It happened, my first spam comment on my blog. What surprises me though is it was not from a bot, it was a real person. And worse, it was from a politician trying to further his cause. Last night Stephen Eli Harris made his was around the intricate web of interlinked blogs of my friends and family (as well as their friends and family), commenting on the most recent posting and in doing so, left a link to his Green Party blog.
If you know me, you know that I have many opinions, and most of them are political. For many years, following politics has been a favorite hobby of mine. Early on though, I made a decision not to make my blog a politician forum (well not in the party politics sense). I did not think I had the time or the energy to write and defend my many political views. It seems though that politics has found its way to my blog.
I’m am not sure the purpose of Mr. Harris’ comment spamming, maybe it was just to drum up traffic to his site, or maybe to up his page rank on search sites. What I am sure of is that I do not approve of the scheme. I have no problem with anyone adding a comment to my blog (as long as it is not offensive). I am especially happy when I found I have reached someone new in the world. However, using my blog (or that of anyone else) to forward a cause without the owners permission is not acceptable.
(Note: I believe that this was the purposes of the comments, as logs show that Mr. Harris visited many sites and only left comments on ones of those in Newfoundland.)
As soon as I finish this entry, I will be emailing Mr. Harris to ask him to refrain from continuing this practice, and remove the link to my blog that now resides on his site (as to me it implies an endorsement of sorts). Unfortunately, I am now forced to turn on the approval of all comments to end this practice on my site. And from now on, or at least until the time I see fit to change my policy, I will try to keep this site free of party politics.
Brian,
I’d like to nip this in the bud right now, if I may. My intentions in posting to your blog was to build fellow blog relations and that is all. I’m fairly new to blogging myself and felt inspired by other Blogs from our province which proudly displayed links to fellow provincial bloggers. If you notice, I posted the same list on my personal blog as well.
Speaking of which, I’ll certainly remove the link to here if you so wish. Again, I was merely trying to point others to your Blog. Would you like me to remove it from my personal Blog as well?
With regards to spam; I’m sorry that you felt that my post was such a dispicable thing. Frankly, it was no such thing. Did I talk about the Green Party at all in my post to you? I think not. I believe I talked about cooking, something I truly love doing. The link at the end is due to my years of internet habit that I’ve built, one of which is always leaving a link to where you can find me.
Yes, I’m running as Candidate in the coming election. Yes, I’m focusing a huge amount of my campaign (due to being just one man on a mission, more or less) online… and when you think about it, even if it was spam that I was spreading, it would be no different that me leaving a flyer in your mailbox. Spam is spam.
Me. I was just trying to have a conversation.
Stephen
http://newfoundlandgreenparty.blogpsot.com
Good luck to the Harris and the Green Party. I actually hope that the Greens get one or two people elected in BC and we get to hear them in parliament and at the next federal election debates (which will happen in lest than a year from now).
The main issue to me is the environment. Although I must admit that I’m not very out-doorsy.
I think the NDP party is a better choice for me right now though. Their values are more my values. Social justice, human rights, paying attention to people before corporations.
I never saw your original post, but I doubt it was Spam. Brian, I think Spam is commercial in nature. Perhaps all message that are unwanted is spam. I think flyers are a type of “real” spam. But I’m less offended by charities and non-profits contacting me. I think you’ll find that Blogs and message boards are back and forth. Dynamic.
My brother had a MySpace site because he was in Korea, and that’s how we stay in contact with him and know about his life. Unfortunately he first set it up as private and none of us could access it. I had to show him how to make it public. I don’t know if you can do it with blogs, but you could look at making it a private members site.
That’s what my friends did with the Da’Bys (an MSN community) and when Dave Green revised PADRE we took it to be members only access to key areas.
Publishing anything, and putting it out their for the world to see all invites people to contact you. I could think of far less desirable comments in the middle of an election than a post by a Green Party Candidate.
Paix.
Anonymous,
I can understand why you’d vote for the NDP; I probably would too if I weren’t as Green as I am. You see, the NDP have a bad track record when it comes to their MP’s. In the past they’ve supported disasterous things like clear cutting in BC and supported giving gas guzzling, heavy pollin’ car manufactures hundreds of millions of dollars, instead of pushing for us to have a hybrid car factory here in Canada… which we don’t have at all. Crazy.
They seem to be all about the environment but, these examples clearly show they are still far behind the Greens. We have a vision for a clear, clean and economically sustainable future. We too believe in social justice, human rights, paying attention to people before corporations and it’s quite evident in the extraordinary platform that we’ve released.
Either way, however you decide, be sure to get out there and actually mark the X. It’s important to vote and I encourage all Canadians to do so, no matter who you support (except the blues. Stay away from them, heh).
Stephen
http://newfoundlandgreenparty.blogspot.com
Brian,
Me again. Just wanted to let you know that I added your blog to a Newfoundland and Labrador Blog Roll. If you’re interested in displayin’ the list of blogs on your site, you can get the code here: http://nlblogroll.blogspot.com/
If you want off the list, email me.
Take care,
Stephen
We don’t know each other, but I am currently involved in a rather childish argument on my own blog with Stephen Eli Harris. To prove my point I have linked a few sites on my latest entry that agree with me about his spamming. I didn’t ask for your permission before mentioning your site, and if that is a problem then I will remove it promptly.
I’ve sent this message to friends of yours who have also talked about this on their blogs, which kind of makes me a spammer. I apologize, and this will be the only time I’ll do this.
Brian and Amanda:
While I can’t speak to Stephen’s intentions, I did notice he placed a comment on a number of Newfoundland blogs, mine included. I didn’t see it as a big deal.
He’s created a Newfoundland Blogroll, which you may or may not find useful.
Actually, that blogroll is the way I found this site.
(Just sayin’. I am not a Green Party supporter and I don’t know Stephen Eli Harris.)
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