Today's Blog Herald post
on Google's Blogger.com is dire and interesting. Complaining about the rash of spam blogs, and identifying
Blogger.com's Blogspot server as a frequently-found host of such blogs, the entry concludes (perhaps too
apocalyptically) that blogging is doomed if Google does not exercise control over Blogspot. the reasoning is that other
search engines might remove the entire Blogger and Blogspot domains from their indexes if these rogue blogs continue to
poolute results; then Google might also; then legitimate blogs will be difficult to find.
Blog Herald claims that Google refuses to undermine its own subsidiary by exercising editorial control. Interestingly,
a comment to the post is allegedly written by the "Blogger Support Team," and the line werapping makes it appear to
have been pasted from an internal support document:
"Thank you for writing regarding content posted on blogspot.com. Although
we host that site, we are not in a position to adjudicate whether the
content is defamatory or not. Accordingly, consistent with section 230(c) of the Communications Decency
Act, Blogger does not remove material in response to allegations of
defamation. In cases where a contact email address is listed on the page,
we recommend working directly with the author to have this information
removed or changed."
Blog Herald: Google's Blogger Part of a Big Problem
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. Besides spam blogs, Blogger has another problem: abandoned addresses. I wrote Google about it and they answered that they can not do anything, that I should contact the blogger (whose email in not valid anymore).
I tried to start a blog on CAMARGO city in the Chihuahua state (Mexico) and the address was taken and left alone, without any postings, several years ago.
The idea of a "report this" button is good, for communication purposes, in these cases. But spam blogs is nothing but plain abuse.
The problem with "hate" blogs is that anyone will be offended by anything. Freedom is better. Otherwise, Scientology is right persecuting any dissenting view on the net and anywhere else.
Armando Ortega
From Chihuahua Mexico.
Posted at 4:46AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Armando Ortega
4. A "report this blog" button would only work if Blogger have enough manpower behind it to respond to reports. I've seen it work well on self-moderating discussion boards.
I was wondering, too, if identifying spam blogs is something that could be automated, in similar ways that Bayesian filters work on spam email. A lot of the Blog*Spot spam is easy to spot: repetitive frequent posts, lots of links with the same link text or target URL.
6. Blog spam will always be a problem unless there is some human moderation in blog directories. Blog spam is as evil as email spam, what next RSS spam.
If directory webmasters are not willing to edit their listings then blog spam will continue to grow.
It's easy to blame Google, they didn't create blog spamming and I do not think it would be economical to moderate blogger blogs. Maybe they could have a report this button.
Posted at 4:46AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Allan Burns
7. Besides spam blogs, Blogger has another problem: abandoned addresses. I wrote Google about it and they answered that they can not do anything, that I should contact the blogger (whose email in not valid anymore).
I tried to start a blog on CAMARGO city in the Chihuahua state (Mexico) and the address was taken and left alone, without any postings, several years ago.
The idea of a "report this" button is good, for communication purposes, in these cases. But spam blogs is nothing but plain abuse.
The problem with "hate" blogs is that anyone will be offended by anything. Freedom is better. Otherwise, Scientology is right persecuting any dissenting view on the net and anywhere else.
Armando Ortega
From Chihuahua Mexico.
Posted at 4:46AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Armando Ortega
9. A "report this blog" button would only work if Blogger have enough manpower behind it to respond to reports. I've seen it work well on self-moderating discussion boards.
I was wondering, too, if identifying spam blogs is something that could be automated, in similar ways that Bayesian filters work on spam email. A lot of the Blog*Spot spam is easy to spot: repetitive frequent posts, lots of links with the same link text or target URL.
1. Blog spam will always be a problem unless there is some human moderation in blog directories. Blog spam is as evil as email spam, what next RSS spam.
If directory webmasters are not willing to edit their listings then blog spam will continue to grow.
It's easy to blame Google, they didn't create blog spamming and I do not think it would be economical to moderate blogger blogs. Maybe they could have a report this button.
Posted at 4:46AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Allan Burns