As I am new to blogging (or at least to blog maintenance), I am having my first experience with the baneful phenomenon known as Comment Spam. It is strange. Spammers post fake comments that include links to their web sites, selling the usual pharmaceuticals and other seedy merch. They want readers or, more important, search engines to follow the links.

I don’t really understand it. It doesn’t work, for various reasons. It prevents me from allowing unfiltered comments, but otherwise it’s not even that much of a nuisance, because automated defenses have become available. Yet it seems so evil somehow—a low-grade, pointless sort of evil.

Looking for the silver lining in this cloud, I recently checked out a few of my intercepted comments. The spammers seem to have evolved a peculiar species of flattery: generic and illiterate and inadvertently hilarious. Maybe this is a form of meme, surviving obsequiously. Here are some examples:

I was recommended this blog by my cousin. I am not sure whether this post is written by him as nobody else know such detailed about my problem. You’re amazing! Thanks!

I agree with the post above and I will grab more information from google google.

Good writing, beautiful pictures, wow, it is wonderful, rolex2u, wonderful, we will always support you!

Loving that, good info! If you nettle a unexpected quit during because we take a new free training program in the service of those looking to start their own internet charge online

I can’t argue any of your ideas. You should write more often!

Golly, thanks! I’ll try.

Contact

Find me in the open social web (fediverse; Mastodon): @JamesGleick@zirk.us

Literary agent:
Michael Carlisle
at Inkwell Management,
521 Fifth Ave.,
New York 10175.

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