Beth Williamson’s Blog

My blog is getting hit by spammers. Lousy bastards. I’ve gotten at least 500 spam comments in the last two days that were caught by the program Frauke installed on my blog, BUT there’s a bunch getting through. You know I’m going to get on my soap box here…

What is the purpose of spam comments? Really… Every one of the 500 say something like “I’m not an active serfer {yes it was spelled wrong}, but I’m going to tell my friends about your site.”

I’ve gotten stupid e-mail and comments that are linked to porn sites, online casinos, tons of prescription meds, and erection enhancements. So what is the purpose of the spam? I just don’t get it and that annoys me. I’d like to understand the purpose of someone wasting my time and my server space.

Let’s take all those spammers and give them a virus made by the other group of whack-jobs out there (those that create malware) and make them trade goodies.

Oh, I might get on my soap box here… look out, the wordsmith/word nerd is in town!

As a writer and reader, I love words. Interesting, new, unique, whatever, they all fascinate me. I also love to hear people speak, the cadence, the inflection, the enunciation - all of it. It comes through in my writing too - my characters will say “gonna” or “I aim to”, or “She’s fixin’ to” and things like that. It’s part of being human, part of culture and history.

So what’s my rant about? Why it’s spelling errors on signs. If I see a sign anywhere (building, car, window, etc.) it had better be spelled right. Lately I’ve noticed a rash of bad spelling and it annoys my inner word nerd.

For example… there’s a church I pass by every day on my way home. I believe it’s a Baptist church (there’s lots of those down here) and each week, they change the sign outside to catch people’s attention. It’s one of those signs that you put big plastic letters on. Without fail, at least once a month, there’s a spelling error. From a church! Unfortunately it’s not the only church I’ve seen with this spelling problems either.

Driving to work last week I saw this large pick-up truck with a cap that had a painstakingly perfect sign on the back (those stick-on letters that you buy at Home Depot) for a home improvement business. The word improvement was spell “IMPROVMENT”. Sigh…

Here’s another one. At a gas station in Georgia a sign in block letters made on someone’s computer… “PLAY GEORGIA LOTTREY HELP EDUCATION”. *slaps forehead*

I’m not asking for perfection here people, but can people check the dictionary? Or go into their favorite word processing program and do a spell check at least?

Now for me (and my poor kids) I’m also a stickler for proper grammar from my children. Don’t say “ain’t got no” in my house. Yes, I know, dork. I don’t impose that on anyone else but if you’re going to advertise (face it that’s what signs are for) check your spelling!!

Rant over. I just had to let that one out. Anyone else have a weird, wacky rant?

The kerfluffle lately has been about bad reviews and perhaps targeted bad reviews, and in some cases, hate mail. Sybil had a though provoking post about “taking the heat” and in the author arena, there’s been some buzz about bad reviews and such.

So what are my thoughts? Honestly, you get good reviews, you get bad reviews, sometimes you get absolutely shitty reviews. It comes with putting yourself out there in the public. As with any other performer/artist, the public will judge you on their own, without holding your hand or stroking your head. We’re not baby kittens or ducks. We’re authors, adults!

Yes, someone will say I rushed the story, or it’s not believable, or they didn’t like the hero because he had brown hair. There’s always going to be someone who just doesn’t get it, hates it, or even some that want to try to hurt your feelings or career. That’s the nature of the beast, y’all. We are out in the public eye and that gaze can be sharp as a razor. I’m not going to say grow a thick skin or shrug it off, but I will say, accept it and move on.

Yes, I care what readers think - I’d be lying if I said bad reviews don’t hurt. It also feels damn good to have a reader e-mail me and tell me they really liked my book. Not a review site or a professional reviewer, just Jane Public or sometimes John Public. That’s who I love to hear from. You don’t like my book? Tell me it sucked like a lemon. I’m a big girl, I can take it.

Some authors may agree with me, some may think I’ve been smoking something, others may get pissed at me. I just felt like I had to give my two cents to this kerfluffle… and try to deflate it. Move on, peeps, and get back to writing.

This is gonna be a little rant. I get TONS of spam mail in my website e-mail addy, my gmail addy, and my yahoo addy. Now I’m getting them in my private addy that only a few people have. AND I get at least ten spam comments on my blog, but my web designer put in a cool filter so they get caught in a net and I delete them en masse. But still, WTF?

Now for some unknown reason, I’m actually get spam e-mail in GERMAN! Can you believe that? Not only do I have to sort through the pharmacy, stock market, and vintage rolex e-mails but I can’t even read the German ones.

One I got this morning said: “Die schoenste Webseite bringt Dir nichts, wenn Du keine Besucher hast!” Um, what? I can’t even read this. Frauke - if you’re out there, can you translate? I’m fairly certain it’s spam.

Most of the spam e-mails I get are full of typos and mispellings, and are generally ugly as hell. What makes these people think that anyone on the planet is going to say. Oooooh!! Cialis for twenty cents a pill? OMG, and the Shithead stock is going through the roof? Oh, I need to get cracking on that!

It doesn’t matter if you mark them as junk e-mail senders, or black mail them or whatever. They just show up using a different addy.

How about y’all? Are you sick and tired of all that spam?

I had a suspicion that I was allergic to some kind of food… through experimentation of my own, I thought it was wheat. I made an appointment at my allergists and headed off to be pricked this morning.
Welll, it didn’t turn out quite like I expected. Not only did I test positive for wheat, but I also tested positive for soy! *gasp* Soy is like a total staple in my diet - a high protein ingredient in a lot of the food I eat.
*sob*
*sniffle, sniffle*
What the hell am I going to eat? Ye gods, that eliminates like 90% of food! Not only that, but the food I have to buy to be wheat free or soy free is expensive. Cashola, man. NOT what I need right now.
So everyone send me good vibes that I find something other than eggs and cheese that I can not only afford, but that I can eat.