As I said in my last post, I always check the spam comments on my writer’s site. I had gotten a notice in my email that I had a real comment over there, so I had to go check it out. And true enough, it sounded like a real comment sent from an actual writer who had started their own site. Problem was with the post the comment was linked with. Don’t tell me that “you and your wife found this site both informative and deserves mentioning elsewhere”, especially when the post you’ve left the comment on has to do with writing ideas for the month of December. Would have made sense 2 months ago, but not in February.

So, I checked out my spam folder and found the exact same comment listed 7 times. Word for word, all from the same website, but all different names and addresses. Oddly enough, they all came from the same ISP address. Wow, that’s just fricking amazing. I know I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but come on. I’m not that fricking stupid. And yes, this pissed me off. Each of those comments was linked to a different post all around my site. Was almost like saying, if I work at it, maybe I can get at least one of them to go through. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I decided to go check out the site and see if it might be worth a shout out. Then I decided screw it, I wasn’t giving this person the satisfaction. What really upset me was the sneakiness about it. You’ll notice that I’ve not mentioned the name of the site, and I’m not going to either. Even without a link to the site, I’d still be giving this person free advertising, and I’m not going to do that.

Normally, it wouldn’t bother me a bit to help out a fellow writer. I’d be more than happy to check out a website and tell the rest of the world about it. But, because of the way this person went about it, I’m not going to help. Piss on ‘em. If you want my help, hey, just ask. But don’t try to sneak in through the back door and make a name for yourself through me. I’ll throw you out in a heartbeat.

Maybe I shouldn’t take this so personal, but I am really upset by this. Yes, the writing industry is a tough niche and it’s full of competition. Getting your foot in the door isn’t easy, and unless you’re associated with the right people, you might never get noticed. And more than that, I’m not exactly the most well-known member of the online writing community. But, I have built up quite a little following at my writer’s site and I don’t want a bunch of crappy comments killing that for me.

So, anyone out there actually reading this, if you have a writing related website and would like for me to check it out, just ask. I’ll be more than happy to look at your site give it a little free publicity. I can’t promise you’ll end up a giant in the writing industry, or that you’ll even find a way to earn money writing. The only thing I can promise is that you won’t end up a long-ass rant on this site.