Damned Commercial Crap Threatens Social Media

The stupid comments that are just thinly-veiled ads, disguised as blog comments … the twitter traffic that’s just “buy me buy me” … like the spam that threatens to drown email altogether, it’s not just annoying. It’s destructive. It’s a damned shame.

Yesterday the comment here below was submitted …

comment

… as an addition to my post Revising the Root Canal Theory of Business Planning here, on this blog, last August. As you knew instantly (you being a human, who actually reads), that post is entirely about business planning, not at all about teeth or dentistry. The root canal is a metaphor.

While I love your comments on my blog – I encourage them, respond to them, thank you for them – I hate the increasingly common attempts to circumvent the so-called social media conversation with hidden agendas. Stupid fake comments. And that includes all those stupid generic-fake-praise comments plastered all over blogs for obvious self-serving SEO purposes. Scripts and bots, set loose, in this case crawling around the Web looking for “root canal” in posts, placing the commercial crap there. Pollution on purpose.

As far as I can tell, almost all blogs that allow comments have to be moderated these days because of all this commercial crap, essentially fake comments, advertisements masquerading as conversation. No wonder some of the highest-traffic blogs, like Seth Godin’s blog, don’t allow comments. This is what I was referring to earlier this month when I posted the problem with crowd sourcing is crowds.

Selfish, mean people have almost killed email with their sociopathic behavior. Now they’re after blogging and Twitter. A curse on all of their houses. Dammit.

Comments

  • Zach Machado says:

    Hi Tim,

    It goes further than being a nuisance to the blogger, it becomes one to the reader as well. Part of the fun, interest, etc. of reading a blog is seeing what kind of reaction the post provoked out of its readers. When every other comment is an ad or spam it detracts from the quality “conversation” taking place.
    It is par for the course though…advertising is like a cockroach, it will prevail and be the last thing standing when we are all gone. It is the invasive campaigns, that make everything look and feel dirty by splashing links and keywords throughout cyberspace like digital graffitti, which need to go. If only we could convince the morons clicking the links to stop – without the clicks they will go away….

  • Kate Putnam says:

    Hi Tim,
    Actually it sounds pretty funny and you should enjoy the laugh rather than let it get to you. One of my favorite comments on our sustainable packaging blog was for payroll loans. Like your example it had absolutely nothing to do with the blog post and not even the virtue of terminology. You have to be amused at what lengths people will go to. Otherwise you might be frustrated and mad and that is no fun. Enjoy the day!!
    Kate

  • David Lindberg says:

    Tell me how you really feel!!! LOL I totally agree with you Tim. I’m sure you really get hit with the crap….it always happens…with good comes people to take advantage of others.

  • David Lindberg says:

    Tell me how you really feel!!! LOL I totally agree with you Tim. I’m sure you really get hit with the crap….it always happens…with good comes people to take advantage of others.

  • David Lindberg says:

    Tell me how you really feel!!! LOL I totally agree with you Tim. I’m sure you really get hit with the crap….it always happens…with good comes people to take advantage of others.

  • David Lindberg says:

    Tell me how you really feel!!! LOL I totally agree with you Tim. I’m sure you really get hit with the crap….it always happens…with good comes people to take advantage of others.

  • David Lindberg says:

    Tell me how you really feel!!! LOL I totally agree with you Tim. I’m sure you really get hit with the crap….it always happens…with good comes people to take advantage of others.

  • Jason D says:

    Hmm.. I wonder how many people will comment on this post?

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