Horror Website – An Insight Perspective – Commenting part 2 (spam bots)

Hey everyone, Glad you could join me for another “running a horror web site” article. Today, something caught my eye that as a Marketing person seemed too interesting not to comment on. I’m sure like myself, there are many who rub blogs, deal with comments and often are confused with the content in comments. Now, it goes without saying that if a comment contains vulgarities, swearing or such that it instantly transported to a que to examine. (This prevents p*rn sites from spamming and popping up in comments)

I’m ok with the swearing if it’s relevant and something that can be commented back on. After all, this gives a site a chance to respond and address things head on. We could just delete it, but sometimes that ruins the fun, correct?

Lately, I’ve been seeing such comments that sound like rants but in closer examination are not totally relevant to the topic they are commenting on.

A good one would be….”you don’t know what you talking about, I totally disagree, and BTW, your site is sh*t”

Here is a recent example from today (see comments below)

Now upon examination, the comment might work on some articles, but if its under say a new post that only shows a “trailer” with no opinion or article…then it reveals itself as something else.

My first impression would be, what are they referring to and why is my site SHIT because of it? Then, I put on my technical hat to find that the comment is too random and I shouldn’t be offended.

OK, now the reveal!

What these are what we call spam bots. They are actually robots that contain a somewhat general sounding message and target articles with keywords. For instance. Today we received one about “Fright Night”. Though the article was a year old and the message referred to things that don’t exist on our site.

This was the giveaway. Though I believe these random threats serve a purpose as well. A lame purpose, none-the-less, but a purpose.

Upon inspection, they go out looking for security holes, opportunities for spam inclusion, link building exercises….use your imagination. Maybe it’s just simple interest presence…who knows?

Now once a comment is approved, this opens a door for more comments, maybe at a later date, maybe the next time includes p*rn links or ads for viagra……make sense?

So a word of caution, don’t take every comment at face value….as comments need to be read to determine their nature. What you might mistake as someone with an opinion is sometimes just a technical opportunist looking for a back door.
Thanx again for listening, I’ll make sure to post important things of interest as they arise, arrive or manifest

Takeaway:
If the comment looks suspicious then delete it, as it probably is.
Don’t open doors for spam, spam is not your friend

Michael Bonedigger