The Lure of Flattery

Over at my brandonadams.com website, the blog is self-hosted, which means I have to pay extra to get filtering against spam comments on the posts. What that means it that computer programs (“bots”) crawl all over the internet, looking for anywhere they can post links to whatever they’re trying to promote (usually some China imitation designer handbags, or some prescription drugs at discount, or something like that). I get several of these a day. What’s interesting is the consistent content of most of them. Some of them can sound very convincing at first:

Its like you read my mind! You appear to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with a few pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is fantastic blog. A fantastic read. I will certainly be back.

Excellent blog! Do you have any suggestions for aspiring writers? I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything

I’ve been absent for some time, but now I remember why I used to love this website. Thank you, I will try and check back more frequently.

Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts.

wonderful post, very informative. I wonder why the other experts of this sector do not notice this. You should continue your writing. I am confident, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!

Thanks for sharing superb informations. Your web site is so cool. I’m impressed by the details that you’ve on this website. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this website page, will come back for extra articles. You, my friend, ROCK!

I was suggested this blog by my cousin. I’m now not sure whether or not this post is written by him as no one else know such designated about my problem. You are amazing! Thank you!

I truly appreciate this post. I have been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day!

Or there’s this one, written by a hacker:

Hi! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on.

These comments are all written by hackers trying to get you to click on a link. They spend a lot of time researching the most persuasive language to use to get you to click. And this is what most of them  end up with: something to stroke your ego. Clearly this is working for them.

It’s a good reminder to check your motivations for why you have a blog. Am I blogging because I yearn for affirmation and approval and praise like the above? Or am I blogging to make much of Christ and less of myself? If I’m honest, it’s often the former.