My blog comment spam problems aren’t nearly bad as they used to be, due to an anti-spam WordPress Plugin I raved about previously. But I still have to scan pending comments for spam, and certain things are a dead give away:
Dear Spammer Dude (Limerick)
By Madeleine Begun Kane
Dear Spammers, don’t call me a “dude.”
I’m a gal, so that sounds rather rude.
My pic makes this clear,
So your “dude” usage, dear,
Proves your post should be promptly eschewed.
My humorist pal Rose Valenta recently created a Kindle version of her blog and inspired me to do the same. Why? Because many employers are getting strict about web access, blocking employees from reading their favorite blogs and sites — even while they’re on a break or at lunch.
But your boss can’t control what you read on your Kindle. And Amazon makes it easy for bloggers to create Kindle blog editions, allowing fans to bypass their bosses and keep up with their reading.
That brings me to my latest limerick:
Fight Firewalls With Kindle
By Madeleine Begun Kane
You’re at work, but on break — want to read.
But your boss did a dastardly deed:
Your fav’rites are blocked.
Your net access is locked.
But he can’t stop a Kindle blog feed.
My News: I’ve created Kindle versions of both my blogs. So if you’d like to read this general humor blog on your Kindle reader you can subscribe right here. And if you’d like to read my other political satire blog on your Kindle device, you can subscribe right here.
Attention Fellow Bloggers: If you’d like to publish your own blog on Amazon Kindle, Amazon makes it pretty easy and has a helpful Kindle Blog FAQ here. You can also find some useful info over at Mashable and some Kindle badges and icons here.
Warning: Reading blogs on Kindle isn’t free, except for the 14-day free trial for each blog. Monthly Kindle blog subscription fees are controlled by Amazon and priced at either $0.99 per month or $1.99 per month. Moreover, only 30% of the revenue goes to the blogger.
And Now For The Sales Pitch: Each of my two blogs is priced at $0.99 per month.
So if you’re a Kindle owner, I hope you’ll give the Kindle version of this humor blog and/or the Kindle version of my political satire blog a try.
Many Facebook users are angry or at least concerned about Facebook’s revised and more aggressive terms of service (TOS).
Consumerist has some good info here about Facebook’s perpetual content rights grab, and WebTechLaw explains the legal ramifications and what Facebook’s revised terms mean for your content.
I’ve never been a Facebook fan and now I like it even less. But at least it’s provided inspiration for a new limerick:
Facebook Face-Off
By Madeleine Begun Kane
Greedy Facebook has published new rules
Which play all its users for fools.
It’s a content rights grab—
A perpetual nab
Of your stuff just for using its tools.
UPDATE: Facebook has reversed itself about these new rules as a result of bad press and membership ire. I’ll be activating my account and I’ll see how it goes.
Mad Kane (Madeleine Begun Kane) is a writer, musician, and "recovering lawyer." She won the Robert Benchley Society Award For Humor and enjoys writing limericks, song parodies, and current events haiku.
You can email her at madkane@madkane.com, visit her political humor blog, or stop by her home page.
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Life-Saving, Spam-Fighting WordPress Plugin
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008I don’t usually write about technology, unless I’m writing limericks and haiku about sundry computer, spam, email, voice mail, and other techie aggravations.
But I’m making an exception today because I want to share my wonderful discovery: WP-SpamFree. I’m not exaggerating when I say it miraculously removes the WordPress comment spam moderation headache. How? It blocks all spam coming from bots; i.e., almost all spam. So it never even gets into your moderation queue.
I don’t know about you, but I used to wade through so much spam while moderating comments, that my eyes would glaze over and I’d inadvertently delete a legit comment. In fact, sometimes I’d get so disgusted, that I’d delete all pending comments without looking at them — I just didn’t have time to scan them and find the very few worth keeping.
Anyway, a few days ago I installed WP-SpamFree on both of my WordPress blogs, and my moderation woes ended immediately. Now my comments moderation screen is almost spam-free — it just shows just a bit of human-posted spam plus comments worth approving. So no more wasted time and no more accidentally deleted legit comments.
Hurray!
Oh … in case anybody’s wondering … I was NOT paid to rave about this fabulous (and free) plugin.
Tags: Blog Comments, Spam, Technology Advice, WordPress Plugins
Posted in Blogging Tips, WordPress | 3 Comments »