This comment is what prompted the comment policy I posted earlier. Allow me to illustrate the transgressions (Note: Click image to enlarge).
This is a screenshot from my dashboard showing the same comment posted in two different places. The title is a great way for a reader to know what they are getting into. In this case, the writer makes a case against raiding and wishes to publicize the post and attract feedback as well as traffic.
Unfortunately, a quick mouseover on which posts he comments on reveals that he pasted this on a short piece I did when I was dueling Wyn.
What on earth does a post on raiding have to do with a duel I had with Wyn?
Absolutely nothing!
Another point I want to address is the use of URL masking. Don’t get me wrong now, I love the service that TinyURL provides. Twitter followers will notice that I use them extensively when I tweet. However, this is mainly due to the 140 character restriction that Twitter has in place.
It’s not necessary to do that in a comment. Having a full length URL offers interested readers to at least know what they’re clicking on. For all we know, the masked link could lead to a merchant site or worse: A keylogging website.
On a completely different note, Blog Azeroth is a fairly tight knit community. So allow me to offer a word of advice for new bloggers. If you’re trying to break into the community, it’s generally a smart idea not to piss off bloggers on a grand scale. I’ve been told off the record that a significant number of bloggers have flagged the user’s comments above as spam. Some have even taken measures to block the IP address. I personally don’t care about sending this guy traffic. There’s no direct link here and only a few would even Google the clues I left open in the image. I have a feeling that most readers would go there once and then never return. The cost of traffic is outweighed by the hope that I can educate our younger bloggers on the proper practice of commenting and social interaction.
Although I wrote briefly before about the importance of reputation in WoW, that pales in comparison when you’re a blogger trying to establish yourself. Your reputation is dependant on the image you paint of yourself via comments and contents. Do not underestimate the social responsibilities that blogging brings. If you fail to recognize and respect this aspect of blogging, expect to crash and burn.
It is getting more common as well. I googled my url using the blogsearch feature and came across what looked like a well disguised gold/powerleveling site which snagged RSS posts. Even though they did give credit, it is still a tad annoying being used to this end.
Razorbaxs last blog post..Multi-Boxing Macro’s 101
As with any online community, we’re going to find those who want to “power level” their way to the top as well. I’d almost bet the purpose of this poster was to power level his bank account through an add supported site.
I haven’t seen a post from this character yet on my site (but have on others). If his replies are on target and relevant, they can stay, otherwise he gets the spam flag.
and one more thing…in the online marketing industry (my field), what that poster did is basically link bait. He’ll write some outrageous post in order to get people to link to him and give commentary on what he said. I’ve already seen at least two other respectable bloggers talk about that post. Him just randomly posting the links in your blog is an attempt to feed more off of your traffic. This are the reason the “nofollow” tag was invented.
I’m legitimately surprised that I haven’t gotten any sort of comment from that guy yet either, especially considering all the posts I’ve written about the state of raiding, etc. In fact, I’m really surprised that he somehow got himself highlighted on Twisted Nether this week.
Regardless, I do understand why you decided to highlight his less-than-subtle attempts to generate traffic to his site and/or somehow incense much of the blogging community with the lack of tact, but the more we all bring attention to the behavior, the more traffic you’re inadvertently sending his way. The website might be smeared out, but it’s easy enough for curious viewers to work some GoogleFu or check out his other exploits in the blogging community (via Lume or SpicyTuna or TN).
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I must admit that after having read about this guy over at Lume’s blog, I did have a look at what he had written on his own blog and it was not a pleasant experience.
As much as the comment-spam this guy has indulged in recently might gain him a few hits from people like me (curious – must’ve been a cat in a previous life) – long term he’s hurt himself far more by alienating the community. And the community is much larger than just the bloggers themselves, there’s the readers who are the ones who generate the actual traffic – so I think it was a public service to make sure readers are aware of someone behaving poorly.
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I hate spam. And it’s in absolutely every form of communication. I’ve always wondered if people actually click or go through with them. I understand the curiosity of another blogger’s post, but do people really make it worthwhile to send out mass spam enlargement emails??
