Comments you won’t have seen

76 appreciated comments to “Comments you won’t have seen”

1. Ryan McMurray, on March 3rd, 2009 //

   Are these all real? Some people must have far too much time on their hands.

   Had a laugh at this one though:

   “………..there isn’t any money, but this would be a tremendous opportunity for you, the designer.

   When can I get that?”

   I’m sure you jumped at that offer.

2. Amelia Vargo, on March 3rd, 2009 //

   I laughed at the “am I turning into a kitten” comment!

   I think you are right to edit your blog comments so strictly, Whilst the comment about the kitten is funny, I can’t imagine it ever had a place on your blog, and the same goes for all the deleted comments. It is really annoying if you are scrolling down to read other commenters’ insights into a post and they are all about viagra or hot big babes (or whatever that is not relevant). So don’t stop being strict!

3. Ben Gilman, on March 3rd, 2009 //

   Excellent post! I guess this is one of the down sides of running a popular blog but it definitely contributes to a better reading experience to have a moderation policy and minimum standards of some sort – it’d be far easier to open the floodgates! Incidentally I find there’s nothing like blogging about the London 2012 logo to bring the constructive commenters out… http://www.bengilman.com/2008/11/branding-london-2012/#comments

4. Osvaldas, on March 3rd, 2009 //

   The most of these comments are like misunderstanding or simply sick. But the one telling “there isn’t any money, but this would be a tremendous opportunity for you, the designer.” made me feel so bad. I believe it’s for the most of you.

5. kat neville, on March 3rd, 2009 // Twitter: @kassy4

   hahaha some of those are awesome. The kitten one is great, but the wedding gift one is really awesome.

   Personally, I won’t start reading comments if there’s over 50 of them already…. Under 10 is the best, as the discussion is still new, and it doesn’t take 2 hours to pour through all the comments (even if they do legitimately have something to say). I think jason santa maria wrote an article about this recently and I love his solution– the author highlights their favourite comments so if there’s hundreds, you can get the gist of the discussion in a few minutes.

   Still, how much time do you spend in an average day moderating? The price of popularity?

6. coda, on March 3rd, 2009 //

   I also received that “i just took a dump…” comment on my blog. Just Googled it hoping to find the source but no luck. Very bizarre!

7. John Leschinski, on March 3rd, 2009 //

   Seriously though, do you have a CDR of the Olympic logo?

8. Randa Clay, on March 3rd, 2009 //

   Yes, a high comment count can indicate a thriving community, but leaving junk comments, in my mind, just indicates an unwillingness to take the extra time to moderate them. It leaves a poor impression on readers. Why would anyone leave that kind of junk on their blog?
   I get TONS of junk comments from people trying to get some Google juice because they believe I “follow” EVERY comment because of what some “Get Google Juice from High PR Sites” article told them. I delete almost all comments that have just keywords in the name field unless it is actually a good, thoughtful comment. I also delete most comments that say “great post, thanks” unless it’s someone I know.

9. Jaypeg, on March 3rd, 2009 //

   I find useless comments just perplex me. Who has the time to write them? What on earth do they hope to achieve? But then I also feel the same way about all those floppy inserts in magazines that fall out as soon as I pick it up off the shelf.

   I think some blogging platforms make moderating comments easy, like Wordpress with it’s plethora of plugins to help, but places like Blogger make it just too painful to warrant the time deleting each one by hand. It’s just such an unproductive waste of time, so unless it’s raining outside I pretty much leave them be.

   I think if your comments are an integral part of your blog them weeding out the chaff is a good Idea though. How long does it take you on a daily basis to sort them all out?

10. Rich Samuels, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    I’m pretty strict with comments. I have a plugin installed that stops anyone leaving a comment below a certain length. So “u r gay” wouldn’t get through and neither would comments that don’t add to the conversation beyond “that’s nice” because really what is the point?

    Thankfully most of the my comments so far have been constructive and have been very welcome additions to the site as a whole.

11. Matt Fouty, on March 3rd, 2009 // Twitter: @mattfouty

    Oh man, that’s good stuff. I contemplated on how to or not to moderate comments. I’m glad I went the route I did. Luckily my blog is not near popular enough yet to get anything like this. Thanks for sharing.

