When/If you post a comment (and I hope you will!), be sure to put in a URL --- even if you just use mine (http://alan.batie.org/) --- if you don't, your email address will get put in as a link on your name, and you'll suddenly find yourself on Spam Central. Not my doing, I promise you! They scan websites for embedded email addresses. You've been warned --- I really don't wish spam on anyone (well, ok, maybe the spammers themselves)!
Finally, if you want to be notified when I post the this blog, signup on the lemmings mailing list.
F-ing blog spammers have found this site, and now I'm either going to have to go through each entry and disable comments, as well as leave them off by default, or spend time deleting the garbage when it shows up. Version 3 of movable type will require registration for comments --- a total pain, but these assholes have made it impossible to leave an open door anywhere on the Internet. They are the lowest form of graffiti vandals --- at least many graffiti artists really are artists. These creatures are nothing more than vandals trying to scam a buck from the all too many naive people around. They don't care what neighborhoods they destroy in the process and have no respect for any one else's rights.
It's really difficult to craft legislation that can distinguish between merely annoying speech and spamming, and it's as hard to even find the spammers in the first place, but it's time to stop being lazy about this and spend the resources to track them down. Free Speech stops when it becomes harassment and infringes on the rights of others, and spam has long since passed that point.
Posted by abatie at February 29, 2004 02:17 PM