet, a simple WordPress plugin that was able to detect the greater majority of spam sending them to Hades where they met their just fate. But Akismet was unable to detect all spam and so Akismet gave bloggers control over their comments. Akismet said to the bloggers; “Thou hath the right to mark as spam any comments that I miss in my spam busting mission”

Unfortunately there were some bloggers who used Akismet unwisely spamming some comments for the wrong reason. Then came a time when some people grew angry at the benevolent Akismet for spamming their comments. They jumped up and down waving their hands in the air demanding that Akismet was going too far, but Akismet was quiet for Akismet was not at fault.This upset them no end and they were forever unhappy with their lot.

But all was not lost for there was those who worshiped Akismet, for they appreciated all the work and continuous  upgrades that Akismet  supplied at no cost. They were also very thankful for Akismet for taking the great burden of spam off their shoulders, and they were happy with the blogosphere.

Who would have thought that something like this would actually come about, that there would be two groups of Akismet people, those who were happy with the plugin and those who were angry with it.

Personally I love Akismet because it does save me so much time, and not only that it is really pretty accurate and I hardly ever have to fish any comments that it’s picked up as spam. Another thing I like about it is that it allows me the option to mark comments as spam that it’s missed out. This virtually teaches Akismet so that next time it will recognize such comments as spam.

The trouble is some people may be marking comments as spam that may be legitimate, but do you blame Akismet for that? Nope, it’s not the plugin’s, nor the developer’s, fault if people abuse their power on how it’s used.

Wikipedia’s interpretation of Spam is;

Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social networking spam, television advertising  and file sharing network spam.

This is a rather broad description and the problem is that as far as comments go what one person finds quite acceptable another person sees it as spam. I can’t vouch for other blogs but I’m going to list some of the things that you may do on this blog that will cause you to be sent to Akismet’s spam hell.

  1. Using Keywords instead of your name: I think this is a no no for most bloggers, especially if it’s listed as such in their comment policy. Personally, if it’s a good comment I will either delink it or remove the keywords from the url.  If the comment is of no value and the commentator obviously hadn’t read the post I will spam it.
  2. Not following instructions: I will sometimes point out to people, either via email or withing a comment, if they are doing something wrong and if they continue on their merry way disregarding my instructions I will spam them. Honesty I have better things to do than deleting their comments.
  3. Leaving stupid comments just for the sake of a link: While I normally delete these, I will spam repeat offenders.

A bit harsh you reckon? I don’t think so. I devote a lot of time to this blog and I cherish those commentators who take the time to not only read my posts but take the time to leave comments that add to that post. If you’re not willing to do that and I leave your comments then I am doing a disservice to those who do the right thing.

Why not just delete the comment rather than spamming them? Because that will not resolve the problem. People need to respect the fact that do-dollow blogs are there because bloggers wish to reward their commentators but that does not mean they have the right to abuse that bloggers generosity, and when you decide to ignore comment policy and other explicit instructions you are stepping out of line and have to wear the consequences.

In summation, if you do not want to be spammed do all the right things, behave when commenting and not only will you live a spam free existence others will come to respect you as diligent commentators.

Enhanced by Zemanta

The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!

Didn't Find What You Were Looking For? Search WassupBlog Now!
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010

    JVZoo Killer WordPress Plugins.

  • Covert Social Buzz Covert Social Buzz - Brand New WordPress Plugin That Will Increase Your Social Traffic In 5 Minutes Or Less!
  • Covert Geo Targeter Pro
  • WP Linkizer WP Linkizer automatically turns every link into your blogs content into a money making machine. It does this by split testing multiple anchor text phrases and defaulting to the phrase thats gets the highest click through rate.
  • Box of Mascots 100 Royalty Free Cartoon Marketing Images for your websites, blogs and social networks! Use these cartoons in your own work to market your own products and services or SELL what you create with the toons to others!nnAs long as you use these characters i

Filed under: Blogging Tips • opinion

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!