12. Gráinne, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    These are a combination of weird, shocking and quite humorous! It must take a lot of time to filter comments like these out. I have to say I’m glad I don’t have to read comments like this interspersed with the actual intelligent conversation on your blog David, so well done on the comment moderating!

13. Jeremy Davis, on March 3rd, 2009 // Twitter: @jeremydavis

    Very funny stuff there.

    What’s your opinion on people who don’t use their real name for their comment, but instead use some keyword like ‘Graphic Designer for You’?

    Personally, I usually rename them to something like Bob.

14. Chad, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    Wow. That’s some hilarious stuff. Reminds me of some of the stuff I see in my Gmail spam folder for just the few seconds it takes to say “Delete All.”

    I do agree that with a blog such as this, it’s definitely about quality and not quantity.

15. Mark, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    Haha, it was great to see these and they gave me a right good laugh.

    I’m pretty strict with comments I think. I will only approve them if they add to the discussion or are relevant to the post. Also commentators who use their business/website name don’t get approved unless I know their real name and I change it. (I know some people use that for SEO and stuff but my blog is a personal one and I like to keep it personal)

    Overall I am quite OCD when it comes to my websites and comments, a curse and a blessing, I think.

16. Sean Farrell, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    HAHHAHAHHAH David.. looks like theres a tremendous opportunity for you that involves kittens, gays, and free work… — good luck with that :) wow hilarious.. and I thought I received weird comments..

17. Andrew Kelsall, on March 3rd, 2009 // Twitter: @AndrewKelsall

    I too am very strict on what comments appear on my site. Like Randa, I will delete comments like “nice site”, but only if the commenter doesn’t have their own URL. I will then visit their site and make a decision whether or not to include it.

    Mine is a “Do Follow” blog, but link juice is only given after 20 comments, which weeds out spammers. Sometimes I will allow a comment from someone who types something like ‘Miami print Design’, etc, if the comment is thoughtful, but I may edit the name to ‘MPD’, for example.

    Sometimes, however, I’m unsure of the commenters’ intentions, so I will ask them why they made a particular comment to ascertain if they are a regular reader or not.

    I fairy new to blogging and I have much to learn. Thanks David for sharing the bogus comments in this article. There are some truly sad people out there, but at least you get these comments because you are popular and respected by 99% of us. Keep up the good work :)

18. David Airey, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    Ryan,

    I did jump at the offer, and have gratefully been designing for free ever since!

    Amelia,

    Sadly, I’ve not yet received any comments about ‘hot big babes’. They’d take pride of place in any of my comment sections. In seriousness, I know exactly what you mean about scrolling down through comments to see one-word reply after one-word reply. Hardly illuminating.

    Ben,

    I remember seeing the same comment pop-up on basically every post about the 2012 logo. Many of them were left by the same person, as if they were proud of their revelation. Too much spare time.

    Kat,

    Receiving that wedding gift query was quite amusing. I contemplated running with it, and shipping some random framed photos, but then thought better.

    I usually spend between 30 minutes and an hour moderating comments each day. That includes replying, and where a lot of replies are involved, the time could increase to nearly two hours (across both my blogs). That’s a lot, isn’t it? I make a point of replying to commenters, but it’s becoming more and more difficult to find time.

    coda,

    Now that is weird. I can’t remember if there was a web address with the comment. If there was, then it’s clearly some ploy to get you to click-through.

    John,

    Unfortunately not.

    Randa,

    I’m sure that you, in particular, receive more than your fair share of junk comments. Every time I see my website wrongly appear on some ‘dofollow’ list, I wonder how many more comments are directed your way — given that you were so prominent with the ‘movement’.

    I also delete comments with only keywords in the ‘name’ field, and think twice about keywords mixed with a personal name (I don’t mind if I know the person).

    Jaypeg,

    Yep, those magazine stuffers are such a waste. Straight in the bin, unless there’s a free aftershave sampler, in which case the sampler goes in a drawer until the next time I move house — then it goes in the bin.

    I’ve never used Blogger to publish my own content, but from the difficulties I’ve found trying to leaves comments, I’m glad I opted for WordPress from the outset.

    As for a timeframe, I’ve mentioned it in my reply to Kat (above).

