Anonymous, Autonomous

I’m glad that Blogger is detecting spam automatically. When I started blogging in 2005, it was still okay to leave the comments section open for anonymous feedback. A few months into it, that’s when various unwanted comments flooded in—totally unrelated to topics, sometimes with suspicious links—just minutes from each other.

                                            

I activated the setting preventing anonymous posters from commenting. It did stop the bot-slaught, but eventually, anonymous people with Blogger accounts would comment, sometimes troll, and leave links. I activated the comment notification, which gave me the option to screen all of them, and identify potentially dangerous ones.

I’m okay with people commenting about what’s posted here as long as they don’t do it anonymously, or hide behind a fake name. I have no time for attention-deprived name-callers. So yeah, I’m glad Blogger’s automatically detecting potentially bad comments now, and informing me about it.

Another thing about blogging. I post my published newspaper articles here, as mentioned before, because they add a formal tone to my blog. Some may wonder why, when I could easily post links to the site? Well, why not? I’m okay with showing them here. I wrote them; they’re by me. I’ve been doing it since 2007. Sometimes I wish I started posting them even earlier. I’m confident enough to show them.

At least I’m not posting something that’s reposted ad infintum by other bloggers. That exact same thing, press releases fed by film, TV, or food companies, mirrored all over the blogosphere--I'm not into that. Well, that’s blogging for some of today’s online practitioners for you. I wish they’d put their spin on them, give them a creative take, instead of just presenting them as is. But that’s totally their prerogative.