Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Word of Caution About Blog Comments

Some of you may already know this, but I just recently figured out something about comments.

I love reading all the comments other tatters leave on my blog but I don't publish them without looking at them first, and this is why. I've been involved in the tatting community for almost two years and am pretty familiar with many names and bloggers but I don't know everyone. While I'm not afraid of a few negative comments here and there, I am very cautious about spamming and other malware that is prevalent everywhere now.

As I was looking as some of the comments I've received, one trend I noticed was after that after a very innocent comment there were a bunch of underlined dots. I didn't immediately recognize the name and wondered why there were 10-15 dots at the end of the comment.

Now, I admit, I often end my sentences in email or when texting with 3-4 dots...it's kind of my way of letting the recipent know that my comments are open-ended and hopefully they will reply with further thoughts or information.

What was interesting about these comments was when I hovered my mouse over the dots and looked at the bottom of my browser screen, all kinds of trashy website URLs came up!

Spammers have figured out a way to create links using this method.

So, fellow tatters, be wary of unknown bloggers or odd comments you see on your own blogs and check them out (hover don't click) before publishing.

Just my two cents' worth but I hope it helps someone.

One more thing - if you receive comments in a foreign language, copy them into a translator (Google has one) before you do anything else. You'll be surprised and probably disappointed in what some of them say...

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for the helpful info. especially from of us "newbies" as my daughter calls me. :)
    Have a great day!

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  2. Spammers already steal and use our email addresses. Will they soon be abusing our blogger identities as well? Why must there be people who enjoy ruining the innocent fun of others? Thank you very much for alerting me to this. BTW, I really enjoyed your slideshow.

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  3. Tatteristic,
    This is really good information to know. I too don't allow post before I read them. I make sure that I know who they are from as well. Thankyou for letting us all know about such a thing.

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  4. Wow - that is really something else! Thanks for the heads-up!
    Fox : )............. (Just kidding!)

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  5. I have received the type of comments that you mentioned. In all case, I usually delete them straightaway. It is better to be on the safe side.

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  6. P.S. I did have a comment - a long one - in another language and I used the translator and was mystified as to why the thing had been sent. I suppose it was a spammer, but I still don't get the reason. It was not selling sex or pharmaceuticals or porn or a product of any kind. It was just weird. I trashed it and chalked it up to experience.

    Your example is nastier.
    Fox

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  7. Thanks for the info. I knew about the foreign language stuff as I've had a few pop up on my blog. However, I did not know about the dots. I'll keep my eyes open to this nonsense!

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  8. Aww, now I want to leave a really nice comment in Gaelic. It would probably help if I actually spoke Gaelic, huh. Happy tatting.

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  9. Thank you for the information.

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  10. Thanks for the info. I did not know this. I am always blogging and leave the dots at the end of some of my sentences. I have done this for a long time and now I'm going to have to rethink this. I've also had alot of foreign language comments on my blog and alot of those were strange.

    I found your blog off of the 25 motif challenge and I wanted you to know that I think your green and white clover leaf doily is lovely. Thanks for sharing the info.

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