Even Mythical Sea-Monsters do not like Spam.



 

I have been spending a little bit of time blogging at our local gaming store, yes The Kraken plays Magic: The Gathering, and have come to appreciate the spam guards that Blogger.com provides. I used to scratch my head at some of the weird referral URLs on the GH's stats page. It is only with a little comparison that I can now take my hat off to Google for all the work they do keeping spammers at bay.

I do not claim to be any kind of computer expert, or even especially proficient with things digital but dang. The difference between a DIY Word Press site and a little page within the Google umbrella is very stark. I wrote a few entries about MTG, theory and memories of the game in its early days, and not a day goes by that I don't get a notification for some comment that needs moderation. EVERY DAMN ONE is some spam bot with a canned, poorly written compliment and enticement to "optimize my SEO performance" or some other crap.

Computers are amazing machines, I can state that without qualification. But why does every good idea get perverted into a money-sucking scheme? I know Americans generally are not super smart, and everyone is looking for an angle to get rich or just get something for less than the price. That cannot be helped really, our society has only one value... dollar signs. Spam must be cost effective at finding suckers and bilking them, otherwise the scumbags running these schemes would try something that did separate morons from their money more efficiently.

Anyway, I just found a bunch of referrals from a site called "cure diabetes" or something. Yeah, obviously that one is a joke. But then I saw a second one called "Halloween Witch" and thought maybe there could be a legitimate link there as I have written about my favorite holiday and some related topics like The Misfits. Alas, no. The diabetes site and Halloween Witch are two sides of the same scam. Bummer.

These are just some observations without much of a larger point. If I had one I guess it would be that writers like me who are not computer experts should appreciate that there is a place like blogger where we can express opinions, or just share what is on our minds without having to navigate the digital jungle.

Not shown: Me [The Kraken] reaching up from the depths to sink the Viking ship and its spam-loving crew in the next scene.