Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: annoyed
  • Music: Monster High, "Fright Song."

Seriously, does spam ever work? Like, EVER?

So far this morning, I have deleted seven spam comments, and blocked the commenters from posting in my journal again. I have also deleted five spam emails submitted through my website contact form (which proves, I think, that we're training spambots to pass Turing Tests, since you have to prove humanity before my website lets you email me).

I read a web comic called Skin Horse, and pretty much daily, the comment section is kudzu'd by spammers, until one of the admins comes along and deletes the offers of cheap drugs, hand bags, imported wives, and free money from a bank in a country that doesn't exist. So far as I know, none of the readers of Skin Horse really want any of these things.

My message boards are in a continual state of "behind" when it comes to approving users, because we have to work so hard to not approve spammers.

And through it all...I don't know anyone who has ever purchased something from a spammer. Most people are so anti-spam that they reject perfectly legitimate purchases, because they've decided that they're "spammy." (This did not happen to me, thankfully, but a friend of mine was told, on their own journal, "I will never buy your books, because you're SO SPAMMY about them." Said friend pretty much confined talk of books to that journal. The journal is gone now. Because that's how much we fear being slammed for spam.) All spam seems to do is waste our time and make us paranoid about clicking things. It's like the TSA of shit you encounter on the Internet.

I do not want .jpgs and spam. I do not want them, Sam I Am.
Tags: cranky blonde is cranky, don't be dumb, technology
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  • 70 comments

beccastareyes

March 3 2011, 15:45:31 UTC 6 years ago

I wonder if it's just a way to boost Google rankings in general, rather than to get the regular commenter to buy from them. But I don't know who buys the products spammers hawk in general. (I mean, besides the scams that take advantage of people.)

phillip2637

March 3 2011, 15:55:49 UTC 6 years ago

That's a lot of the blog spam. I get posts in my spam filter like, "Great facts on an important topic," from some site selling counterfeit Australian boots.

(I'm flattered, except that it's commenting on lyrics to a song about a psychotic killer with a cursed sword. :) )

seanan_mcguire

March 3 2011, 16:14:28 UTC 6 years ago

...that makes me happy.

mariadkins

March 3 2011, 18:06:34 UTC 6 years ago

my favorites are the bots that write "very informative post on informative topic" - when i've posted up only a picture ...

seanan_mcguire

March 3 2011, 16:11:42 UTC 6 years ago

The Google thing makes a lot of sense. Sadly.

dornbeast

March 3 2011, 16:45:59 UTC 6 years ago

The blog spam that shows up on my LJ has to be for that; there's no logical reason for J. Random Spammer to even notice that my LJ exists.

lwood

March 3 2011, 22:48:39 UTC 6 years ago

Yes, essentially.

Here is a New York Times article that's nominally about JC Penney's using unscrupulous methods to boost its Google rankings on its products, but in order to explain what that is and why it's bad, the author has to explain why posting links in apparently random places makes sense--and does so in a way that makes sense to an interested non-geek:

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/business/13search.html?pagewanted=all

It shouldn't want registration--if it does, reloading usually makes it stop asking.

-- Lorrie