    Rich,

    That plugin sounds like a useful one, though I wonder if you end up having a conversation with a commenter, whereby they answer a question with ‘Too right’, or ‘Most definitely’. Would that then get caught?

    Gráinne,

    Thanks for letting me know. I’m sure you’re not alone.

    Matt, Chad,

    Glad you got a little enjoyment.

    Mark,

    Your policy sounds quite similar to mine. “A curse and a blessing” — I agree with you there.

    Sean,

    Kittens, gays and free design? Dragon’s Den here we come!

    Andrew,

    Interesting how you delete short comments if there’s no URL. I’ve found the short, spam-like comments are left purely because there is a hidden agenda (visit my website / pass me some Google juice).

    In the past, I used a plugin that removed ‘nofollow’ after five comments. I wrote a blog post about it, explaining my choice of five, then found more and more people stopping by, leaving a crappy comment on five (or more) different posts, then disappearing never to be seen.

    Thanks for the respect, buddy. That’s heartening.

19. Erin McMahon, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    My org. policy on comments is to remove anything off-color or off-topic. We’ve just tried to be up-front about it and tell people that on our About page.

20. Rebecca Agra, on March 3rd, 2009 // Twitter: @Rebecca_Agra

    Big opportunity?

    ” there isn’t any money, but this would be a tremendous opportunity for you, the designer.”

    Hahahahahahaa!

21. Antonea Nabors, on March 3rd, 2009 // Twitter: @antonea

    Haha, those are hilarious. Strange, but hilarious.

    I definitely have my akismet stats turned on which turn up a decent amount of spam per day. Especially after a new post. I moderate all of my comments. I enjoy moderating comments because I can approve and then quickly respond to them shortly after approval. Every time I comment on a blog that doesn’t have comment moderation I always think ‘Wow, they have balls.’ Haha.

22. Rob Hernandez, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    Those are very funny David. I get an average of 3 ‘real’ comments a post – but sometimes the ones that get past akismet leave me baffled: “sry i just know how to write my name in arabic :)) anyway however my english not that good but i think i get the point. thanks” The comment had nothing to do with the post and the link back was to a 404 page. It LOOKS legitimate but it’s almost as if the commenter is a bit … lost.

23. Groovymarlin, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    Seriously hilarious. I laughed out loud when I got to the one about “am I turning into a kitten?” but then I felt guilty about it. Also, my office neighbor gave me a strange look. Oops!

    I blog with Wordpress and use Akismet, which is pretty good at catching most spam comments. In addition, I use a captcha plugin which helps even more to eliminate the nonsense (most people won’t go to the trouble if they’re not really serious commenters). Of course, my readership is minute, so I don’t really have to worry about comment trolls.

    I hope you’ll make this a regular feature. It was really quite funny!

24. inspirationbit, on March 3rd, 2009 // Twitter: @inspirationbit

    Fortunately, I don’t have that many meaningless, and at times spooky&weird, comments like the ones you’ve quoted here, David. But I do moderate comments that look&smell like spam. I also get lots of pingbacks from scrap sites that I delete right away.

    Good luck to you (and Randa too!) on your comment purification quest. I’ve also seen many big sites that don’t moderate comments, especially on old posts, so it’s not just a matter of leaving the comments to show off big numbers, some bloggers, are just plain lazy or don’t care what comments show up on the blogs.

25. Steve Brown, on March 3rd, 2009 // Twitter: @advertees

    I do like some of the more elaborate comments that people have clearly given some thought to, however inappropriate they may have been at the time, it is great that you found time to share them with us in more appropriate context, and the fact you kept them shows you appreciate their worth.

26. Steve - Eightyone Design, on March 3rd, 2009 // Twitter: @eightyonedesign

    The wedding gifts one is good and the free logo one even better – I had one comment the other day asking how much the caravan was and if they could come and view it!

    Good post!

    Steve

27. Justin Miller, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    David

    I tohught I was the only designer gettign requests to do work for no money, but yet it’s a great opportunity.

28. Robin Johansen, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    Some of these where just funny, but a couple of them where rather strange and the one about the dump…. But do you actually get that many comments a day? It must eat up a lot of your time just reading through all these comments just to see if they can be accepted?

