5/01/2007

\/ 1 @ G 4 A

Okay, look. Telling people you have a blog is sometimes frusturating (I tell my friends and they're like "you're a dork" and I have to eliminate them) and it's sometimes hard to get people to visit it. My hizzle Ψ-stizzle and I spread the word about CBC by being snarky and/or cute on other people's blogs that people read a lot. Then we post kitties here and hook 'em. (Shameless, but, y'know. effective.) It seems, though, that some people have trouble with how to get people to read your blog without pissing them off. So now, I present to you

Excimer's Guide On How Not To Advertise Your Interblag


1. Don't be a troll. Unless you're Wolfie on Chembark. (Sometimes trolls can be entertaining and informative-ish. Wolfie is a professional Brachertroll. Do not try this at home.) A troll is someone who is a complete dick on a website without useful comments or insights. It's okay to lack insight (like I do, constantly) but please try to be funny and breezy when doing so (like I do not, constantly).

2. No spam. NO SPAM. NO FUCKING SPAM. We're all familiar with email spam (We cannot jargon the bottle hilariously. \/ 1 @ G 4 A the cow draft. Never have they C 1 A L 1 $ known the kite again, despite my best travels.) There is such a thing as blog comment spam. It's when you advertise your blog by posting the same comment on a bunch of posts, especially on the same blog. It looks like we got spambombed recently by someone named Sushi who's asking us a Zen riddle (what gets warmer as temperature decreases? the answer, of course, is an igloo) and posting several comments on a number of our posts. This person has posted elsewhere, but it looks like a number of chemblags, particularly the blogspot ones, got spambombed. If this is the work of someone with not enough to do, stop it. Your comments will be deleted for now. If you want to talk about something relevant, do so. We'll read your blog if you link to it. Otherwise, go back to the internet cesspool you spawned from. You will be forgiven for your transgressions, but only once.

Oy gevalt.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're probably only encouraging spammers by dedicating a whole post to them...

Mitch

Chemgeek said...

I'd be lying if I said, I didn't want people to read my blog, but I don't mind the limited traffic. I write mostly for myself. My blog is like a house on a quiet street in suburbia as opposed to a busy city street in downtown New York.

Besides, my topics tend to be too diverse to establish a core of readers. I'm OK with that.

However, with that said, I always enjoy the occasional visits by Ψ*Ψ and others.

I have learned a great deal from the comments left on my blog. Thankfully, I've only had to deal with a small amount of spam.

Ψ*Ψ said...

Excimer: Thanks for deleting all of those. Man, that's annoying. If someone stays quiet, I'll link them quickly. The loud, annoying self-promoting blogs get ignored. To this point we've really only had two spammers.
Chemgeek: I bet you'd have more people reading if you gave them free beer...

Chemgeek said...

Sadly, beer can't be emailed or uploaded....yet.

Anonymous said...

Did someone say free beer? :)

Mitch

ElwoodCity, Ph.D. said...

Poor me, being neither insightful, nor funny. What should I do? More comments about your legs?

Anonymous said...

Why do you want to discourage them? I got some great advice on small cap stocks from one of them yesterday; I'm getting a group of friends together and we're all going to invest our lottery winnings on one of them. I also have to work on scheduling my trip to Nigeria to pick up the $30 million just waiting for me...

Seriously, this stuff goes on because lots of computers are insecure (so spammers can spam without using their own resources) and because someone keeps buying the products they advertise. My only hopes are that either 1) the(in)appropriate use of high explosives might keep them in check or 2) to hope that people keep buying their V1@G4A from spammers so the problem will eventually go away (and ensuring a continous flow of Darwin Awards for the amusement of others, and an ample test of the Law of Conservation of Stupidity).

Anonymous said...

Wordpress free hosting has been thoughtfully provided with the Aksimet comment spam gobler. I got 3000+ spam comments eaten so far. From time to time a spam with a single link would make it through. The last time it was some custom-synthesis company in India. Next time they do this, I will re-post their contact e-mail in Craiglist as a barebacks bondage gay party services. Hah

Ψ*Ψ said...

Hmm. That sounds much more fun than custom synthesis, methinks.

Anonymous said...

For offensiveness, I would figure that linking them to a slaughterhouse hot line ("All of Your Offal Needs") might do wonders.

It has also been suggested that the addresses of well-known spammers are useful for store cards, etc., when one doesn't want to give one's own data. Of course, Kroger might wonder why some loser in MI shops so much in OH, but, oh well.

Anonymous said...

I wasn't trying for maximum offensiveness - just the mainstream play-and-party kind of add to get them maximum inquiries. The idea is to spam them back.

(For maximum offensiveness, I could advertise them as a water-sports club)

Anonymous said...

Wolfie, Wolfie, Wolfie...too bad that he'll probably stop commenting once his friend gets busted.

MJenks said...

I wasn't hooked on the kitties. I was hooked on the ninjas.

Despina said...

Hi!

[I sure hope my comment does not qualify as spam]. I read this blog and I like it (even though I don't know that much about chemistry, and I don't have many posts of my own, yet). but yeah, can I link you (once I figure out how to do it)?

Ψ*Ψ said...

New links are always awesome. :) Usually I wait a few posts before linking to a new blog, because many people will write one or two posts and then quit. Makes it harder to keep the blogroll up-to-date (which it isn't now, but whatever).

Anonymous said...

this may not be related to the topic but I heard there is free cake at Chemical Quantum Images

Excimer said...

lolz

Anonymous said...

the answer is so not igloo, biotch!