To the solicitors of pornography: What do you want with us?
Dad,
So far, we have managed to create a nice blog that people read, without soliciting the help of sex or pornography. We talk about issues, faith, about our children and our family, we even share recipes and kitchen tips. We seem to be able to manage our blog with a reasonable readership without prostituting ourselves to the porn industry.
So why is it that the porn industry can’t generate business without leeching off of us? What do they want with our couple of hundred readers? Why is it that we have to have special programs and barriers like Askimet to weed out the predators and that doesn’t even always work? I am not for regulating the internet, but I think it is too bad that the idea might be appealing to folks like us who want to connect with each other, with our families and with some readers without the burden of association with this kind of parasitic behavior. I see an interesting comment on one of my posts, I click on it to read more about the person that is interested in my thoughts, and I am looking at a [sometimes] half naked woman who is not my wife and was not invited into my conversation.
From Merriam Webster online – racket: 3a fraudulent scheme, enterprise, or activity b: a usually illegitimate enterprise made workable by bribery or intimidation c: an easy and lucrative means of livelihood. I think that not very many people would argue that racketeering is a crime and that the laws against it should be enforced. There is a distinct difference between racketeering and soliciting. We solicit readers all the time by titling our posts in a way that makes people want to read them. This is new territory, and legislating the flow of information is nearly impossible. There are some things that are and that always have been. One of them is the market that takes advantage of the hard work of others. Another is the use of sex as a bargaining tool.
I suppose it would be too much to beg for decency from an industry that is as steeped in indecency as it has ever been in its long history.
What can we do?
Bryan
See Also: On Writing, Blogging, Journalism
Comment by jonolan on 16 October 2007:
Actually the porn industry’s independent affiliates who get money through the ads on their sites were probably who wanted your readers. Any system that supports itself through page impressions or click-throughs lends itself to such behavior.
Comment by speakingoutworld on 16 October 2007:
I find it very annoying that they do this. I clicked on one of my got on to your site and ended up with an others persons site advertising sex. It disappointed me because I expected to see a link to my site but found none at all just that.
The Spokesman
Comment by jonolan on 16 October 2007:
Try Akismet. It’s a good wordpress antispam plugin.
Comment by bryan on 16 October 2007:
Askimet is great. The responsibility for checking links is still yours, but they get 95% or more of the spam that masks itself as a comment on your site. This is a complex subject, and we will be addressing it further in the future.