I was extremely put out the other morning when I checked the comments on my blog and found that one of them linked to a filthy site. I naively imagined that the name ***porn was a reference to a yearning for yarn and very angry that it related to my writing about and photographs of Amelia my great niece. It seemed fairly genuine, the author had taken the trouble to compliment me on my knitting but obviously not to read the post as he/she said I had a cute kid, I don't have any kids. In my innocence I clicked on the link as I always like to reciprocate comments. I was disgusted and I admit confused as to how it is possible to get into certain positions and at the same time display so much of the human anatomy. My first impulse was to tell them that they were not welcome on my site but I decided not to respond. I was able to delete the comment (forever) and while I was at it I deleted the Boycott American Women one that appeared some time ago and had prompted Gigibird to post that she likes Geoff Boycott, that's the spirit. Mr FF read the comment about all American women being fat, lazy, unable to cook, cheats etc and muttered 'same here mate' which made me smile because I know he doesn't mean it. This Boycott guy is apparently posting on blog after blog regardless of it's content and if other commenters make fun of him he can become quite abusive, that's scary and a dreadful waste of his little life.I then went onto to Blogger and had a look in my comments section where it is possible to view the spam that has been intercepted. Firstly may I say I had no idea that the proprietors of escort agencies from Mexico to the Ukraine are so interested in a pensioner's knitting/gardening blog. The absolute bollocks that people are trying to post onto my blog is amazing, questions about acne, do I know a good dentist, the usual male part amplification and unlock your phone offers. What an absolute waste of time, the whole world is aware that these are spam and I say hats off to the people at Blogger who have them sorted. There are nearly 200 in my spam section, if you have the time you should check yours, contemplate the mad world we live in and wonder what all the freaks used to do before we had the internet. Can I also say to those of you who do post lovely comments thank you, you are sane, intelligent, responsible people not out to mess with my computer or shock me and I appreciate every word.
Picture from Google Images
Post blog note - following the sensible comment from Debs I have taken out certain words that could attract the nutters, hence the rather coy references. Hope it works and thanks Debs
Fow a while I got comments from someone whose link told you that she would write your dissertation for you ..... but her comments were full of spelling mistakes and bad grammar! Fortunately with Typepad, very few spam comments get through, and I have never had anything obscene.
ReplyDeleteAccording to my spam blocking doodad, I have had 27,174 spam posts to my blog since May 2010! I still haven't had anything enlarged or felt the need to send money to Nigeria, either. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'd no idea you could check your spam - i'll go and have a look. Your post is hilarious! xxx
ReplyDeleteI've had a few goofballs commenting here and there that actually get through. I had a really ugly back in the winter, and I backed off blogging for a while. But I'm not letting a few fruitcakes take the joy out of something I like to do. I did notice some very odd hits to two of my posts and when I finally took the time to go back and read them with a "twisted" view, I saw two phrases that probably caused the traffic. I changed the title to one of my posts and a phrase in another, and voila! The increase in traffic stopped. I would suggest to you...if I may be so bold...that you might want to try changing that "p" word in your post...maybe use a 3 for the "e" and a 1 for the "i"...because it's likely to drive traffic that you don't want! Just an observation...I'm not usually that forward but would hate for you to get more unwanted hits!
ReplyDeletegreat post!
ReplyDeleteI hate spam...what more can I say,
xxx
This is a real comment. Can't believe you are getting all that stuff. How nasty. I only get stuff that goes into my spam box. I think it's the same person but there doesn't seem to be any way of blocking it. As it's in Japanese I don't have to read it and it's always posted to a blog I did over a year ago. Some people really need to get a real life. Hope it hasn't upset you too much. We understand lovey. xx
ReplyDeleteCarolyn
I've never checked out my spam folder but I am curious now! Someone once put a whole lot of very bad poetry on my blog as a comment - not sure why, but I deleted it.
ReplyDeleteI'm an american woman who's not fat, and work full time for 25 years (10 to go till retirement!! woohoo!), and I'm not lazy. its just that tv and the media always find the fat, toothless, and uneducated to put on display because it's "sensational". That's one way stereotypes are created. but Lord knows we have our share of all the above, but so does the UK, and most other developed countries.
ReplyDeleteYou learn something every day. I was not aware of this spam folder. I usually delete them, but husband once found a website to translate one and it wasn't pleasant
ReplyDeleteHmmm! I had the 'hate American women'guy too and a while back had a Chinese sex site repeatedly leaving comments, under a variety of avatars. SUCH a waste of the individual's time! Ros
ReplyDeleteI checked my 'spam' a little while ago but only had one in there and it was nothing much at all!! I guess no one really likes to read my blog, although I'm not blogging for a while anyway!!!
ReplyDeleteI do however, get about sixty a day in my spam email folder!!
I think I have had the same person leave a message on my blog too - I just deleted the whole comment. I think I'll check out my spam folder too. Some people obviously have far too much time on their hands.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more, Jenny. I filter my own spam, as I found the Wordpress filter a little bit overzealous - it was removing genuine comments as well as all the crap. But it's absolutely amazing, the amount of utter rubbish that gets sent in the comments - a lot of it, as you say, not very nice at all.
ReplyDeleteI have comment moderation enabled and that seems to keep a lot of the nuts out, but for those that escape the filters, it's easy enough to spot them by what they leave in a comment. Often times these comments are very brief and I've accidentally erased legit ones because I thought they were spam and not from regular readers (speed reader that needs to slow down sometimes, but if you've only got 4 or 5 words to say why even bother?). I admit that I've never experienced one from a porn site but I do get visits because of certain words.
ReplyDeleteI too have had some porn spam although they did take the trouble to leave quite a nice comment so I haven’t deleted it! I haven’t clicked on the link though …
ReplyDeleteI have another blog Florence Hope which has been spammed to death so I’ve had to remove the comments option which is a shame…
I am not really sure how much traffic a porn site would actually pick up from craft based bloggers….
This is so awful, Jenny! Mr Boycott has been to my place several times too. I have comment moderation in place, so I have to go in and publish comments. And this is the reason I do that--so no junk gets on my blog. I don't me or my friends ending up clicking a link to a dodgy site! I'm on Typepad as well, and they are pretty good generally about spam, but I make sure to get the ones that sneak through. ;o) Many thanks for your kind comment at my place... We're still dealing with the shock of the tragedy that's happened here. It's just all so sad...
ReplyDeleteI moderate my comments, too, which I think makes a difference. But it is horrid when it happens - lots of sad people out there, with nothing much to do.
ReplyDeletePomona x
I'm on Typepad and very little seems to come through. I've had less than 10 spam comments in the entire time I've been blogging. There was someone trying to sell cheap trainers (they were quite persistent for a while) and couple selling loans, but other than that nothing else.
ReplyDeleteI moderate everything and if in doubt, I hit the delete button straight away.