Real comment or just spam?

If you’ve been blogging for any given length of time, you’ll know that even the newest blogs are still plagued with spam comments. Unfortunately, it’s unavoidable, and it’s all just part of the game. In my opinion, spammers are nothing but a waste of space in the universe. I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t agree.

Over the years, I’ve gradually been getting more and more irritated that those tricky bastards are conning innocent bloggers into thinking their spam comments are real. I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage you to keep a close eye on the comments that are sneaking past your spam filters.

It used to be that the typical spam comment was loaded with links to shady and downright illegal websites and they were easy to spot.

Now, they’re using one-liners like “Well said.” and “I completely agree!”, or “Great post”. The only link they give is the one in the designated area within the comment form. Some people are just full of wisdom and want to share their brilliant opinions in the form of a few words, but 99% of the time, it’s spam.

Don’t believe me? Just check out the link they provide. If it isn’t a splog or something else just as dodgy, I’ll gladly eat my own words.

Not only are these buttholes leaving clever comments disguised as something a somewhat intelligent person would say, they’re also taking it a few steps further and getting pretty in-depth. They’re generalizing (much like a self-proclaimed psychic would do) and banking on the chances that their comment will apply to your post’s topic. I’ve seen spam comments that were a few paragraphs long and very hard to detect as bullshit.

To be quite honest, when I see a spam comment on someone else’s blog, I get a funny feeling. I can’t tell if that blogger just doesn’t care, or if they’re a bit of a fool. Maybe it’s neither, but either way, you don’t want spam leaving a bad taste in the mouths of your readers so make sure you’re ruthless when it comes to getting rid of that crap.

One liners are a dead giveaway. When in doubt, check the URL and make sure it’s not a spam page. (This is also a reminder to leave thoughtful and bandwidth-worthy posts of your own on other blogs, not just “Thanks for the post”. If you aren’t adding to the conversation, don’t bother commenting.)

Comments that have absolutely nothing to do with the post topic are also a dead giveaway.

If you’re really in doubt, you can copy and paste. If a comment looks a bit fishy to you, copy it and paste it into the search bar of your browser. In other words, “Google it“. If you’re right, you’ll see those exact words on quite a few other unsuspecting blogs.

We can’t beat them, and we certainly shouldn’t join them, but we can at least pummel the shit out of their comments on our own blogs, right?

RT @cassiegermsheid: "Real comment or just spam?"