This morning, while cruising around my blog dashboard, the workplace behind the blog, I came across a place where I can view spam. When I clicked to go there, I found all these wonderful comments about my blogs that I didn’t know existed. I didn’t know how to release them so they could show up on my blog cite, so I skyped my blog-guru son, Chris. He spent a good half hour showing me how to check out comments, screen them and release them to go on the blog. Then we went to the page of comments that I had discovered. He looked them over and found one from his daughter, Tabitha. “This one is not spam,” he said. I knew that. He showed me how to unspam it and then release it to the blog. “The rest are spam,” he said. “Delete them all.”
“Oh, no!” I said. “Some of these are really good.” I read one of my favorites to him. “This guy really likes my blog,” I pointed out.
“It’s spam, Mom. Delete it.”
I told him that I had gone to visit a friend’s blog the other day and she wrote a blog that had a string of about six comments in response. “I wrote, too. We had this great conversation going on about God.”
“You aren’t that popular, yet, Mom,” he said.
“But it feels good to read these comments.”
“Read them, then hit ‘Delete all’.”
I did. To the sixteen spammers out there who responded to my blogs, thank you. But I guess you won’t be showing up on my blog any time soon. Not with Sheriff Chris keeping a watchful eye on my blog.
Hey there, You have done an incredible job.
I’ll certainly digg it and personally recommend to my friends. I am sure they’ll be
benefited from this site.
I felt your son was very rude to you. Also, I don’t think he was right about the comments being spam.
Just checking in today and I find all these comments on “Blog Patrol”. It feels a little like we’ve been caught in the middle of a family feud. I would like to defend my son, but I won’t. He can use a little character building.
You do have real people who read your blog and love it. Please dont be discouraged and keep going.
I would never, ever speak to my mother that way. You should be free to keep around whatever comments you want, take a course or do some tutorials on blog keeping so you won’t have to rely on him for help.
(Also, negative comments aren’t usually spam, and it means someone took the time to read your blog, I always look on that as positive!_
I checked Chris’s blog. He seems very into mansplaining. If you have not heard this term, you can google it.
Nice blog. Yes, people do read it and, yes, sometimes we comment!
Thanks for the defense. But I am a pretty together person…it is pretty hard to mansplain me. But I love the word. I will for sure use it when appropriate.
Count me in as another one who is confused as to why your son needs to police your blog. Sometimes real comments get sent to spam. If the comment was relative to the post it isn’t spam. I just discovered your blog and love the simplicity of your layout and your writing is clear, authentic, and inspiring. I wouldn’t be surprised if you already have 16 or more people who read and care about your blog. (And I may be your newest follower–just subscribed by email.)
I am okay with the policing. When he starts telling me what to write…I’ll unplug him.
I like your blog, and it doesn’t sound like those comments were spam. If you liked them, read them and found them relevant, then they are not spam.
I think you should be the one to decide which comments are spam and tell your son to butt out of your blog, he was incredibly disrespectful to you with this comment “I hated to bust your bubble, Mom. Someday you’ll have 16 REAL people who REALLY care about your blog.” I would never speak to my mother that way. I love your blog btw.
Oh, this is good. I hope Chris is reading this. Where were you when he was ten years old?
Judy, you don’t know me but I am a new fan and I love you right now! You just made me spit my coffee at the screen (in the online world, that’s a good thing and don’t let Chris tell you otherwise! :))
I think your son is jealous also! You have a lot to say and you should absolutely enjoy the positive comments.
Judy, you are an adult woman and your son has no business trying to police your blog. I seem to remember something in the 10 Commandments about honoring one’s parents.
I’m another real person who enjoys your blog. I’m in the process of starting a blog, I don’t want to give the address yet because I’m not ready for it to go live but when it’s ready I’ll send you a link.
I’m in MN too but getting ready to move to the northwoods of Wisconsin.
Dear Real Person,
Glad to hear from you. I’ve been blogging for about three months. My goal is to improve my writing and share some of my thoughts with others. What fun it has been! Be sure to send me you address.
I think you should patrol your own blog. People learn best by doing.
That sounds pretty scary to me. You have no idea how technology clutzy I am. Notice there are not pictures on my blog. I just learned how to do a link. Someday I will patrol my own blog…but not yet.
Isn’t it great to have our kids be able to look out for us? This is my first time on your blog. I followed a link The Sherriff posted on his facebook page. I look forward to reading more.
It’s great to “meet” you, Judy.
Another tip to look out for is that if comments have links to them, or refer to handbags or designerwear, then they’re probably (very, very likely) spam too.
I look forward to reading more of your blog posts.
I think you should decide for yourself if comments are spam and whether to publish them. It’s your blog. And maybe your son is a little jealous?
I don’t know. Chris, are you jealous?
Sheriff Chris is right, Judy, you don’t want that spam riffraff hanging around. Here’s one clue to look for when trying to determine whether a comment is legitimate or not. Look at the email address. If it has a random combination of letters and numbers, has a weird looking address (the portion after the @ symbol), or the email address appears to be advertising something that has nothing to do with your post (Viagra, anyone?), it’s most likely spam. Spammers try to leave comments on legitimate blogs because they’re hoping to drive traffic back to their own websites.
Thanks, Mary. By the way, I drop in on your blog now and then for inspiration.
LOL!!! Don’t delete this… mom… I’m not spamming you! You will forever make me laugh! You are not allowed to become a techie because it is in your desire to use technology, your lagging ability to understand it fully, and your willingness to blog about it, that I find myself smiling! Thank you! I’m glad you have Sheriff Chris watching over you as you venture into cyber world. Keep sharing, and enjoy the positive feedback! 🙂
I hated to bust your bubble, Mom. Someday you’ll have 16 REAL people who REALLY care about your blog. For now, I have to keep the riffraff from loitering.
“Sheriff.” I like that.
Well, I am a REAL people who really CARES about your blog! Nancy K.
Thanks, Nancy.
Another real, live follower here too. Keep up the good work and don’t ever let anyone put you down. 🙂
(I hate to burst Chris’s bubble but maybe, just maybe his Mom is a teensy bit more popular than him… ;))
That’s kind of a mean thing to say to your mom! I’m sure she has more than 16 people who read her blog.