By the way, I imagine you’ll be intrigued by my latest post – it’s about…
Kidding! Had you going though didn’t I 😉
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Audron: Exactly, there’s good linkbait and there’s bad linkbait (at least from what I’ve been able to discern). Sure he gets a spike in traffic, but no one’s really going to care anymore after a while.
Runycat: Yes, you’re absolutely right. I mentally weighed the cost of sending traffic vs the benefit a new blogger might benefit. As you can imagine, the latter won ^^. I don’t want an unsuspecting blogger to come across something like this and think its okay when its really not. Hopefully they’ll recognize its bad form and bad practice. And maybe it’ll send an indirect message to the guy in question and make him re-evaluate his stance.
@Audron
You’re right. In much of the art/literary community, there’s a lot of talk about interest generated through “shock value” and “understatement”. Ultimately, the general consensus is that shock value will draw in large crowds initially, but interest wanes quickly and patrons find themselves moving back to the consistently superb (although less ZOMGZERS) work. If you build it, they will come.
@Matticus
I think what you’re getting at is that there’s really an unspoken etiquette for bloggers/readers–and that he crossed the line. I hope people get that. We all put up with a certain level of arrogance, audacity, and stupidity on a daily basis (in fact, I’ve left up some pretty nasty commentary just because I find it really reflects the ignorance and impoliteness that’s out there), and it’s always funny what finally pulls the last straw.
Actually, this would be a great topic to go into at a greater depth, but I’m not sure if I’m going to subject anyone else to more blogging about blogging at Unbearably HoT. It’s sort of like WoW–what unspoken bullshit do we do there that we just expect other people to follow (i.e. tipping for crafting, particular acronyms, loot rules, etc.)?
/end ramble
Runycats last blog post..Blog Azeroth Weekly Shared Topic: Recruit a Friend (or yourself!)
The interesting thing about what they are doing is it is not needed. I have managed to generate more traffic, (Thank you Matt, BRK, Braids, and the others), just through commenting on your sites about what you have written.
For the newer bloggers out there, (I am only 2.5 months old myself), the traffic will come in time … if your goal is to have people read what you have to say, don’t push it. It will come with time.
Natural selection at work, in my opinion. If it looks skeevy to me, it probably looks skeevy to others. First impressions are important, and this fellow certainly got off to a bad start.
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I didn’t get a post from this guy but I have gotten more gold farmer/snarky posts than usual lately.
My popularity doesn’t seem to have increased much so I wonder if it is something systemic that is causing this.
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Too many scammers in the world in every situation. I got a new phone and got junk calls the same day. I go to my local corner store and get a begger all in my face wanting spare change. My son is convinced he got an invite to WoTLK Beta only to find out it was a scam and his account was hacked. I guess scammers find their way into blogs now too. Where does it end?
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@ Tankette – “Where does it end?”
If I ever get a hold of them, it’ll end.
I hate spam. Thankfully I don’t get many backtracks as yet – but it grinds my teeth when they steal content without acknowledgement.
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Well he certainly got noticed by a large cross-section of the community in a short period of time!
Like everyone else I wasn’t impressed by comments of his on other blogs, but gave him the benefit of the doubt to begin with, responded to his comments even.
Looked a bit deeper and decided he was a fraud in the first place, called him on it, did not receive any kind of satisfactory response.
/ignore
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Guess he missed me. *sniff*
So far, I’ve avoided a written comment policy; as I’ve commented elsewhere, “my blog is my castle” and I don’t have to justify what comments I allow or disallow.
In fact, today I turned off the feature requiring me to moderate a commenter’s first post. We’ll see how that works. I have a niggling suspicion that action will probably drive a written policy.
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While I clearly agree that the methods used aren’t exactly the smartest in the book, I think too many people are just too happy to use this as the convenient reason to ignore what the guy is actually writing.
At the risk of pissing off the entire community myself, I think there’s a bit of an overreaction to what he’s writing. He’s discussing MMO game design, and you can’t do that nowadays without talking about WoW. And as much as we all love the game, let’s not kid ourselves, it isn’t perfect, as we all know.
Is Cambios provoking, controversial, and sometimes quite off the mark? Absolutely. Is that a reason to ignore him entirely? I think that would be a loss, but that’s just me.
I don’t like his promotion methods, but I think what he writes on his blog merits consideration, if only for rebuttal.
My tuppence only, of course.
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