    I guess you would have alot more spam comments if you didn’t have no-follow though

29. Krista Bailie, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    This made me laugh so hard I could cry. I can’t believe you didn’t take that person up on the free logo… I mean, think of the exposure! (Ha ha). And isn’t it nice to know that you are giving someone a forum to come out?

    Thanks for the laugh!
    Krista

30. Matt, on March 3rd, 2009 //

    “there isn’t any money, but this would be a tremendous opportunity for you, the designer.”

    I love that. I’ve received a few similar to that myself. I usually find it easier to reply to that type of client after a few beers.

31. Warren, on March 3rd, 2009 // Twitter: @waxis

    The one beginning “Hi. Not sure if this is the right place, but I need a logo for my company.” is absolutely hilarious in its arrogance.

    I generally let comments through that are relevant; most of what I get is from spambots, and naturally I nuke those. Occasionally I get someone who’s got a bone to pick but that doesn’t bother me much.

    I can’t recall ever getting anything that was both illiterate and deliberately offensive.

32. Julie Molloy, on March 4th, 2009 //

    These are all definitely very funny and strange, but I think the one I appreciate the most in its strangeness is “Graphic Design is like painting a smell.” That’s a very interesting comment.

33. Chris, on March 4th, 2009 //

    When I read “Commented on: Logo design contests are bad for business” about free work, it struck me as sarcasm considering the topic of the post.

34. Euan, on March 4th, 2009 //

    haha, thanks for sharing, David.

    I once got offered the great opportunity to design the graphics for a game a schoolkid was making. The reward was virtual cash which would be spent in shops which were in the game…

35. Rob Cubbon, on March 4th, 2009 // Twitter: @RobCubbon

    Hi David, funny post. Always good to know I’m not the only one who gets these comments – although yours are funnier. I actually like the one about “painting a smell” – there should be a competition for that. Anyway, your policy of being strict with comments has definitely paid off as your commenters seem like real people with something to say rather than keywords with bland one liners.
    One of my best comments was: “we are an SEO company that only uses “white hat” methods”! Oh yeah?

36. Tracey Grady, on March 4th, 2009 // Twitter: @traceygr

    I’m reasonably strict with comments that appear on my blog, and I recently included a note above the comments field advising readers to use their real name or a nickname because spam names will result in the comment being automatically deleted. Despite this, the number of comments submitted under spam names has recently increased, unfortunately. The shame is that some of them have been very interesting comments, so I’ll consider modifying any spam names in future in order not to lose the comment.
    Among the dumbest comments I’ve ever received was “You are so sexy and so stupid stacey”. Hmm, stupid is right, but not me.

37. Adam, on March 4th, 2009 //

    haha wow, some of these are crazy and the combination of all of them stir up almost every type of emotion.

38. Timo Zimmermann, on March 4th, 2009 //

    after adding my spam protection to my blog – after Akismet checked the comment you have to hit submit again – I didn’t receive one spam comment or a idiotic comment like those you posted.
    Well, most people seem to be overburden to hit submit twice (the big “Confirm your comment again” in red letters is just decoration,… -.-”), so you could call it natural selection.

    I moderate comments from people who post their first comment – after that I add them to the whitelist and the comments appear directly.
    (if I know them or if they are able to stick to the comment guidelines [using their real name] – again: people seem to be overburden reading 4 sentences)

    As long as the comments is not too primitive and offtopic I won’t delete it.

39. sean, on March 4th, 2009 //

    David, your post is so funny ( infact unique). because till date never seen an blog author who has taken pain to post the spam comments he received.

40. Jacob Cass, on March 4th, 2009 // Twitter: @justcreative

    David,
    The funny thing I find is that you have kept these comments, quite hilarious! How long have you been keeping these?

    Personally, I let a lot of the comments go through on my blog however haven’t received many like you have listed above.

41. liam, on March 4th, 2009 //

    Haha! “am i turning into a kitten?” Amazing!

42. Justin, on March 4th, 2009 //

    Well the few that thought they were being funny ended up being our amusement without clogging up the comments area!

    I am interested in this photo framing service you offer!

