SEO Spam Sucks

For some reason, there was a slew of spam comments on this blog tonight - 16 in the past 9 hours, more than I've ever experienced before and far more irritating than the "new post = 1 spam comment" that I've been experiencing for the past month or so. The sites being promoted deal with a dizzying array of topics - everything from the unsurprising "mens male enhancement reviews" and "MAKE MONEY NOW" to "how to play guitar" and "cold sore," and the inscrutable "day from green holiday lyric." Some of them were posted to very old posts, and I have no idea how the spammers' software selects which blogs and posts are to be victimized. One of the "commenters" identifies him/herself as "unrepentant resources" - that sounds about right, I guess.

I'm hoping this is just an anomalous spike (although two more have rolled in as I've been writing this), or that the good people at Blogger will get their act together and fix this somehow, so that I don't have to disable comments. Trolling around the Russian-language internet, I've seen advertisements for "search engine optimization" (SEO) services. I wouldn't want to cast undue aspersions on Russian netizens (although Russians themselves are often the first to proudly proclaim that their hackers are the best in the world), but it makes me sad to think that some or all of these might have been generated in an internet cafe in Ekaterinburg or some other spam factory. I'm going to take the time to delete all of tonight's spam comments, but I think it's sort of like painting over graffiti - it might make you feel like you're fighting the bad guys, but when you come back the next day there will just be more to fight.

[Update at 5:03] The last two spam comments were by some jackass identifying himself as "Bud Wiser." It is unusual to be spammed by a registered Blogger user; this guy's profile (find it yourself if you're interested; I'm not going to pay him the favor of a link) claims that he's "been involved in marketing and sales for 25 years. Web publishing since 1994." All I can say is that if he's really been involved in marketing and sales for 25 years, it's pretty pathetic that all he's learned to do in that time is post comment spam to relatively low-traffic blogs like this one. As far as I'm concerned, Mr. Wiser can go straight to hell and take his "free mobile ringtones" with him. He also identifies himself as the "Son of Spam" - will no one stop this madman?

Sorry for the rant.