Tuesday, October 31, 2017

SPAM= Unwelcome Spiced Ham

Remember when Spam stood for canned meat of unclear origins?


Euphemistically named for “spiced Ham,” (it wasn’t exactly, but those who liked it preferred not to delve further) it was salty, greasy, meaty, and oddly satisfying to all but gourmet palates.


In the Internet age, SPAM became something almost completely different. It is unsolicited commercial Email. Only the “unclear origins” retained the connection to that potted thing-a-ma-food.


Beginning last spring, I noticed more and more comments on this blog that were not from readers. I moderate comments specifically to weed out SPAM. I have rarely gotten comments that were cantankerous, and welcome those. So long as they are from genuine readers, c'mon in. I’m not afraid of disagreements.


As the counterfeit comments come into my comment-moderation sphere, I mark them as SPAM faster than I can read them to the end. Sometimes the comments contain links. I don’t click on the links, so I can’t report if they involve relatively benign selling of somethings we don’t need, or dreaded viruses. Sometime they may be attempts to get entrance to the site, with no visible links.


In the past, the texts of the comments were riddled with very poor not-quite English. The sort only Google Translate could have come up with. They did painstakingly (I assume) refer to the specific post, but they did so incoherently. Those always contained links.


This summer brought a new flavor of Spam. The ones coming in in the last few months have two things in common. Invariably they come from Anonymous and they are to a post that is old. I mean, a few years old. Key words must have been caught by the casted nets and fished out by the swarming hacking machines. The comment’s text says nothing about the post, but congratulates me on such an excellent blog, promising to follow my “informative posts” from now on.

Frankly, my “excellent blog” is not very informative. (Gee, Mirka. You really can’t take a compliment, can you?)

Just as I was typing here, one of those marvels showed up . Here is most of it, for your amusement:

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I can't imagine who would click on this clown's link for "school composition assist to". If anyone ever did, maybe they deserve such polished assistance. (It must work better in Polish, come to think of it.)

Yes, I have activated Spam filters. A few of them. I also mark every comment that I know isn’t from you, real readers, and send it to the great trash bin on the Ethernet. Lots of garbage floating up there, no doubt.



We do what we can to shore up the wall against these cans, and will continue to do it.
What do you do about Internet trash?






16 comments:

Evelyn said...

I don't have a blog and fortunately my email filters most of my incoming spam. It's the phone spam I hate. Especially the recorded ones that start in a super cheerful voice and say something like, "Oh! Excuse me just a moment while I adjust my ear piece." or "Hi! I hope you don't treat me like the last person I called. They were so rude I thought I was talking to my mother-in-law." Since I happen to be a MIL, I didn't even wait to see what else that recording had to say. :P

Vijaya said...

I too have noticed these and I delete them.

Tina Cho said...

The ironic thing is that Spam (the "meat") is very popular here as they put it in kimchi soup & other recipes! So I guess there are some uses. But not for Spam the email. Good to keep watch over your blog!

Mirka Breen said...

Oh, dear. You are getting funny ones! :P

Mirka Breen said...

They've been coming in a few a day lately. Delete, delete, DELETE.

Mirka Breen said...

These days we must keep watch over everything. :(

Janie Junebug said...

I mark the stuff as "spam" and say goodbye. One told me recently that some old blog post was "How do I say it? Quite relevant!" At least I haven't gotten anything profane in a long time.

Love,
Janie

Barbara Etlin said...

Yeah, I went through a phase like that about a year ago. I reset the settings for a while so no one could comment. That seems to have done the trick. They didn't come back.

Mirka Breen said...

Your posts are most relevant, much more than "quite."

Mirka Breen said...

Oh, was that when I couldn't say "thank you" for the lovely tulip photos you posted?

Kelly Hashway said...

My spam filter is pretty good, but every once in a while some spam slips through.

Mirka Breen said...

I suppose my filters are working, also. I shudder at the thought of what would be pouring in without them. This space would be overwhelmingly slimy.

Anonymous said...

I get a lot of spam comments (in my spam folder) that go on and on and don't make much sense. Like Evelyn, it's the phone calls that drive me crazy. I've received those same silly ones she quoted.

Mirka Breen said...

Why don't I get the silly phone calls, I wonder? Ours have all been veiled threats from the supposed IRS or some other "government" or banking entity, which we can only rectify by calling such and such number and giving them our personal details. Yeah, right.

Unknown said...

If a lot of them are showing up on old posts, you might be able to set up a time limit to when posts are closed to comments (say 6 months after the post date). I know I can do this on my blog.

Mirka Breen said...

That's a helpful hint, Katie.