    This post made my day :]

43. Ariel, on March 4th, 2009 //

    Haha, people are crazy. I have to say thank you for your organized site. It did help me to revamp the company business card. (I have an architecture degree; not graphic design…)

44. Gogo, on March 4th, 2009 //

    I would like to file a protest on behalf of the guy who commented that “graphic design is like “painting a smell”.

    Like you, I’m not sure what the heck he’s actually saying (or thinking), but that was a brain tickler for me. If I really thought about it, I might spend all day thinking about that one.

    What was he trying to say??

    It was either a very profound thought full of subtle complexity, or a stray thought from the refuse heap of a feeble mind. Either way, the internet deserved to see it and I’m glad you dug it up for this post.

    Wonderful post by the way.

45. brandi, on March 4th, 2009 //

    Thanks for the laugh David! I agree with the consensus here on the ‘kitten’ and ‘tremendous opportunity’ as my favs. And who knew that Graphic Design is like painting a smell(tries to picture a smell). Akismet in WP saves my blog from all manner of nuttiness.

46. Anon, on March 5th, 2009 //

    I have to say, the one about a ‘graphic design opportunity’ is quite ironic. I don’t think that it’s real, probably someone getting kicks. On a side note, I admire you for finding the time to manually moderate so many comments.

47. Sander, on March 5th, 2009 //

    At the moment, at my blog, there are many drug related spams submitted Occasionally I moderate messages like as mention in your blog. When it comes to comments is it also about trackbacks. I noticed you don’t show the trackbacks to a specific post, but at my blog I do. The problem with moderating trackbacks is that there are too many automated copy sites that use RSS feed to publish somebodies elses work, on a daily basis I delete trackbacks from those ‘copied’ websites. I have tried contacting some of those websites, but without any effort. Some of my posts are completely copied. With your websites do you also experience these kind of spam copies of your articles?

48. David Airey, on March 5th, 2009 //

    Erin,

    Being up-front about your policy is important, and I add a short note above the comment box on each post that does just that.

    Antonea,

    Not sure I’d call it ‘having balls’. With no comment moderation, you leave yourself open to people publishing all sorts of defamatory allegations on your site. Not too smart, I’d say.

    Vivien (inspirationbit),

    I know what you mean about trackbacks from spam-blogs. It can take quite a bit of time following links to dodgey sites so you know not to let it through. There are no longer trackbacks here on davidairey.com (something weird happened many months ago and I don’t know how to fix it), but there is on Logo Design Love.

    Steve,

    How much is the caravan?

    Robin,

    I’m sure I would have more spam comments with the ‘nofollow’ tag removed. Thing is, I still see my website crop up on ‘dofollow’ lists, even though I changed my policy about a year ago.

    Krista,

    If someone wants to ‘come out’ on my website, it’s a pleasure to oblidge.

    Chris,

    It struck me as sarcasm too, but I thought I’d keep it for this post instead, just in case.

    Euan,

    Virtual cash? Think of the virtual fun you could have with that — it’s virtually unlimited!

    Rob,

    A smell-painting competition? It’d certainly be original, I’ll give you that.

    Tracey,

    I’ve also modified names from time-to-time, and that comment example you gave is very fitting. Hope the spam levels decrease for you soon.

    Timo,

    Similarly, all first-time commenters have their message placed in a queue, and a single ‘accept’ lets follow-up thoughts be published immediately (unless there are more than two links in the text — I think).

    Jacob,

    I started adding these to a draft post about three or four weeks back. It was the ‘kitten’ comment that gave me the idea.

    Justin,

    RE: my photo-framing service, feel free to send your photos across. I can’t promise I’ll look at them, nor send them back, but think of the exposure you could receive!

    Gogo,

    I had contemplated allowing the ’smell-painting’ comment through. Who knows just how deep-in-thought the author was?

    Sander,

    Vivien, of inspirationbit, has the same issue with trackbacks (as do I, for Logo Design Love). In the past, I also tried contacting spam-blogs, asking for my content to be removed, but it’s really a losing battle, as so many crop up on a regular basis. Now I just tend to ignore them, unless they hotlink my images, then I’ll put some random image on their site in a vain attempt at humour.

    Thanks a lot to everyone who took time-out to comment.

49. matt, on March 5th, 2009 //

    ha! these are great.

