40,000 Spam Milepost

Here just on my personal website I have reached the 40,000 spam milepost. Over forty thousand spam comments have been filtered and deleted. Thanks to the Akismet plugin it is all automated and I don’t have to do anything. That’s one of the main reasons I chose WordPress over other blog platforms.

Network wide the spam blocks run into the tens of millions. From what I’ve read most spam is generated by a handful of people. The people that generate the spam don’t make money directly, they make money selling the service to other webmasters who think it will increase their rankings.

The recent proliferation of spam is in part from amateur spammers now using automated programs like Xrumer. My original article on Xrumer, which is quoted as a source now on Wikipedia, can be found here: Xrumer Link Scam Article.

Everyone’s tempted to make money – but do this one thing before you think about investing in an automated link spam program. Take any of the spam links you have seen generated by the program in the past and do a search on their anchor text or keywords. You’ll find they don’t rank. They are quickly banned. The money is not in the links, the money is in SELLING the service – which doesn’t work for long term SEO.

Someday I’ll post the gruesome details of my own experience and over zealous, xenophobic SEO. It doesn’t work anymore. And I’m glad it doesn’t. The web is much more useful now that most pedestrian black hat SEO has been fielded out.

I can tell you it is MUCH more enjoyable now to work on genuine service, than just trying to manipulate SERPS. It is never satisfying enough, you always need a little more. But helping people out, like this post here, is enjoyable on a minute to minute basis.

In a person’s last minutes of life, they will not think of how much money they made….

The Brilliance of Steve Buscemi

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Steve Buscemi – You know his face from nearly 100 films. One of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood. He hits the nail on the head with this excerpt from a recent interview. When working with artists, let them bring their own vision to the table first. Then tailor it as it fits the directors vision. If you don’t give them the chance to do their thing, you miss out on many golden gems.

Q: How does your background as an actor affect your directing?

BUSCEMI: Casting is everything. Getting the person that you imagined is this character and then seeing what they bring to it. That’s why you hire them, so why tell somebody first what it is you want? I’m more curious to see what they bring to it and then be inspired by it and say: “OK, what if you tried this?” or “What would happen if … ?” I guess it’s the stuff that you don’t get to say as an actor to another actor if you’re just acting in a scene. (Laughs) You cannot do that.

Network Vultures

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Recently we had some individuals open a site meant to be an adjunct of one of my own. Only problem is they didn’t ask me about it before they did it. Adjunct sites that spin off my network and are advertised on my network are considered spam; just as if they were a seperate site spamming links.

In fact, they ARE seperate spam sites if they are not approved. My networks have been running for over seven years now and it has been an arduous task to keep them running, many as free public services. It’s not taken kindly to glom off of my networks as jumpads for websites outside the network. Many people have done this in the past, and most claim the best of intentions. I still don’t understand how they can genuinely think it is helpful.

That’s my stance. If you had been through what I have been through the past seven years committing to these networks, I’m confident you would feel the same. For the record, the “Am” referred to in this graphic was reinstated. We have an understanding now.

One more thing. Many people that create the spinoff sites are friends, or at least were friends prior to the spinoffs. It causes hurt when they are blocked on my networks. I think it may be partly that they do not realize how large my networks really are. Everything I do has to be done in runs; it’s like herding sheep. When I make a change to one I make a change to all – so committing to changes is time intensive and something I think through at great length before doing.

In addition, many people do not realize security issues at risk with some of their requests. I do not post the details of those security issues, because (duh) it kind of defeats the purpose.

I have had the experience in my life of being on the very top, and also being on the very bottom. I have noticed that the more you move up, the more people glom off you and use you as a target. You are a target because you are noticeable. That’s just the way things are. As our networks continue to expand, things will get more complicated; not less. With increased traffic there is always increased problems.

Members banished from RD may start fresh at Life-Convicts.netÂ

Please play nice in the sandbox.

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