Wow! I got my first two comments on my blog! And it’s only been 5 days that my site has been up….
Hmmm, Being the MAJOR skeptic that I am, I began looking at this simple comment that was left for one of my articles, it was left by someone calling him/herself GlenStef:
“Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post.”
Now this comment in particular was not all that funky, nor did it stand out as a particularly off topic thought. It was actually the fact that I had only just opened my site and had done NO advertising. The post that was being commented on had only been there a very short time. So my radar went off and I went over to our friend Google to do a little digging, here’s what I found:
- Mister GlenStef has a lot of accounts in some extremely diverse blogs
- Mister GlenStef has only a few things to say
- Greatings, Ugh, I liked! So clear and positively.
- yourSiteNameHere.com – da best. Keep it going!
- Hello, Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day!
- Everything dynamic and very positively!
(even the smiley showed up in every place posted.) - Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post. (Hey! that’s the one I got.)
Looking at this next one, I don’t think it’s from the same spamming bot because I didn’t see it posted from GlenStef and it was more complex, but I did see it on several blogs when I was researching this:
- I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
- Mister GlenStef appears to have many pseudonyms:
- Elcoj – on several sites
- Streightepale
- Eremeeff
- AlexAxe (The site I got this one from was a veritable cornucopia of spam comments)
- etc. etc. etc…
All these are marks of a robot in action. Why go to the trouble of making all these posts? It’s a thing called search engine result placement. Most of these blogs include a link of some sort back to the commenter’s “Home page” the more links to a URL you can get in the most number of diverse places, the more a search engine will view that link as relevant. All those links will (so the thought is) bump the URL up the Search Engine result list, putting more money in the spammers pocket.
As you can probably tell I am new to this whole Blog thing. Perhaps even naive, I don’t know, but I feel there has got to be some way to curtail these robotic spam comments. On the other hand do I really want to? Do all these spam postings from other sites make my article more meaningful on the search engines?
I was surprised to find that it wasn’t just the small little guys like me who were getting these posts and letting them through. Check out the policy blog site for Intel and you will find our friend GlenStef telling them the same thing he told me… I guess I’m in good company:
If you want to see more of this stuff, go to Google and search on “GlenStef” and “Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post”
I think I’ll spend some more time with this subject in the future, til then, enjoy.
Update: Here is a nice link you can follow for more information and some tips on preventing this kind of spam from messing up your blog: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_in_blogs
Posted in Blog Matters
I don’t agree with your point of view.
wadon998811
– ed I removed the advert link but thought it a very good idea to include any bot replies as they com in…
Which Stars Smoke Cigarettes
I know the answer! The answer lies within the heart of all mankind! I think I’m in the wrong building.
coolserg9981
Buy new cars Every act of will is an act of self-limitation coolserg9981
YOnyrJ asvcyhoatmxr
IVbFnr scbrpmxdenle,
QheSq7 nqutijtnrjpy,
AFH7JQ ashjptuqpwbd, , – ED NOTE: Oh, come on, these spammers aren’t even trying to look real…
Hi there,
Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post.
Rufor
This brings me to an idea:…
AnDg8c bvaxahxpcgjs, zvwfqgsrfpug, brwnkhqoxtiv, (ed note – Bla bla bla bla…)
LKHQqu goagqyrwcbnh, wjsvqaawabiv, fsvlbbhfpyuk, (ed note – I find it interesting that search engines would actually follow the links I removed..)
etRmu7 ohlwahonumai, wleldchppamd, aqiidehhdquc, (ed note – if you don’t move, it can’t see you…)
SWCfof , zrwjussrxroh, gdxuuxkpdfdg, (ed note – ??? Some spammers are just plain lazy!)
I am really glad I found this blog. Great Job!
I was going to write a similar blog concerning this topic, you beat me to it. You did a nice job!
R8926V sllyvpefoyzb, pcjtzxlhsqfv, jrxeydwvgvvs, (ed note – spammers obviously are not posting this stuff for humans…)
Great blog. Can’t wait to start my own blog.
[...] My first thought: the poem is not true? Is that even possible — can poems be objectively true/not true? Second thought: this must be spam. So I googled this GlenStef character, and found a lot of postings on a very random mix of blogs. I also found this post from another blogger who had gotten the same comment on his blog as me, and who decided to do some more digging. From his blog: [...]
This blog makes me want to start my own blog.
I wrote a similar blog regarding this subject but your is better.
I have been posting here for long, I did find this post really worth of publishing to another forums and share with other friends, well I do it on your permission, coz I think this will help several other webmasters as well. If you will like this to shared on other forums as well, I will really like to help. I will post it with your name to make your work really help full for you as well! Keep up the good work, post more topics like this and I know the forum will really be proud of their best resources.
Sorry for the late response, Yes you may share this post.