The Spammers are Mobile!

Spam.  It seems to be a huge problem for most bloggers.  Until recently, though, I hadn't had too much of a problem with it.  I don't know if that means the bloggers had yet to discover my blog or if they just didn't think it was worth commenting on.

Not anymore.  Now I get several spam comments every single day - and those are just the ones that get through.  There are quite a few more that are stopped either by Blogger or by Intense Debate.  Thankfully.

But every once in a while one of those comments slips through.  I guess that's all it takes, right?  The thing I haven't been able to figure out is how they've been doing it, because most of these spammers are using Blogger comments - instead of Intense Debate.  I've looked at the posts and seen no way to comment with Blogger - so how have they been doing it?

Then today I was on my phone and accidentally clicked a link to my blog from Facebook.  Right there, on the mobile site, was the option to comment with Blogger.  Is there any way to put Intense Debate on the mobile version of the site?  I will have to look into that.

Anyway, I'm thinking that the spammers are mobile, and that's how they're doing it.  I still can't figure out what they really think they're accomplishing by trying to leave all these comments...

Request From a Spammer - DENIED

I got this spam comment today:

When I initіally commented I appeаr to have clіcked on the -Νοtify me when new comments are adԁеd- checkboх and from now on eаch time a comment is aԁdеd I reсіeѵe 4 emaіls with
the exact same cοmment. There has to be a mеаns you can гemovе me from that sеrvice?
My website: www.spammywebsiteyouneverwanttovisit.com

Not that I believe for a second that anything the spammers say is true, but I'd love to believe at least one of them gets bombarded with multiple unwanted emails, and there's absolutely no way I'd do anything to remove him or her from said service. 

Unfortunately all comments on that particular post are screened and spammed, so there are no actual comments or emails going out.  Bummer.

Brain Dead? Really?

Is it only me or does it appear like a few of the remarks appear as if they are coming from brain dead visitors?

I love comments, but recently the only ones I've been getting are spam comments.  They sound sort of nice and flattering, but really they don't make any sense.  Or they ask questions like the one above that seem directed specifically toward those stupid spammy commenters. 

The comments always end with an invitation to visit a blog or website.  Of course, they're just a not-so-cleverly disguised attempt to slip in a free link.  Thankfully most of them are on old posts, and I've got it set up to moderate comments on old posts, so I get an email giving me the options to Publish, Delete, or Mark as Spam.  I've been marking a lot of them as spam.

Doesn't it just seem that these spammers are wasting their time?  What is the point, really?  I mean, they're really annoying, but I don't see how they think they're accomplishing anything.

Hello! Anybody There?

I'm feeling a bit neglected nowadays. All my giveaways are closed, and nobody is commenting anymore.  Well, hardly.  I guess I know who my true friends are now, because you're still talking to me!  Everyone else was just hoping to win, huh?

Seriously, besides giving away great prizes, what is the secret to getting people to comment?   I should probably pay more attention to the posts I comment on when I visit other blogs and analyze why I feel compelled to comment on certain posts.  Or not.  Maybe I'll just accept that we're all busy with our own lives, with housework, homework, work work, taking that massage therapy program online or whatever, and no one really has time to comment, even when they have time to read other people's blogs.  Because I'm just as guilty and rarely take the time to comment.

Maybe I should be looking for the secret to cramming more stuff into a day - getting more done in less time.  Any ideas how I can do that?

No Time for Comments?

You might have noticed that I've got a giveaway going right now.  I've had the post up for about 4 days, and I already have over 100 comments.  Granted, I asked for separate comments for each entry, and many of those comments have been made by the same people, but still...

What I've noticed is that I don't get very many comments on my posts, unless I'm lucky enough to host a giveaway that people want to win.  Even the memes I participate in don't seem to get many comments.  It leaves me wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if people are just too busy to comment.  I know I definitely fit into that last category!  I do try to visit and comment when it comes to the memes, like Looking at the Sky on Friday and Camera Critters, but rarely comment on other posts.  Sometimes I read a post I really want to comment on, have every intention of commenting on, so I leave it open in a tab of my browser - and usually end up closing it at the end of the day, never having gone back to comment.  Of course, sometimes I do that when I'm planning to enter a giveaway, but usually it involves a regular (non giveaway) post.

I'm thinking that next time I host a giveaway, I'm going to give extra entries for adding relevant comments to other posts on my blog - just so my regular posts don't feel so neglected.  Other than that, I don't know if there's any way to encourage more comments.  What do I have to offer that is more important than the tons of other things that people already have to deal with?  Usually.  This week I have a $75 CSN Stores gift certificate!

Related articles

• Week 6: Comments, Comments, and More Comments (blogging2learn.wordpress.com)

Do Follow and Spam?

When I changed my template on Sunday, I forgot all about changing it so that comments are do follow.  When I went looking for the directions I originally followed, I couldn't find them - the page was missing!  So, I went searching for instructions and found these:

Edit your template HTML with widgets expanded and replace:

<a expr:href='data:comment.authorUrl' rel='nofollow'>

with

<a expr:href='data:comment.authorUrl'>

Basically, just remove the part that says rel='nofollow'.

I did a search (CTRL+F) for comment.authorUrl, deleted the nofollow attribute, and saved my template.

