The great splog overload

July 11th, 2006

What’s a splog? Lorelle has a better definition than I could hope to write. In a nutshell, it’s just another pixelated version of junk mail, in that you find it clogging up your news feeds and your internet searches. With splog rage on the rise in the blogosphere, one tool has been catching some attention: The Splog Reporter. The front page claims: This site was created for “good willed” bloggers to report splog in an effort to help to clean up the blogosphere of splog.

There is one thing that bothers me about this site. No background information. No (real) “About Us” page. No credits. No statistics. Just a list of other web sites and blogs that have mentioned Splog Reporter.

So, what actually happens to that splog I just reported? How easy is it to have one of these sites shut down? Or is the whole purpose of Splog Reporter to submit splogs to search engines for de-listing? I don’t know. I have no idea of what I’m participating in. Perhaps I should make a list of the splogs I report and check on them at a later date.

In the meantime, I’ve installed their bookmarlet and use it. And use it. And use it. There’s just some great sense of personal satisfaction in “nuking” a damn splog. Kinda like popping bubble wrap. It just feels good.

Tags: spam, splogs

Ramblings

4 Responses to “The great splog overload”

Lorelle
July 12th, 2006 - 3:22 am
I thought the same thing about the Splog Reporter. I’ve found no evidence that they “do” anything, though it’s a slick site. I’ll have to dig into that more. Thanks for the reminder.

And I like your definition better.
Defrost Indoors
July 13th, 2006 - 2:02 am
You know, that’s been bothering me too, even though I think it’s a great idea. Splog Reporter is just too…opaque. Then I saw their Privacy Policy:

For each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically recognizes the consumer’s domain name and e-mail address (where possible).

We collect the domain name and e-mail address (where possible) of visitors to our Web page, the e-mail addresses of those who communicate with us via e-mail, aggregate information on what pages consumers access or visit and splog domain name, where reported splog was found, splog newsletter.

The information we collect is used to improve the content of our Web page, used to notify consumers about updates to our Web site, disclosed when legally required to do so, at the request of governmental authorities conducting an investigation, to verify or enforce compliance with the policies governing our Web site and applicable laws or to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our Web site, to a successor entity in connection with a corporate merger, consolidation, sale of assets or other corporate change respecting the Web site and used to help search engines in removing splog url entries from their index.

The hell?! Maybe that’s what the site is really for, who knows?! Does anyone actually know who this guy is?

I am fed up to the teeth with Technorati too: too many ads on the site, and it indexes far too many splogs.
Defrost Indoors
July 13th, 2006 - 2:11 am
Sorry to reply again so fast, but there’s another common element in many of them: the same blogroll of names: Matt, Mike, Dougal, Alex, Donncha, Ryan, Michel.
Me
July 13th, 2006 - 7:25 am
Those names you see in the blogroll are the WordPress development team and are entered by default when WordPress is installed. So, yes, when you see those names, it’s likely either a splog or just a WordPress newbie.