It reminds me of the shower scene from Psycho.  

A youthful blogger is relaxing at the keyboard as they patiently sip a warm cup of coffee.

The computer beeps, letting them know some new mail is in their inbox.

Outside the window, a brisk night wind ever so slightly rattles the window.

 

A moment passes as our enthralled blogger whimsically clicks through inspiring articles.

Then, without warning, they browse to the bottom of the article completely oblivious to the danger approaching them.

With one button-click they jump back as they feverishly try not to scream.

What did they find?

• A link to the secret formula that will forever increase their love life.
• A guide to finding the perfect partner.
• The cure for male pattern baldness.
• A free laptop.

Simply put-

BLOG SPAM

Blog Spam has become one of the most challenging aspects of my occupation. Many businesses that I speak with are often terrified of it. Just like the shower scene in Psycho, they have become intimidated by years of horrid e-mail offers landing in the inbox and fearful that what they have to say online will be drowned by inappropriate commentary. 

As part of my daily life, I often educate professionals on the technical and social devices in place that help us with blog spam. Occasionally some blog spam gets through, but luckily we have some highly effective defenses-

COMMUNITY- The very nature of online communities is self-correcting and self-defining. While some members would or could SPAM us, they are kept inline by social doctrines that are often left unspoken by the community. This is actually the most effective form of inappropriate comment control, as every one of us is psychologically concerned with how our professional peers, family members, and friends will treat us if we break the rules of our own community.

THE EDITORIAL QUEUE- Most blogging platforms support the ability to place a comment “on hold” until a live editor takes the time to read it. This is time consuming, but provides an almost surefire way of keeping SPAM off your articles. The downside to this is that it derails the “live” aspects of blogging and requires someone to watch those comments coming in. If you happen to visit the site during Christmas break, that active dialogue may take a few days to be highlighted on the web.

ACTIVE LOGIN- Requiring individuals to login translates to effort. Effort translates to time. SPAM bloggers hate wasting time, so deterring them with twenty seconds of logging in generally annoys most of them to death.

CAPTCHA - (Stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart", trademarked by Carnegie Mellon University) A common type of SPAM control that requires a user type the letters of a distorted image, sometimes with the addition of an obscured sequence of letters or digits that appears on the screen.

RATINGS-  Another community enforcement tool, some blog platforms support ratings on comments so that they may be audited by the system if enough readers deem them inappropriate.

E-MAIL VERIFICATION- requires the user posting a comment to confirm that they have submitted a valid e-mail address. This doesn’t guarantee it isn’t a junk e-mail account, but it does add another step to the spammers time commitment.

AUDIT E-MAIL- most platforms have the built-in ability to notify everyone involved in an article or comment thread that a new comment has been posted. While this allows comments to go live, someone in the hierarchy of blogging can generally pull down offensive materials before a huge impact has been made.

As bloggers and as busy professionals, we all pay a high cost to individuals looking to spray mass-marketing messages to us through inappropriate methods. For every control we put in place or for every one that we don’t- we either pay they price of lost hours reading worthless materials or we lose time going through the extra steps forced upon us to maintain a palatable community.

 As you go through your daily articles, keep in mind that moderators, editors, technicians, and YOU create a layer of defense against SPAM commentary. When adding information to someone else’s blog, make sure it is on target and relevant to what is being discussed. Keep your ideas focused on the subject at hand, and if you want to diverge from the topic have the respect to do it on your own blog.