"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence." – Doyle
hello  |  artworks  |  writing  |  words for wed  |  a-z challenge  |  bookmarks  |  home

February 21, 2026

Thank you but no thank you

I have gotten a couple of comments with: 'Beautiful blog.' And then another comment followed that at the same instance (I get the email alerts at the same time): 'Please read my post.'  I've seen other bloggers getting the same comments and they left them published and I did the same thing. Then a few months after I got those, I get them again (they come in pairs or triplets with a repetition of one or the other comment) and again, I let them go. Then for about a couple of months, no more of those comments and then they came again just last month - I just couldn't stand them so I marked them as spam.
    As a blogger, I don't think you should beg people to visit you which these messages seemed to say but perhaps other people have a different interpretation. I didn't visit this person because I just didn't feel right to do so. And I couldn't decide if they are spam or not. Why do they leave the same three comments with the same wording over and over? You could say it's because of language constraint but that still didn't explain the repetition. Getting these same comments over and over seemed like spam so why should I respond to them or visit them when they might turn out to be spam?
    Then there's these comments that are weirdly worded, gave no clue as what they are trying to say, like they are quoting song lyrics or talked as if they belonged to a different century or planet and they didn't seem like real comments even if they did use my name. No idea what was the point of these comments. Besides that, they get marked as spam by Blogger so I left it.
    Then there are those one-word comments. I think if you cannot think of at least three words to say, just don't do it. Actually, it is just better not to leave a one-word comment because they'll be marked as spam by Blogger but I got sick of marking them as not spam so I sometimes left it.
    And then there were a few bloggers who left generic but nice comments but they had commercial blogs/websites so I didn't return a comment. I don't believe readers have to return comments on commercial blogs or any blogs that didn't interest them.
    It shouldn't matter what readers say in their comments but I guess I'm a picky blogger but also Blogger somehow marked most the above comments as spam so if I don't check, they stay there in that little space until I delete them (which probably never happen because I loath to check that space.)  I like comments to make sense and that I don't have to decipher them or wonder if they are spam or not. Maybe there should be some rules for commenting? I don't know. There's no right or wrong way to leave a comment but common sense should to be something to consider, right?

If you're a blogger, do you think it's right to mark certain comments as spam even when you're not certain they should be? 

17 comments:

  1. I get those "Nice blog" - "Please read my blog" pairs too, and even if in this case I know it's a real blogger behind them, I delete them every time, because they are only there to generate views on her nice but rather new-Agey blog.
    During the A-Z Challenge I always put up a disclaimer that comments of this sort will be deleted without mercy. If people can't be bothered to read my post at least well enough to leave behind a coherent comment on it, I do not see why I should visit them, or facilitate others' access to their blog.
    This might be harsh, but for me blogging is a friendly exchange affair. I read your blog, you read mine, we might not always leave a comment, but when we do it's a reply, or some sort of interaction with the actual blog post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Charlotte: So this 'Nice blog' blogger is real but still, why the same comments, some variations would have been nice.

      It's your blog so you can delete any comments you deem not worth keeping. But it is just nice to get comments that relates to the post. Bloggers work hard on their contents so it's worth commenting with real thoughts and opinions - that's is blogging - interaction that means something even if it's just for a moment.

      Thank you for dropping by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  2. I delete the comment if in doubt -Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Christine: That's a good method to keep unwanted comments away.

      Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  3. I think you can mark any comment you like as Spam. It's your blog and you have control over that. I usually delete "commercial" comments, but one slips by then and again. Luckily, I haven't gotten any nasty ones yet. I'm hoping that my readership is low enough that I never do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Live and Learn: Sometimes it's hard to tell what's meant to be commercial/comments that get you to visit them. I don't have many readers either but I still get the occasional odd/spam comment. I don't think any blogger can escape those.

      Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  4. The same thing happens with my own blogs.
    I delete them, there's no point in leaving them,
    there's no interaction with someone who doesn't bother to read my post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you - interaction was the word that eluded me when commenting.

      Delete
    2. Katerina: You're right. No need to have interactions with people who doesn't read post and except people to visit them.

      Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  5. Ha ha. Our "beloved" follower from India. What beautiful a comment(er) to delete. ;-)
    The peace of the night, Lissa.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sean Jeating: You said just right.

      Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  6. You can always tell a comment by someone who isn't fluent in English from a spam comment of any kind - whether by a human or AI. Usually, the first type actually tries to say something. As for those "Beautiful blog" comments, I've gotten my share of them, but I've never published them and never will. Same for comments by commercial bloggers. As Charlotte above said, we may not always comment/return a comment for whatever reason, but when we do, it has to be born out of a desire to interact - not be a chore or a bait to lure the blogger into commenting back.

    "talked as if they belonged to a different century or planet"
    😂 But wait! maybe someone invented time travel after all! or the multiverse is real! or aliens are! That would make my day for sure 😁.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Roberta: I welcome anyone trying to say something even if they aren't quite easy to understand. But yeah, some comments is better to delete than to try to interact.

      Maybe someone from the future did invent time travel and came back and didn't quite know the language. Who knows. Anything can happen and sometimes without anyone knowing.

      Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  7. I dislike comments that are clearly only there to try and get traffic for their websites. I love visiting people's blogs, but I also want to read their posts and leave comments that promote conversation, or at least touch on what they're saying. I don't do this because I want the views, but because I honestly enjoy the community.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lindsi: We can't expect everyone (especially people who just want traffic to their blogs/websites) to be considerate when leaving comments but at least we can delete them and keep the blogging community free of them.

      Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  8. I call those the throw-away-comments. People commenting for the sake of commenting hoping you will follow them. I never find meaningful connections or discussion from comments like that, and a lot of time, you can tell they didn't read my post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Samantha@WLABB: Throw-away-comments sounds like a good name for them. But it's true, I also rarely have any meaningful interactions with them - it's really more like a one-time thing for them - they come by, leave a comment and never return. Thankfully, we can delete them from our blogs.

      Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it."
- Kurt Vonnegut