While looking for the directions, I noticed that some people have stopped making their blogs Do Follow because it encouraged spam.  I'm probably asking for it here, but I haven't had a huge problem with spam.  Sure, it happens every once in a while, and I did have one commenter who repeatedly left spammy comments on one post.  I had never used comment moderation until then, but now I have it set so that comments on any posts older than 30 days have to be moderated.  So far that seems to be a decent compromise.

Any comments?  Have you made your blogs Do Follow?  Does it seem to encourage spam, and if so, how do you handle it?

Entrecard: finally a way to get more comments

I mentioned earlier about the Entrecard - SezWho partnership. It sounds like a great idea to get increased comments on your blog, so I signed up with SezWho, and found out that some of the blogs I already comment on have been using it for a while. At least it looks that way, because SezWho already had a record of those comments. Interesting...

I installed the SezWho code on my blog, changed things so that the comments show up on the post pages, and... Well, I'm not so sure it's working properly. I get the whole SezWho popup that enables me, or anyone, to see where else my commenters have been commenting. I think that's really neat, and I've already clicked some of those to visit the posts they commented on. The thing I don't see are the ratings stars, which do seem to be important because that's how people earn more Entrecard credits, by leaving relevant comments that get high ratings. If people can't rate or be rated on my blog, will they want to take the time to comment? I mean, I'd like them to comment because they want to comment and not just because they can get something out of it, but if it takes a little incentive, then I'm OK with that.

I'm thinking I may have to change to the 'New' Blogger to get this to work properly. Maybe. I'm playing with a new template or layout of whatever they call it on my test blog, but I'm still not sure how much trouble that will be. Also, I have another blog that uses the New Blogger layouts, and no matter how many times I've tried, I can't get it to show that I've installed the ITK (IZEA Tool Kit) so I can get my RealRank. I must have that on this blog. Help me somebody - do you have ITK on your New Blogger blog? Does it work OK? How did you get it to work?

I can't guarantee high ratings and Entrecard credits if you comment here, but I could really use some help.

Bogger Comments, Revisited

Did you happen to notice that you can once again leave your url when you comment on Blogger? I'm not sure when they fixed it, but I just noticed today. Now, when you choose 'nickname' you can not only leave your name, but there is a box for your url, too.

Also, Hootin' Anni posted instructions for fixing the comment pop-up problems some of us have been having when using Firefox. You know, when the comment box is about 1 inch wide, and you can't even see the box to enter your comments? Very frustrating, but it can be fixed! I followed her instructions, and now I can comment on her blog. She has right-click disabled, so I couldn't use my fix - which is to right-click and open the comments in a new tab.

This has nothing much to do with comments, but do you know how hard is is to type anything when the 'l' key refuses to work on a regular basis? I have to sit here and hit it repeatedly until it finally decides to give me an 'L' - that's why my title says "Bogger comments" instead of "Blogger"

Using OpenID for Blogger Comments

I found out about this on Lady Banana. You can set up your blog so that people who leave comments can sign in not just with a Google/Blogger ID, but with AOL, LiveJournal, Typepad, Wordpress, or any OpenID. You have to sign into Blogger in draft and enable the comments there.

Here is the explanation at the Blogger in draft blog. My first question is why they changed things while they are testing something new. Several people have been very upset at the change in the way comments work now - not letting people leave their name and url the way they used to. It bugged me, too, so I've got the OpenID thing set up for comments. I also looked into OpenID a little more and found out that it can be set up to link directly to a blog or website. I hadn't actually tried it, but I got a comment on my post - someone trying it out, and it works!

Sure, maybe Google will eventually be ready to release the OpenID comment thing to everyone, but in the meantime, try this.

Follow-Up Comments

I've been checking the little box that says 'email follow-up comments to me@myemailaddress.com' when I comment on everyone's blogs. It's kind of fun to get all the comments to a post.

I started blogging over at LiveJournal (A Mind Forever Voyaging) where replies to my comments come straight to my email. I really like not having to remember which posts I commented on and having to go back and check them - because I would not remember. When I started using this blog more and commenting on more Blogger blogs, there didn't seem to be a good way to 'carry on a conversation' the same way you can on LiveJournal. Sure, I could reply to comments left here, but I wasn't sure people were seeing those replies. I toyed with replying here and also sending an email to the person, saying the same thing. Visiting the other person's blog and replying to a comment they made here over there on one of their posts didn't seem quite right. I like visiting the people who visit me, but it just made the 'conversation' seem disjointed.

I was just starting to subscribe to the comments with Google Reader in an effort to keep up with things, then Blogger introduced the ability to subscribe to comments via email. So now I'm doing that. It's still not an actual 'conversation' because all comments get delivered, until you unsubscribe or until people stop commenting. It is kind of interesting to read what everyone else has to say, as well as being able to see when the blog author replies to my comment, so that's ok.

How about you? What do you think of this new feature? Are you using it?

What's with these Comment Popups?

I'm getting frustrated. I read a blog post. I want to comment, and all I get is a popup box that is maybe an inch wide. I can read a few words of the comments people have already left, but I can't even see the box to type my comment in. If the blogger requires me to type in a security word? Never mind that I have a hard time reading them when I can see them. I can't even see them now.

I'm not sure why they are acting this way, but I think it's time to go searching Blogger to see if there's a fix. If the fix is to change my browser and use that Microsoft one, then the only choice I have is to beg all my blogging friends to please, please, please - don't use comment popups.

Please?