Let’s start with a giveaway, shall we?
Here’s how it will work. Each and every time you leave a comment on any Sprig to Twig post between now and St Valentine’s Day, your name will go into the hopper. On February 14, the Day of Love, we will draw one lucky winner to receive a set of note cards culled from the best of last year’s garden photos. Sound like fun? I think so.
Now I have a question to throw out for your consideration. A while back, someone raised the question of closing their blog to comments. At the time, I thought “What? That’s the best part! Why would anyone do that?” Lately, though, a number of odd comments have made it through my filtering system. Mostly they are complimentary and sound almost like real comments, except for some very odd syntax here and there. Sometimes they will come in batches with almost identical wording from supposedly different sources. I am flummoxed by these, as I don’t want to ignore or reject legitimate new voices. I don’t really understand what there is to gain by these tactics. Anyone have any thoughts or similar experiences/advice?
I’ve had similar comments…however blogger (the platform I use for my blog) has a feature that helps to identify possible spam so that is step #1 for me. Then if I can’t click on their name and go to a real site or profile that is #2 warning. The lady who keeps commenting and manages to work in a few words that sound legit followed by a “quote” and a link is killing me! I want to believe that she is genuine but I just don’t think so. As for the others I almost think they are testing to see if they can get “through” and then they will bombard you with craziness. Ugh! I just wish that 1/2 the power and energy that is put toward evil good be harnessed for good. Imagine!
Hey Ricki,
Love your blog and website. I wanted to thank you for favoring the bluebird of
happiness greeting card. Hope all is well!
Love,
Susan
well, what a lovely way to start the year!
I don’t know about those comments. I get some weird ones too – for a while, I kept getting the same one with bad grammar. There was no link, and nothing to click on. It was anonymous too. I really can’t think of what the angle was. It was something like, “thank you for information. It helped with my essay” . No idea.
I’ve had similar comments in the past, too. I assumed they were spam from marketing attempts, and deleted them. I do like your positive spin on dealing with it with a giveaway, though!
Loree~Ah yes! Harnessing negative energy and turning it to good…we could reverse climate change!
Susan~I was so pleased to see a path to your Etsy shop on the back of your card. Once the after-holiday-shock wears off, I look forward to buying a piece from you. Maybe we can follow through on that abandoned plan to get together.
Wendy~The odd stuff seemed to pick up when I went on Facebook. I guess our minds don’t work that way, so it is hard to divine motivation.
Jane~Guess we are all in the same boat here.