Message in Bottle by Rachel Kurtz
In light of all the spam comments I’m always deleting from this blog, Wayne tells me I should just shut off the comment feature altogether, but I won’t do it. I’m hopeful that one day, real people will read my blog and feel the urge to make genuine comments. I already got two real comments, though one was from Wayne.
Blog spammers have gotten pretty clever. Only months ago I was mostly getting easy to spot jumbles of letters or advice to “try this link.” But now, they’re not so immediately transparent to someone filled with hope that people out there are reading and appreciating my work. I wanted to believe that I’ve written “amazing articles” and “great stuff” and that people are going to “bookmark” my blog or “visit often.” I even wanted to believe that people wanted to subscribe to my RSS feed, even though I don’t think I have one.
Eventually, though, I began to wonder about the vague praise. None of the comments referred to the content of my actual blog entries. I looked a bit further. Their email addresses often included promises of flat bellies, improved sex life, or how to make money without leaving home. Spam, spam, spam.
What is the difference between writing an unread blog and all my other unpublished work? Hope. And doesn’t hope keep us all calling out into that void, hoping someone is listening? I guess that’s why people like Facebook so much, because it’s more like a billboard than a message in a bottle.
So, dear reader, if you exist, maybe you would care to leave a specific comment.