I’ve written a lot lately about the new activity and information found on World Vital Records, but you won’t be hearing much from me about them for a long time. In fact, until they make a public apology.
It appears that they are using “real people” (I assume) to manually comment spam genealogy blogs with “helpful” tips recommending World Vital Records and their newsletters. I also assume these people are being paid. I’ve now deleted 5 comment spams from them. That is one too many for me.
If your genealogy or family history blog has started getting comments from “friendly folks” who want to “help your genealogy research” by recommending how successful their experience with World Vital Records was, and the comment includes a link to their site and/or their newsletter, it’s comment spam. Delete it immediately.
I’m sure there are plenty of people getting great help from World Vital Records, but I will NOT tolerate comment spam from any person or company, and any company who uses comment spam to promote their site or services…in a word…sucks. I do not want to do business with comment spammers as that perpetuates this low and disgusting method of advertising.
Honestly, comment spam from World Vital Records puts them in league with casinos, drugs, mortgages, sex, porn, and erection longevity schemes.
I don’t get comment spam from people “thrilled with their success” using Ancestry.com or any of the other many online resources I recommend or am familiar with. Maybe the occasional recommendation, but certainly not five in just a few days for the same resource. And not all worded basically the same.
If World Vital Records is honestly not associated with these comment spams, then they had better put a stop to whoever is. If they are, shame, shame, shame.
What is Comment Spam?
For those unfamiliar with blogs, comment spam is the equivalent of email spam. It is unwanted, unnecessary, and frequently disgusting, comments posted on blogs promoting all of the sins and temptations including casinos, penis enlargers, drugs, porn, sex, fetishes, real estate, banks, and the worst of the worst of junk mail and email spam.
Comment spam is typically created by bots, computer programs that crawl the web looking for blogs with comments. Well-structured blogging tools such as WordPress have comment spam filters which catch and block most comment spam before it is published. Good comment spam catching tools stop 99% of all comment spam today. Unfortunately, recent news announcements tell of comment spammers hiring the poor and semi-illiterate, often in third world countries, to manually comment spam, arranging words and phrases to potentially bypass comment spam filters. Modern telemarketing scams.
If you have a blog or are visiting a blog and see something that appears to be comment spam, please DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK. It pays the comment spammer for every click and every visit. We must stop this scourge on the web now, and the best way is to stop them economically.
If my claim is true, it appears that World Vital Records has hired or is paying folks to comment spam genealogy blogs. This is very, very wrong.
For more information on comment spams, see:
- Battling Comment Spam: Human Versus Human
- Would You Do Business With a Comment Spammer?
- Content Specific Comment Spam on the Loose
- I’m Winning the Battle Against Comment Spam
- Comments on Comments
- What is Comment Spam
- How NOT to Comment on Comments
- Do You Care Enough To Keep Your Blog Comment Spam Free?
- The Bitacle Battle of Blogs
- One Year Anniversary Review: Comments on Comment Spam
- New Comment Spammer on the Loose – Pay Attention
- WordPress.com Users Hit by Direct Attack – Stopped In Their Tracks
Most Recent Articles by Lorelle VanFossen
- The Myths and Mysteries and Hunt for Nicholas Knapp
- The Perpetual Calendar
- GenSmarts: Reminder to Not Assume
- Gensmarts Saves Your Family History Research Life
- Digging Through Historical Newspapers Online
Pingback: Family History Blogging Resources and Tips | Learning from Lorelle