I’m not talking solely about spam. Traditional spam is really boring. Badly formatted link spam for such delectable products as replica Rolex watches and Prada handbags was never remotely interesting. Before we changed the way in which we receive Web 2.0 Awards nominations, my email would be filled with spammy submission forms every morning. I had the joy of being offered Xanax and Tramadol, neatly packaged within a Gucci wallet. As stupid as these autospam submissions were, they were very dull. I likes me some spam that has imagination!
Bring on YOUmoz. Some of the posts I’ve moderated in mornings past would make Rae Hoffman blush. When I see “6 UGC entries awaiting moderation”, I’m always dumbly hopeful that all six will be genuine, but I usually find that at least four are let-downs. I do understand the method behind the submissions: if you submit the same crap to 600 places, the chances are that one or two of your entries will make it past a moderator, or that there will be no moderation in place at all. According to Matt, who built the system, it’s highly unlikely that bots can automatically submit pieces. That means that real live idiots are imagining that I’ll publish their Elisabeth Swan Halloween Costume spam, which links (omg wtf) to a spamtastic Squidoo lens on the subject. A YOUmoz entry submitted by the aboved-linked-to member was waiting for me this morning. The text of the post was identical to that in the spammer’s profile, and to the text on their Squidoo page.
Not long ago, I was treated to special discounts on UPS by this thoughtful member who (if I remember rightly) also thought it apt to compose his or her entry entirely in capital letters. While it takes me no time at all to click “deny”, there is a part of me that marvels at the idiocy behind this practice, even given the fact that they obviously submit this stuff all over the place: this is a search marketing blog. We partake in, write about, consult on and generally breathe legitimate, intelligent marketing practices. We enjoy the challenges of SEO, of writing and of marketing that require innovation, brain-power and hard work. One quick glance at our homepage or our blog should give even the most mentally stunted spammer a good idea that this isn’t the type of place that will welcome his or her replica prescription mortgage attorneys. Or whatever it was they were last pushing.
Sometimes, it seems that people simply misunderstand the purpose of YOUmoz. Sometimes we get submissions that are simply praising SEOmoz or are asking a question which, while nice, aren’t published to the blog. Longer posts that pose tricky questions and invite insight from the community are totally different: those are fantastic. However, this morning I came across an entry that I’d never seen the likes of before. I’m not sure what the mental process was that took this person from Rand’s post about our upcoming hiring, our VC funding, Mel joining us and Matt leaving, to YOUmoz, but instead of posting his views in a comment, he sent us a UGC entry:
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and learned from the good YOUmoz submissions we receive. They’re often written by experienced, intelligent people who have successful blogs of their own, and we take it as a big compliment that they take the time to write pieces for our site as well. I’m fully aware that, when dealing with user generated content, you’ll run into a fair amount of spam; however, I’ve been puzzling / giggling / groaning over this section of our website for a while now.
In a totally unrelated aside, today is the first anniversary of my joining SEOmoz. This time last year, I was staring nervously at my old boxy monitor, tasked with link-building for a British art gallery. How times have changed!
