Lovingly Spammed

“Ashley” from “Supplement Sidekick” wrote to The Gad About Town (me) last week: “I wanted to thank you for this wonderful read!! I absolutely loved every bit of it. I have you book-marked to check out new things you post… .”

She (or he) wrote her (or his) comment on an article that one could describe as “a wonderful read,” if accounts of a threatened beheading of a protester in Saudi Arabia strike one as a wonderful read. Perhaps she (or he) felt that my point of view (I would describe myself as being against beheadings in general, but this might not be the first thing I would tell you about myself on a speed-date) is “wonderful.” She (or he) did not elaborate.

There has been a sharp uptick (from none to some) in the quantity of comments that this website receives in Polish and in Russian. “Michael” from “Buy Steroids” (supplements, steroids … how do they know I need help? Um, do I?) wrote this to me last week: “Приветствую. Прочитал. Понравилось. Вот и вам советую.” Roughly translated, he wrote: “Greetings. I read this. Liked it. So I advise you to:” and here follows a web address for a steroids supplier that, when I visited it, gives prices in rupees (India) but the text is in Russian.

“Krystal” wrote last week: “Asking questions are truly fastidious thing if you are not understanding anything completely, but this post presents nice understanding yet.”

This is something I ponder frequently, but I have rarely read it expressed so … well. If I are not understanding anything completely, what should I do?

And there was a tattoo ad in my Spam folder, which always strikes me as an odd thing to purchase online.

“Kent” commented on a post that is literally a photo of our pet cat and little else: “My relatives always say that I am wasting my time here at net, however I know I am getting knowledge every day by reading such nice articles or reviews.” Our cat loves compliments, but she loves tuna and treats far more. “Amos” wrote: “What a stuff of un-ambiguity and preserveness of valuable know-how on the topic of unpredicted feelings.” Knowledge and know-how are both pointing their fingers at me.

An article about Raif Badawi received this long comment, which I reprint in full:

“Scott Whitaker from Grabada Hills and his services is horrible. Its too pricey and was hard to get ahold of Scott Whitaker from Grabada Hills. Tried calling to cancel, Scott Whitaker from Grabada Hills rep never called me back. After getting ahold of Scott Whitaker from Grabada Hills they refused to cancel and gave me a free month trying to keep me. They didn’t create a site for me and wouldn’t give me a refund because they have a ‘no refund policy’ and ’30 day cancelation policy’. The Scott Whitaker from Grabada Hills customer service is not great at all! They definitely need some improvement in this area. I requested to have the terms read over the phone sent to me via email. They never sent them. I wish I had read all these reviews on the company before I signed up. Listen to the feedback on these Google reviews! This company is out to take advantage of the customer and not in a good way! BUYER BEWARE!!!!!”

And who sent that comment? “Scott Whitaker.” Whoever he happens to be, something is up.

Oh! And a neo-Nazi from Phoenix, Arizona (their IP address), awarded me (a Jewish person) a “gold star” and a picture of Pepe the Frog wearing a Nazi uniform at Auschwitz. (Perhaps the writer and cartoon-giver is not a neo-Nazi. Perhaps the person is just a plain old Nazi. Ah, well, one really should not put labels on people all willy and nilly, so I apologize.)

One wonders what sort of Spam he or she (Casey is the name, so the gender is up for grabs) receives. Perhaps it is as interesting as mine sometimes can be. One can only hope, as us non-Nazis should not have all the fun.

* * * *
I am glad I started to check my Spam folder here, as a couple legitimate comments from readers who regularly comment landed there in the last few weeks.

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The WordPress Daily Prompt for February 6 asks us to reflect on the word, “Lovingly.”

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7 comments

  1. loisajay · February 6, 2017

    So if I am reading this correctly, Mark–you, Trump and Putin are the trinity here and will be getting joint gold star tattoos. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  2. rh15216 · February 6, 2017

    …I’ve also had some corkers in the Spam folder!!

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Xena · February 6, 2017

    Have you gotten any yet that tell you how fast your website loads, and asks what programs you use? I also get the fleeting flattery spam comments on articles written years ago.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Mark Aldrich · February 6, 2017

      Not flattering, no. The Nazi one was on a months or year-plus column, like the person was searching certain keywords and felt compelled to police me. Happens every so often with my couple pieces in which I mention guns and (shhhhh!) how much I hate them. Comments pop up like someone shared it in his/her community … but, strangely, the number of hits on those articles never increases when the anti- comments proliferate. Neat trick, that.

      Like

  4. thunderwhenitrains · February 6, 2017

    You inspired me to check my spam folder as well! What a mess.
    There are couple of ‘how to increase your hits’ messages, which, I wonder if they’re trying to tell me my blog sucks. x”D
    And there was one linking to a page about how to manage student loans and similar things, inviting me to be a co-author there, because clearly, depressing poetry and the benefits of homeschooling are “a lot of similar content.”

    Like

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