    Once time I had a person send me their resume, work history, mothers maiden name, birth certificate and social security number in hopes I would help them re-work their resume and find them a job. With all that info i could have opened a few credit cards in their name.

50. Erin McMahon, on March 5th, 2009 //

    Hi David- just to clarify- I didn’t mean to suggest that you weren’t up front! I should have been clearer- sorry about that. :)

51. Farid Hadi, on March 5th, 2009 // Twitter: @faridhadi

    Haha =) This was just hilarious!
    Thanks for sharing this with us David!

52. scott, on March 6th, 2009 //

    >>Graphic Design is like painting a smell<<

    It’s not? Great. There goes my day.

    Maybe I should try drawing a taste.

    At least there’s not a competition to see who can post first by simply posting “First.” Those people have got to get a life.

53. Prix Dekanun, on March 6th, 2009 //

    LOL! I think that this kind of comment is created by the same group of people, working in all languages available on Earth. This is the only good explanation that I can think for receiving the same kind of crazy comments here in Brazil too.

54. tahir, on March 6th, 2009 //

    Wow! thats some crazy sh*t !
    I never actually thought about those comments that are never shown in blogs. but now i know why they’re not. damn funny though.

    Talking about free job requests, I get requests to work for no money from a certain group quite a lot actually.
    They’re my FAMILY!

    oh and haven’t you had the email from the Nigerian fella who says you’ve won a gazillion pounds?

55. Adam, on March 7th, 2009 // Twitter: @admutum

    Like Sander, my main problem are spam comments. My guess is that many of them are commentators hired by SEO companies as they leave comments relevant to my post but with certain key words linked to a website.

56. Alan Scott, on March 7th, 2009 //

    some awesome comments…..

    I would be pretty happy if people actually did leave comments on my blog!

57. Rachel, on March 8th, 2009 //

    thanks for sharing these.

    I really didn’t think there were so many random weird people out there with a computer! All I can think is mental health and drugs issues are bigger than we thought.

58. Ian, on March 9th, 2009 //

    Gosh, I envy you! You must really have fun reading these comments and who knows how many other gems you’ve left out. I’m pretty sure the irony in most of them is intented. The cat one was hilarious – “and I haven’t eaten cat food since 1991″..Gotta love that sense of humour! I think that on a “bad creative day” you can actually get insipred by some of these :)

59. Jon Liebold, on March 9th, 2009 // Twitter: @JonLiebold

    I wish I got comments like those on my political blog. Alas it is adds for casinos, viagra, insurance or whatever the flavor of the month one is.

    I gotta admit I laughed with the “u r gay” one right at the top.

60. Nollind Whachell, on March 10th, 2009 //

    David, you do a phenomenal job with moderating your comments. You engage and interact with your audience like a true “moderator” should. This is really rare these days. I’d say 90% of the sites I visit, the blog author doesn’t even respond to comments and most people’s comments are rarely directed at or refer to another person’s comments (unless it’s a flame). To me, it’s just a bunch of people standing in a room talking to themselves. Again it’s really nice to find a blog author and his community that actually interacts with one another. Keep up the great work! :)

61. Gareth Coxon - Dot Design, on March 10th, 2009 // Twitter: @dot_design

    Only just came across this post David, very very funny. Its so funny that someone would take the time to write “u r gay” and expect you to post it.

    Tell you what you have a book right there just with that content….

62. Overijse, on March 13th, 2009 //

    Painting a smell, would that be watercolour or oil?

    I had heard that phrase before and googled it – this guy here is using it (I think) in earnest.

    http://www.aemcdraw.com/2008/12/fifteen-minutes-of-decay/

    I liked the urgay/imgay bookends – very stylish.
    Simon

63. David Airey, on March 14th, 2009 //

    Matt,

    What possesses someone to give you all that info?! Crazy.

    Erin,

    No need to apologise at all. It’s easy for text to be misinterpreted, and I think you might’ve seen something in my reply that wasn’t there. Thanks for stopping by to share your thoughts. :)

    Scott,

    I saw a few of those “first” comments on Brand New. Some people have far too much time on their hands.

    Tahir,

    I think I’ve won the gazillion pounds on at least 10 occasions. Why I’m not already bathing off Mauritius is anyone’s guess.

