Anonymous

Comment spam from Anonymous can be most entertaining. A couple of quickie reviews on my comic book blog has been getting a lot of anonymous comments. I have moderation turned on for comments, so none get published, but they're so flattering, if totally off-topic, which is difficult given the generalities. Here's one I particularly liked:

"A motivating discussion is worth comment. I do believe that you need to publish more about this subject matter,
it may not be a taboo subject but typically people don't speak about these subjects."

Literally, ninety per cent of what's posted in that blog is on the same subject matter and many, many of us blog about comics. In this case, flattery gets you nowhere.

~~~o0o~~~

A Whole Lotta Nothing

From Neatorama:  I need these Commandments Sticky Notes. And if I drank coffee, I'd so get one of these: Cool Coffee Machines.

Got spam today from Cigar Fun. Yeah. Right. When I'm looking for fun, the first thing I think is, Gee, I wish I had a cigar. Not. But at least it wasn't the usual Viagra, Penis Enlargement, or other crap that typically fills my spam folder.

I've been having problems moderating comments. Either people keep deleting comments before I can publish them, which makes no sense, or that's happening as soon as I open the email in Firefox. I'm going to try to not open the email notices and go straight to Blogger to moderate. If you've commented and your comment has not appeared, please try again. This does not happen with FF on my netbook, nor with FF on my work PC. Nor does it happen with Chrome on my home PC, so I don't know what's going on with FF, my home PC, and Blogger.

Feeling: mellow


~~~o0o~~~Technorati Tags: links

Turning Off Anonymous Commenting

I really hate doing this. One reason I moderate comments here is to allow anonymous commenting, but the amount of anonymous spam the last week or so is driving me nuts. I even turned of comments on an individual post from a couple of years ago that was getting the bulk of it, so now the comments are showing up for other older posts and I can't keep turning off comments on a post-by-post basis. It's just too time-consuming and tedious. So as of today, you'll need either a Blogger account or Open ID. Sorry.

Feeling: sad

~~~o0o~~~
Technorati Tags: comments

Rejected Comment

Dear Person Whose Comment I Rejected,

I've now rejected the same comment twice. It was for a recipe for chocolate covered strawberries. First, it was an inappropriate comment for the post it was commenting on, as in it offered nothing new in regards to that post, not whether the person liked or disliked it or had anything to add. Second, I hate strawberries. I will publish comments only if I feel they add to the overall chocoliciousness here and if they meet my personal thanks. Sorry, but dem's the breaks.

Edited to fix typos. Oops and sorry for repeats in anyone's rss feed.

Feeling:

~~~o0o~~~
Technorati Tags: comments

Quizzled

You Are 65% Burned Out

You are very burned out. You need a huge break from your responsibilities, starting as soon as possible. And you need this time to reevaluate what you really want out of your life. Because you're working hard and going no where... and that would burn anyone out!

Are You Burned Out?

Sounds about right.

You Mostly Fight Fair

When you fight, you tend to remember your end goal of resolving conflict. However, you can get a little too wrapped up in your own feelings. Remember that there are two sides to every argument. And even if you think you're totally right, you should take more time to hear your partner out.

Do You Fight Fair?

On the personal front, got my hair cut. It was getting really long, for me. Nice size ponytail, now mostly gone.

Re: comments. Please try to keep them to the topic of the post. I just rejected a comment that said nothing about the blog, but offered up a chocolate-covered strawberry recipe. You need recipes for that? I detest strawberries, so have no interest in such a recipe, but I rejected the comment because it had nothing to do with the post in question.

Feeling:

~~~o0o~~~
Technorati Tags: quizzes

Comment Spam Redux

Actually, I'm not sure if the comment I just removed from an earlier post was spam or just someone spewing sour grapes, but in any case, such comments won't be tolerated. Comments are for pleasant discussions here, and that's it. If this kind of nonsense continues here, I might just try out Blogger's new Comment Moderation feature. I don't want to do that, but I will if I have to.

Meanwhile, comments in general have fallen off here. Was it something I said? Something I didn't say? And don't forget the Frappr map. I'd like to see where all you regular and occasional readers are from (though I do get map stats in other ways, this is more fun). And if you add your own Frappr map, let me know and I'll go sign in.

Feeling:

comments

Comments on Comments

Puglet brought up an interesting question. In her comment, she pondered why she stayed with AOL. Which brings up the question, why do I stay with it? I don't need it. I have Road Runner service with my cable modem. But when I started on AOL 9 years ago come December 31st, it was a wondrous thing. I couldn't make heads or tails of the internet thing, let alone gopher and archie and all the other "characters." AOL made it so damn easy to get online, albeit in AOL's own little realm. But they did have a gopher interface and message boards and email and I got hooked. And then the World Wide Web kicked into gear and the internet got easy, but I was already addicted to AOL.

Back then, the writers boards on AOL were hopping, happening places. I learned a lot. I had fun. In recent years, activity on those boards has tailed off, but I remain, verbally jousting with the other folks who've stuck around. In the meantime, AOL offered other enticements.

I first got comfortable blogging on AOL, back in March. Before that, I had a LiveJournal blog and had no clue what to do with it or how it worked. By learning on AOL journals (a service they started a year ago), I was able to move on to figure out LiveJournal and be ready for Blogger. I still have AOL journals because they offer free ftp space with each screen name and that's interchangeable across the names. I have 7 screen names, so 2 mb each does add up. It's great for my photoblogs there. And my email addresses are well established now. And I like AOL's interface for the usenet message boards I read. So I remain on AOL, while moving my main blogging elsewhere. And while I might someday get pissed enough to leave it, that day is nowhere near the horizon.

Re: Blogger and Comments. I know a lot of folks have switched to using a comment service like HaloScan. They're easy to use, except when my popup controller blocks them. And maybe folks don't comment much here because they think they need to sign up for a Blogger account. So, I want to remind folks that that isn't true. Not on this blog or my other BlogSpot blogs. I have them set to accept Anonymous comments. All I ask is that you leave a name. First name or nickname will do. And unless I run into the comment spam other folks have had problems with, I will continue to allow anonymous commenting here.