Come Monday...Content vs. Comments

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of, or commentary about,  websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time.  Be assured that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.”  This is subject to change, however.  In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while.  For rants promote change, and change can be good—right?  Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).

This started out to be When Spam Splatters.  Hence, the reason for that image, but I have been wanting to go on another semi-rant over comment treatment in general for a while now.  Hence, the title of Content vs. Comments.

Okay, let us to start off with splattering spam, and what I am referring to is when spam comments hit the wall put up by Blogger’s automatic spam filter.  Yeah, I can imagine it looking rather similar to what is depicted in that image.

To be quite honest about it, I was beginning to feel rather foolish over the stand I have taken against having the word verification spam filter engaged.  For aside from making it much more difficult for some to leave legitimate comments, my main argument has been that it is unnecessary because of the automatic spam filter blocking 90% or more spam comments to start with, and that percentage had dropped to around 70% on my sites the last 2-3 weeks.

Oh, but at around 4:00 p.m. CT last Friday, which was the 5^th of April to those living in and around Essex, England, Great Britain, United Kingdom, over 100 spam comments were attempted to be left on various posts here in a matter of minutes.  NONE of them made it through the Blogger automatic spam filter.  In the spirit of full disclosure, a couple did make it through later on that day, but I can live with that.

Yeah, I could probably eliminate having to actually deal with any spam if I would ban “Anonymous” from leaving comments, but I do not want to make it harder for those who do not want to register a screen name somewhere.  Oh, and there is no doubt in my mind that this would have kept me from receiving several very pertinent (and very satisfying) comments from people familiar with the real story behind some of the segments on [Big Rig Bounty Hunters].

Speaking of receiving very pertinent (and very satisfying) comments, I just don’t understand the detachment so many bloggers have with their audience.  For they keep cranking out content while ignoring dozens upon dozens of comments that have been left on their previous pieces.

Okay, it may not be that they are ignoring them, but to me, failing to at least acknowledge seeing a comment is like seeing someone wave at you in public and you just turning away without waving back.  No, you don’t have to spend time that you may not have to spare always leaving lengthy replies, but you just might be surprised at just how far a little common courtesy goes with some readers.

There are, of course, the visitors who leave comments and do not expect any acknowledgement—let alone an actual reply.  Quite sadly, far too many of them are just leaving comments to get their name out there, which happens a lot to celebrities.

Yes, I suppose it could be argued that I am doing the same thing when I leave a comment to check if someone has word verification engaged before adding a site to the list for a future Sites To See and then leaving notice of it actually being included later on, but I look at that as trying to do something nice for someone else.  Of course, if I can gain another friend along the way—GOOD FOR ME!

Alas, many bloggers are trying to juggle family obligations with a desire to express themselves, but what would you think of a store where the owners acted like they could not care less if you shopped there or not and made it clear that they expected their workers to keep busy stocking shelves—not help customers find what they are looking for, nor make them feel like they are delighted to have them as a customer?  Yeah, when one really needs something, customer service is not as important, but with there being tens of thousands of sites on the internet all offering basically the same kind of content, what is going to keep your true readers coming back?  Come on now, can you really believe that your images, cute family stories, political commentary, craft projects and whatever else you may have to offer is just plain too good for the masses to pass up?

Yeah, I have made a dedicated effort to show how delighted I am when someone leaves a comment on one of my pieces without seeing much of benefit, but Arlynda would tell you that my “stuff” just plain stinks.  Sigh.

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