I Didn’t Just Fall Off the Banana Boat, Y’know?

Published August 7, 2010 |

I just trashed seven comments sent here while I was out running around this afternoon.

Why? Because they all seemed like they could’ve been copied and pasted from any other blog to my blog. There’s no mention or reference to the blog post they were supposedly commenting upon. I’m a writer with a degree in Journalism (Marketing, too, btw) and I actually READ all the comments before they’re approved and show up.

Do you think I can’t figure this stuff out?

Do you honestly believe I just fell off the cabbage truck? Not.

Frankly, I’m annoyed.

I want your comments. I’d love to post your comments. You don’t have to agree with me – or, it’s okay if you do agree with me. Healthy discourse is a good thing. But you have to actually COMMENT on something in the post. That seems exceedingly reasonable.

So here’s the rules of the road:

Any “comments” I see that don’t refer to the content of the post – at all – will be trashed. Don’t waste your time. Any “comments” that are statements you obviously copy and paste from one blog to the next trying to get noticed – especially when I see the same thing over and over – will be trashed. Don’t waste your time.

If you submit something like, “Why didn’t you post my comment?” when it’s obviously an exact replica of what you posted the day before, well, I have only one thing to say: Karma can be very unforgiving, my friend.

Oh, one more thing. I have a ban on foul language. Blog posts that include words I find offensive (and I’m strict) are considered spam and will never see the light of day. Network TV censors will let more of these words through then I will. There are so many amazing, fabulous words in the English language, use ‘em. Sorry, I’m just old school that way.

Puh-leeeez, this ain’t my first rodeo.

Denise Michaels
Author, “Testosterone-free Marketing”
Publisher, “Your Excellent Adventure”

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Posted in Excellent Adventure |

Tagged comments, excellent adventure, rules, spam, trash

3 Responses to I Didn’t Just Fall Off the Banana Boat, Y’know?

Linda Ray says:

August 8, 2010 at 4:41 PM

I just read Denise’s blog “I Didn’t Just Fall Off…” and I am trying to understand why one would copy-n-paste material from somewhere else irrelevent to the subject. If you copy-n-paste and don’t cite the original writer (or blogger) that is plaguerism. I see a “righteous anger” from Denise! I think original ideas written in good taste is not too much to ask for.

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- Denise says:
  
  August 8, 2010 at 5:39 PM
  
  Hi Linda:
  
  Thanks for your comment, Linda. Just to clarify – it’s not that people are plagerizing someone else. They post the same comment over and over again regardless of what I post. I can tell, because there’s no reference to what I wrote in their comment(s). They copy and paste the same comment from one blog to another. It may not even be a person doing it. It might be some auto-bot thing-y doing it automatically. They want ANYthing to show up on other blogs in the hopes it’ll result in people clicking on their name and creating more traffic and visitors to their site. Crazy! And yes, I do think it’s “righteous anger.”
  
  Reply
Sharon Hurley Hall says:

August 9, 2010 at 3:58 AM

Then there are the ‘I left a keyword instead of my name’ comments, Denise – a big no-no! I have a pretty strict comment policy myself. One of my pet peeves is comments written in text speak – not the best way to get your comment approved, in my view!

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