halfey ✅🎮🎨🔬🔭🐈🇲🇾🇺🇦🇹🇼Jan 4, 2023
Mike Masnick ✅

I remain conflicted when companies that hired comment spammers who successfully slipped through Techdirt's comment spam defenses... then reach out to me begging me to delete the comments because Google is punishing them for spamming.

Normally we delete any spam comment as soon as we see it. But watching the companies who hired the spammers squirm... is also appealing.

Jan 4, 2023 at 2:13pmWeb
Show threadThat Anonymous CowardJan 4, 2023

@mmasnick

If google can pick up their spam despite it being hidden from view, party on.

Until its biting them in the ass they'll keep doing it.

I do so enjoy when the dildo of consequences arrives.

Show threadJohnVoltzJan 4, 2023

@mmasnick
Well well well … if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions.

(Perhaps note this situation in the comments 😆)

Show threadmatsimpskJan 4, 2023
@mmasnick hmm, does comment spam hit a company’s Google rank then? So presumably I could hire a comment spammer to ‘promote’ the URL of a competitor..?
Show threadMike Masnick ✅Jan 4, 2023
@matsimpsk it might. it's a pretty inefficient way of attacking a competitor though
Show threadmatsimpskJan 4, 2023
@mmasnick well, ‘inefficiency’ is my middle name…
Show threadParticle Man GaryJan 4, 2023
@matsimpsk @mmasnick "negative SEO" is certainly a thing, using various "black hat" strategies to bring down the Google ranking of your competitors,but I'm not sure how cost effective it is.
Show threadmatsimpskJan 4, 2023
@beamdriver @mmasnick too late now! I’ve already posted ‘Twitter and Tesla dot com’ on half of livejournal.
Show threadDanJan 4, 2023

@mmasnick an old company I worked for hired an SEO firm that promised results. They ended up doing that type of spamming crap instead of fixing our website like they were contracted to do.

What was worse was that they signed up for a bunch of websites using our company name (with a gmail account they made using our name) and spammed the hell out of random blogs with links. Didn’t even have the guts to use their own emails or names.

Just the worst.

Show threadDanJan 4, 2023

@mmasnick what would I do here? I’d delete the comments (don’t punish the company being screwed by these unscrupulous SEO guys).

But then pull a @Popehat and write a nice blog calling them out for their shady crap so new clients who Google them get a very nice idea what they are buying.

Show threadMike Masnick ✅Jan 4, 2023
@Danielsand @Popehat except that, as with your situation, they created an account in the name of the business they were spamming for who is now desperately begging us to delete the spam
Show threadDanJan 4, 2023

@mmasnick ahhhh. So no way to tell who it is. Gotcha. I thought they emailed you from their company account.

Well in that case, squirm away. :-)

Show threadsportsguyNWJan 4, 2023
@Danielsand @mmasnick @Popehat I like this idea, but Mike’s busy. Teachable moment. Tell the company who hired the skeezy types to write the post. Hearkens back to elementary school, but then again so does the excuse of “but-but-but it’s not my fault!”
Show threadThe ClericJan 4, 2023
@mmasnick can you apply CSS to the comments so that they are on the page for Google but invisible to users? 😈
Show threadSpicewallaJan 4, 2023
@mmasnick Time to institute a spam-removal fee.
Show threadmczoodtJan 4, 2023
@mmasnick That's when you want to be able to add a flag to the comment "this is spam from (company)".
Show threadGoldaJan 4, 2023
@mmasnick ha but google might punish you for leaving them?
Show threadMike Masnick ✅Jan 4, 2023
@gvelez17 yup
Show threadThadJan 4, 2023
@mmasnick Idea: dedicated post to move all the spam comments to. Keep them public so that scrapers see them, but tuck them away where posters mostly won't notice them.
Show threadBenjaminJan 4, 2023

@mmasnick Hiding the spam for most users while surfacing them for Google would be ideal.

A naive implementation might toggle behavior based on UserAgent, but I'm not familiar enough with spam-comment-punishment to know how viable that would be.

Show threadMax Leibman has moved!Jan 4, 2023
@mmasnick Live by the SEO, die by the SEO, I say.
Show threadKevin Karhan Jan 4, 2023
@mmasnick Personally, I'd #NameThemBlameThem & #BlockThemReportThem by publishing the details in full and unredacted and sending a copy to #Spamhaus so that they'll get listed on the #SOCKSO and #DROP / #DROPv6 & #EDROP blocklists!
Show threadGojira1000Jan 4, 2023
@mmasnick Maybe just add this post as a comment on the spam posts and bathe in the schadenfreude?
Show threadKyle R. ConwayJan 5, 2023
@mmasnick I've always appreciated your stance here and used the fact that you've done this to talk more than a few companies out of B.S. SEO pursuits and contracts with snake oil salespeople to pursue the better strategy of "make things people want and tell the truth". I'm a fan of the squirming.
Show threadWSHuffJan 5, 2023
@mmasnick Could you treat those comments like junk email and just move them into a spam folder so they don’t clutter the site, but they remain so the companies continue to reap what they sowed?
Show threadShoshana Weissmann, Sloth CmteJan 5, 2023
@mmasnick KEEP THEM
Show threadJesse HarrisJan 5, 2023
@Senatorshoshana @mmasnick Me watching the spammers and Google:
Show threadxX Linn Xx 🔒Jan 7, 2023
@mmasnick Tell them that you need to verify the identity of the commenter before you can abide by the GDPR data removal request, and ask them to send you an email from the address they made to create the comment.