    Nollind,

    That’s very kind of you to say. Thanks, to you and to every other commenter. I’m having a good day watching sport — currently 22-15 to Ireland against Scotland in the six nations. Love it.

64. Marcus Dally-Law, on March 22nd, 2009 //

    Hey David,
    As a guy who is just starting out in design, I have found the reader comments that you display invariably helpful and inspiring. Often people will tell you what you SHOULD think of designs, but you foster true discussion on a range of engaging and important aspects of design. I don’t want to comment on the ethics/choices of moderation – but thank goodness I don’t have to wade through pages of ridiculous and misguided posts to get to the really encouraging and insightful comments that you receive.

65. Roy Nottage, on March 23rd, 2009 //

    I’d of probably kept all those, I don’t get enough to be choosey. Maybe I should just lift the flood gates on my Akismet.

66. David Airey, on March 24th, 2009 //

    Marcus,

    I’m glad you find a similar value as I from the reader comments. Great to know.

    Roy,

    Lifting the flood gates off Akismet (in my case) would be horrendous… unless I want to make money from viagra sales and porn (here somes another Google alert for spam words — nice tool that).

67. Nicole, on March 29th, 2009 //

    The “am i turning into a kitten” comment is wonderful. Why on earth wouldn’t you approve it? ;)

68. ErikaJean, on May 14th, 2009 //

    That was GREAT thanks for sharing. I got laughing on a few of those!

69. Kellie, on July 3rd, 2009 //

    I currently follow about 300 blogs – and don’t often have the time to comment unless I really feel a particular insight or am drawn to the topic. I spend a lot of time reading comments, because I often learn quite a bit from a good discussion. Sometimes offering points I never considered or wouldn’t dream of. If I’m not careful – I can get lost and easily distracted following links in comments, so I truly try to curtail that. I really appreciate moderated comments – I know it’s a pain in the butt for the blog owner, but I am much more likely to continue reading and possibly even comment if the crap is pre-weeded.

    Your list was very entertaining btw – it’s amazing how many strange people are out there.

70. GrowMap, on July 6th, 2009 // Twitter: @GrowMap

    LOL and I thought I had seen most of the more ridiculous comments. I wonder if all bloggers are driven to writing a post about moderating comments? I know I have in the past when determining which were spam and which were real was particularly challenging.

    At least some of your worst silly comments were personal and not spam. :-)

71. David Boni, on August 6th, 2009 // Twitter: @davidboni

    Well, it looks like we meet again, David.

    Only this time, I was brought to your blog through a quick Google search on why my comments to random blogs maybe flat-out not submitting, or being instantly deleted. It seems to be happening ever since I changed my domain from a .com to a .net, when I fill out the regular Name/Email/Website fields (like the ones you have here)… have you heard anything at all about something like this?

    And, by the way, hilarious article. I quite like the absolutely weird comments. If I received similar, I’d be tempted to do something remotely creative with them, like sketches (especially for that kitten one).

72. David Airey, on August 12th, 2009 //

    I’m not sure, David. The domain extension could have something to do with it, or you could’ve been wrongly labelled as “spam” by a comment filter. Akismet is the most popular WordPress spam plugin, so perhaps it’s worth your while contacting the people behind it with your email address. Good luck.

73. mark, on August 31st, 2009 //

    Man, I wish my blog had comments.

    (Hope that’s not too short for your spam filter, Dave.)

    M

74. Douglas Bonneville, on October 19th, 2009 // Twitter: @dbonneville

    Hi David: How do you handle tweets these days? You must get a zillion, but I don’t see pingbacks. Are they worth anything at all or should they just be deleted? I guess the question could be for tweets and other regular pingbacks…

75. Douglas Bonneville, on October 19th, 2009 // Twitter: @dbonneville

    (forgot to subscribe)

76. David Airey, on October 19th, 2009 //

    Hi Doug. You won’t see pingbacks or trackbacks here at all (I don’t know the difference between the two). I used to show them, but during a design change I must’ve removed some code that pulls them in.

    I don’t mind that, really. Sure, it lowers the comment count, but there are so many splogs that send trackbacks to Logo Design Love that I end up spending more time than I should moderating them.

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