Deleting Comment Spam

by Sapphire (December 6, 2005)

It’s really hard to say what’s comment spam on a blog, and what’s not. For example, someone leaves an insightful comment that just happens to link to their irrelevant affiliate site. Are they commenting just to get a link from me? Or are they merely participating in a community of affiliate marketers, and have no blog or homepage to link to? I’m actually asking for your opinions - you’re the ones who have to read their comments and either enjoy them or feel like you’re reading commercials on my blog.

The reason I’m concerned about deleting these comments from here on out is that a friend of mine recently had a bad experience on her blog. Someone started making comments on her affiliate marketing blog that were just a tad condescending at first, and his homepage link was to his own ecourse on how to do affiliate marketing. His comments quickly descended into a tone of “You’re stupid, but I’ll show your readers how it’s really done”. (Ironic, because his ideas are very 2002.) By the end, his comments were abusive. She’s wishing now she’d never let any of them through.

What was her clue that he’d get so bad? Just that link to his competing course. And maybe a slightly off tone. Not much of a clue at all.

It could have gone either way, of course. He could have had a competing “product” (her blog’s not a product, but like him, she’s trying to share what she knows about affiliate marketing) and they could have had a lively discussion that would have informed and entertained readers. From now on, I suspect she’ll be deleting remarks from people pushing any sort of product. Or at least, a competing affiliate marketing guide type of product.

I hate to eliminate the possibility of exciting discussions with people who have better ideas about affiliate marketing than I have, but I think from now on I’m going to be screening a lot of comments from people linking to e-courses, affiliate services, etc. But I don’t want to risk spoiling the blog by allowing conversations that turn abusive. I’m going to try to spell all this out in a Comment Guideline later, which will be reachable from the front page.

Empress and people linking to similar blogs or affiliate sites are okay, as long as their sites don’t have links to gambling, porn, warez, etc. And, obviously, as long as the comment is valuable and relevant. I’m going to run a tight ship and focus on making the blog a nice place to visit, rather than focusing on pleasing everyone who wants to leave a comment.

Thanks in advance for understanding. And I would like to hear your thoughts on what sort of comments you guys want to see, and what ones make you roll your eyes.

Posted in Blogging
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