Spam is not the problem users are the problem.
Written by: Paul Anthony | November 25, 2009
There isn’t a day goes by on the web without someone being a victim of (or indeed complaining) about Spam. It affects our daily working lives, and has been estimated to costs $20 billion each year in lost productivity. (PDF Report here). However, regardless of how much Anti-spam software products we create to help solve the problem, the real reason it still exists in 2009 comes down to one thing.
The vast majority of web users are dumb.
Like it or not, the average web user doesn’t recognise spam when they see it. Nor do they know how they should react to it (i.e. ignore or delete it). Spam wins the race based on both the numbers game and human ignorance. Send a message to 50 million, and you’ll get a big enough response to make it profitable. i.e. that small percentage of curious folk who decide to react, click the link – or give their bank details to a Nigerian scammer.
It’s not even something that is exclusive to email spam. Bloggers are guilty as well. Even tech bloggers and major corporations get caught, both through lazyness and poor education on what is and isn’t spam. It continues to amazes me how many tech savvy authors of blogs, and commercial websites fail to spot comment and pingback spam when it occurs. Or indeed settle for comments which have keywords littered throughout (SEO spam) – or worse still URL’s embedded in the comment body. Regardless of whether no-follow is in operation or not; you are still providing incentive for a spammer to continue when you approve a spam comment. At worst, they gain additional traffic, at best – some SEO professionals claim that no follow still passes value, and can indeed help them rank in the engines.
Its not only you…
Hell – even the Microsoft Team are lazy when it comes to cleaning up site comments. Just today I noticed a plethora of Spammy comments on the Bing Webmaster Blog, that have neither relevance or add to the original article, and some are clearly chasing traffic to money sites. If the Microsoft Webmaster Team can’t keep a clean spam free site – then what chance do us mere mortals have?
Granted, there are tools out there such as Akismet for WordPress that catches 99% of blog spam, but when that 1% sneaks through, you have to be extra vigilant and realise that alot of the time, a comment or pingback may be placed with an ulterior motive. Even paranoids have enemies. I’ve written a tongue in cheek guide before on comment guidelines before which reiterates some of the basic guidelines on what spam looks like.
Newbie bloggers who are just starting out are some of the worst offenders. With them not receiving much traffic or reward for their efforts (yet), sometimes a spam pingback or keyword stuffed comment becomes validation of their hard work – and “better than nothing” thinking comes into effect.
Remove the Spam- Not likely
Spam is not going to go away any time soon. When the doors are closed on one type of spam, or people become savvy to the technique, another method is used – you’ll never be able to solve the problem chasing it with software which all too often is about 6 months behind the techniques. The resilience and creativity of the purportrater sees to that.
Its time we woke up and realised that education is the single best tool we have in the fight against spam. So start educating your clients, showing your friends, pointing it out when you see, and maybe someday, someday, the good guys will win.
Topics: New Media News | View Comments
Posted on 25 November 2009 by Paul Anthony
Paul is a multi-disciplined individual, although he currently works as a software developer for an independant e-commerce provider in Northern Ireland.
Over the past fifteen or so years he's taught himself the fundamentals of at least two programming languages, the jedi art of SEO and web marketing - and showcases these skills in a personal capacity on his own website - Webdistortion.
During the little spare time that he has - Paul has taught himself to play guitar and occasionally enjoys rocking out with his proverbial out. He's also currently trying to master the Saxophone.
You can connect with Paul on Twitter - or via his own blog on Webdistortion.
Paul Anthony has written 5 articles for Cloud Mixer
