It has long been a curiosity to me that comments on this blog are often anonymous. The Outpost, as its name suggests, is not where you find the currently standard messages in the tango world about the necessity of hard work, finding a good teacher, apeing and admiring performers and so on. The tango community, country by country, and certainly in the UK, is relatively small. At the most popular milongas it is common to recognise most faces. It is not then surprising that most agreeing with the views here wish to remain publicly silent, or at least, anonymous.
However, The Outpost has recently received numerous spam comments. I wanted to share the most recent one with you to illustrate how sophisticated these can be.
"Hello there! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche.Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done a marvellous job!"
A whole team genuinely wanting to express solidarity would not be afraid to say who they were. The anonymity and non-specific yet supportive nature of the comment, the flattery, and the fact that it is on the same post that is currently being targeted are the clues. Most people who write comments on blogs like the Outpost are querying, elaborating or disagreeing with something. There are comments genuinely supportive and for a moment I paused over the spam button with this one. It demonstrates how much spam has evolved.
I am extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your blog.
ReplyDeleteIs this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself?
Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it is rare to see a great blog like this one these days.
Awesome post.
ReplyDeleteI had an anonymous comment - just one - on my Russian language tango blog, just expressing general admiration without any specifics. Of course I'd like to think that it;s legit. But if it is just a spam, then what purpose does it serve without any links?
ReplyDeleteI had the same question and asked a friend who replied:
ReplyDeleteFRIEND: "I'd say it a probe posted by a bot"
Then there was another one.
FRIEND "Likewise. If it is allowed, the next will probably contain a money-making link."
ME: But why wait till a third comment before posting a money-making link? Why not do it on the first one?
FRIEND: The first few flattering ones open up the spam filter.
So, out of interest I let the spam comments pass for a while, publishing them, but the link back to the spammers site never came. Eventually, I deleted them. There have been many more since then. Some were so convincing I wondered if they really were spam and some were so obviously clunky, it was clear. Yet, the sheer volume, the fact that they often come together in spurts, that they follow the same format - always flattering, always non-specific, could apply to any blog, always anonymous, made it clear that they were spam. They were nearly always on the last post (this one). Why there never was a link though, remains a mystery.