Fishing the Blogs

No one is more needy than a blogger in search of readers. Some shrewd people have figured that out and are out to exploit our neediness.

Background: In May I blogged on the flow of culture/information down the classes, using the example of DNA, and the flow up the classes, using rap.

Today I got an e-mail message from "Emily". My heart beat faster, I was happy, someone out there was reading me. This is what it said:

From : emily Sent : Wednesday, September 14, 2005 11:27 AM To : bharshaw@hotmail.com Subject : [Faceless Bureaucrat] 9/13/2005 03:20:48 PM

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Your blog is great! It's hard to find blogs with good content and people talking about dna testing these days! I have a secret dna testing blog if you want to come check it out

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Posted by emily to Faceless Bureaucrat at 9/13/2005 03:20:48 PM

Needless to say, the URL is for an advertisement in the form of a post to a blog. It was obviously machine generated, though I'm interested in DNA, the original post is not about DNA and no intelligent blogger about DNA would link to me on that basis. This is an example of the evolution of IT in a free market--whenever there's a sufficient concentration of energy/eyeballs/platforms, someone will figure out how to take advantage. The good old days of idealistic blogging are about to go the way of all utopian dreams. Someone needs to rewrite The Inferno to specify the ring of hell reserved for spammers and phishers.


UPDATE: The above is a bit harsh, being written in the throes of disappointment. The people behind the message are looking for eyeballs, not ID's, so it's sleazy but not illegal.

Updated Update: Got another comment this morning, same effect, but this one was advertising cheap gas. I think the effect might be to kill the goose--getting high from the compliment followed by the depression of finding it's fake nets out to a downer, tending to discourage one from blogging.