No kidding. Spammers and litterbugs are two categories of irresponsible, reprehensible jerks that are just taking up valuable space and not contributing anything worthwhile to society. I’ll get to litterbugs another day. Today I choose to vent about the bane of my blogging existence: spammers. When I first started the blog, I was delighted and encouraged when the stats would show the number of hits or visits to each week’s installment. I couldn’t wait each day to open the blog and see how many people were reading each article. I even signed on for a widget that showed the number of hits for the day and what country the reader was from. Then every so often I would get a comment that was vague, banal, poorly written, or just made absolutely no sense. I mentioned it to my tech support person, and he gently informed me that just because the dashboard showed a hit, it didn’t mean the person actually read the blog. All the nonsense comments were simply a way of getting their own website’s name out there in cyberspace in what I see as a feeble and really lame attempt to increase their readership or get money for each view or whatever. By then I had wised up and figured out how to delete the spam before it sullied my blog space and I hope before the spammer got much payback from intruding on my blog. And it is not as much fun to check the number of hits any more, although I have also figured out how to check and see which stories might have actually been read and how many were just a vehicle for the spam crap. I know there is much about the Internet world and computers that I don’t understand, but how could anyone gain any respect or success from writing drivel like this: “I was suggested this website through my cousin. I’m not sure whether this put up is written through him as nobody else know such particular approximately my difficulty. You’re Wonderful! thank you ! Here is my web-site….” Or “Hi there, yeah this paragraph is truly pleasant and I have learned lot of things from it concerning blogging. thanks also visit my web-site…” And then there are the sex-related ones, like “Sexy looking –glass shots adultmovie erotica litature….” And I could go on. But you get the picture. And these are actual spam comments taken right off the blog. Great spelling and lovely sentence structure, right? Now why would anyone with any sense be impressed or influenced enough to go and visit these websites? I write my blog in good faith and work hard to produce something that someone would truly enjoy reading. I surely wouldn’t try to force my blog on them the way these spammers try to force their websites on me or whomever it is they are trying to reach with their insipid stupid little throw-away lines. But then I will get a real comment, a nice, thoughtful reply from someone who actually read the blog and had something meaningful to say. And those are the ones that keep me writing the blog. But I really resent being taken advantage of by these faceless, nameless, seemingly uneducated morons who clutter my comment box. I guess I should be prepared for even more spam now as payback for my lack of respect for these people. But then, why should I think any of them will read all the blog to see what I had to say anyway? Doesn’t matter. Whatever I say won’t stop them from continuing their little devious little routine. But at least I tried.