Vague Flattery

Here’s one of the recent trends I’m seeing in comment spam – content free comments that are vaguely flattering. Here’s the text of one recent one I received:

Well said. I totally agree with you. The point you are making here does make sense. And all those who oppose your views actually lack the basic essence of the subject. You must keep doing the good work.

Is the goal here to lull someone into approving it because it is sort of positivish? This sets a bar for weblog participation – if your comment is generic enough to seem like spam, you probably shouldn’t be leaving it. In that case, you “lack the basic essence of the subject.”

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dave

Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.

2 thoughts on “Vague Flattery”

  1. Right on! Wait is that too complementary? I don’t want to be a yes man ass kisser.

  2. I think the “vague flattery” comment spam is really meant to catch the people that are too busy to really read their comment moderation emails. The first time I got one of those, I was about to allow it on the blog as innane flattery from some clueless reader. But then I happened to check out the URL of the “commentor”. Then I saw it for what it was: spam.

    The purpose of comment spam is no longer to attract blog readers to click on the URL. Their purpose is to affect the Google rank of the spam URL, since so many blog entries in hundreds of thousands of unmoderated blogs (and even moderated ones) link to it.

    At least that’s my theory for their putrid existence.

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