Flattering comment spam

Filed under: Spam
2 Comments

It used to be that comment spam was full of nasty remarks. These days, though, it's more often full of praise.

The funny thing is, even though I'm completely aware that it's spam, that it was generated by a computer and posted by a bot, even though I totally understand with my rational brain that nobody involved in creating these bits of praise has ever actually read anything I've written, it still makes me feel good.

It's praising my blog!

Example excerpts:

  • I am very glad to see that you are putting so much of effort for encouraging the visitors with valueable posts like this
  • I certainlyenjoying every little bit of it Smile.
  • Wonderful to read!
  • Great post!
  • Excellent job.
  • well thought out stuff
  • That was a great post. I couldn't agree more with your sentiments.
  • informative post, raises intrigueing points
  • quite beneficial post. thank you very much.
  • Amazing! I have been in search of this data all around the web. Great and thanks.
  • It is refreshingto see such quality on blogs
  • hey i really love your blog. this is great info.

And so on. It goes on and on—a few dozen comments like this each day.

So even though it takes a bit of time to delete all the spam, I don't feel too bad about it, because the part of my brain that reacts positively to praise, regardless of the source, gets constant little doses of pleasure all through the spam-deletion process.

Of course, the flip side of this is that I bristle a little at the spam comments that say things like "Your site has code errors."

But even so: thanks, spammers! Even though I hate you and wish you would stop, you do manage to make my day a little brighter now and then.

P.S.: My favorite line from recent comment spam: "Winter never rots in the sky." It's apparently an old English proverb, but I'm not clear on what it means. But I like the phrase.

2 Responses to “Flattering comment spam”

  1. Anonymous

    I like the winter line, but the rest of the comment spam praise just irritates me when I see it in any blog, not just mine. Wasting my time.

    reply

  2. Vardibidian

    I have the exact opposite response, as it happens. Perhaps it is my insecurity as a blogger, but I find it powerfully, powerfully depressing to look at a dozen notes saying that my blog is wonderful, well-written, and solves their problems, and know that none of those things are true. I would rather delete false but nasty statements than false but lovely ones.

    Perhaps it’s because, deep down, I really do want to get comments from strangers telling me how wonderful my blog is. And when I do get those comments, and they turn out to be spam (as they always do, dozens of times a day), I have a sad.

    Thanks,
    -V.

    reply

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