Today I received a comment on my web design blog complaining that a previous comment was “clearly spam”. The post in question talked about web design books I was looking forward to seeing. And the (possibly spammy) commenter linked to an ebook he was looking forward to.

My question is: what makes this spam? The fact that he bolded the title of the book? The fact that he included a link to the ebook’s web page? The fact that he didn’t say “I am not the author, I just like this book” or something equally obsequious?

Actually, I have two questions:

1. Why is it so important that you report this spammer by posting crap to my comments? Have you never heard of email?
2. And what made this comment so annoying to you, but the many “I love this article! Thanks for posting. URL” comments don’t cause you to report them as spam?

Two days ago, I got another spam report for my web design forums complaining about a post where the person linked to their web page.

Okay, this might very well be spam. But…

The poster was asking for feedback on his site. You can’t very well request feedback without including a URL. Yes, his signature then included the URL again, but holy crap people, just because people include their URL for their web design business in their sig doesn’t make them a spammer!

I used to respond to these submissions, thanking the spam police officer for his/her diligence and asking what made the post seem spammy to them. But I have never once had one of them reply to me. So now I just delete them.

I like to think that I’m growing as a person by deleting the police reports without responding. But it’s probably just laziness…

I’ve got my new template up and running. I’m sure I’ll continue to find things I need to tweak and fix on it, but for now I’m pleased with it.

This is my first foray into my own images for a design. Or I should say, it’s the first time I’ve ever used a painting or drawing I did. I really like how it turned out. If you’re curious to know more about why I built this template, check out the About this Site link in the navigation above.

If you have suggestions, please let me know. All positive feedback gratefully accepted.

My original painting - scaled down

I have a form on my site asking for people to define what they feel a webmaster is. It asks:

“Share your thoughts. What is a webmaster?”

And I received this reply:

“Title: Webmaster description…OMG                
I just read several responses to what others opinion are regarding what a webmaster is and quite frankly, the grammar, spelling, and English are deplorable. If one cannot master the fundamentals of communication, then the game is over. Webmasters will become specialized because of their skills and not because of a simple desire and a minimal education. How would like to go to a dentist who was self taught and just got by in school? Ouch………..”

I am not going to post it, because it doesn’t answer the question, but it does prompt me to ask the author:

1. Do you really equate building Web pages with dentistry? You’re right, I wouldn’t want to go to a self-taught dentist, but a Webmaster isn’t going to inflict actual pain on me if they do something wrong.
2. Has it occurred to you that perhaps the people whose grammar and spelling you are deploring are actually non-English speakers? Just because they are learning Web design from an English-language website doesn’t mean that they can’t make completely accurate websites in their native tongue.
3. And finally, what does it say about you personally that you feel that a slam on random strangers is a legitimate answer to a completely different question. I asked you to define what a Webmaster is, not what it isn’t or what your opinion is of the other people writing. I could ask you if you are capable of reading and make comments about communication in your favor as well. But I won’t, much…

I suppose that I shouldn’t be surprised that people just feel the need to rant and rave in any forum. But honestly, keep your vitriol out of my living room. If you feel the need to get out your shiny metal grammar police badge, I feel the need to walk away. Go police some other site.

Which brings me to one other thing. Spammers. Who the heck knows how they think really? And yes, I know that it’s all automated. But MAN, why would they think that if one spammy message hawking their enlarging wares got blocked, that 100 more would magically get through. I know, I know, they just set up their spam fire hose and aim it at the universe, and since they’re spewing out such a huge amount of spiced pork, some of it has to stick somewhere. I do feel badly for the false positives, however, as man, wading through the morass of crap is not something I’m particularly interested in doing very often.

I was reading TUAW this morning, and they were talking about the Apple.com site and how some people were reporting that the Downloads section was gone. In a nutshell their article was just saying that no, it’s not, it’s just not on the navigation now because they needed room for an iPad tab.

My favorite quote from the article* was:

“Fortunately you can easily locate the downloads section simply by typing the word “downloads” into the search box.“

Wow! No really? The search box? What is that?

I got an email from a reader a day or two ago that read:

“I’m a intermediate web design student looking for tips on where to get started both in terms of learning and your opinion on the best course of action for trying to get jobs and making money with webdesign as a part time job (maybe full time.)” [sic]

I admit, the navigation on my site leaves a lot to be desired. But there are 3 tabs on every page of the site: “Design Basics”, “Learn HTML CSS XML”, and “Careers”. There are some keywords in those tabs that seem to correlate precisely to what he’s asking for (“learn” and “careers” for those who want to follow along at home).

But there is also a search box where he could have typed in “get started” and gotten: Getting Started as a Freelance Web Designer – 12 Things You Need or he could have typed in learning web design and gotten: Web Design – Learn HTML / CSS / XML – Web Development – Web Site … (third link, the first was to my home page, and the second to an HTML tutorial which would have also done the job). Or he could have typed in “get jobs and making money with webdesign” and gotten: Earn Money on the Web – Make Money from Web Pages – Make Money as … plus the third link in that search is Is full-time freelance Web design a viable career alternative? which doesn’t answer his question, but might be interesting for him to read.

But instead of clicking on any of the three tabs or doing a search, he instead waded around on my site until he finally found my email link (which is hidden, yes, as part of that less than desirable navigation I mentioned) so that he could email me his question.

The question I want to ask him (but won’t) is: “Do you really think I’m going to give you some special hidden gem that isn’t on my site just because you emailed me?”

Here’s a clue for the emailers: I’m paid when you read my articles online. I’m not paid to read or reply to emails. So, the best you can hope for in an email reply is for a bunch of links that I’ve found by inputting your question into my search box.

Here’s another clue: It’s faster if you do it yourself. Even if you have to try 5 different search phrases or go through 10 pages of results, chances are you’ll find your answer within 5 minutes. If I reply to you within an hour you’re extremely lucky. Most people don’t get a reply for several days, if ever.

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* Don’t get me started on the fact that the TUAW “article” was a bit lame to begin with. I mean, they are reporting that the downloads link is no longer in the navigation? Newsflash! Apple employees breathe air! Steve Jobs is reported to have been seen eating a sandwich! Apple.com is hosted on a Web server!!!!

I’m currently reading Booklife by Jeff Vandermeer. One of the first chapters talks about Twitter and he says that he doesn’t really like Twitter because it “fragments [his] attention”. Like him, I don’t find Twitter all that friendly.

Many of the people I used to chat with on Twitter now have so many people in their timeline that they never even see my posts. And I’ve never had the experience of asking a question or for help and getting more than a minimal response and often a snarky, negative one.

I wish I’d had a better experience, as it was a lot of fun at first. But now I just sync my Web Design blog to the account and mostly ignore it. It’s less stressful that way.