Dear Pajama Professional Regular Readers, First-Time Visitors and Everyone in Between,

I have always kept the comment section of Pajama Professional do-follow and essentially wide open, aside from Akismet standing guard against viagra, xanaxanaxanax and phentermine (what the hell is phentermine anyway?). I am a big fan of passing on link love to my readers – and that includes letting you use whatever anchor text you want and linking out in the comment itself if you want. I don’t even care if your blog is unrelated as long as your comment relates to the post and contributes to the conversation. As much as am all about free (link) love, I am also a big fan of Akismet minding my spam for me and I’m not ready to change that anytime soon.

keep britain tidy
Creative Commons License photo credit: lorelei

So here’s the rub (I know, that’s such a pretentious English-majory phrase, but it’s the first thing that popped into my head and it’s almost 4:30 AM so that’s what you get): sometimes when you write “great car loans” or something like that in the name field instead of something resembling an actual human name, Akismet thinks that your comment is spam. To me it’s not spam, it’s fellow bloggers taking advantage (as you should) of my PR3. If you are willing to take the time to write a helpful or interesting (or both!) comment, then I’m willing to let my blog give you some credit with the search engines. As far as I’m concerned, you can use any anchor text your heart desires, but your comment might not show up for a few days because I have to manually fish it out of Akismet. I don’t mind doing that at all, I just can’t be on top of it 24/7. Does that make sense?

The reason I am writing this note to all of you is to let you know that if you don’t see your comments right away, it’s because Akismet thinks you’re spamming me. It’s never because I have deleted your comment. I abhor bloggers who prune their comment sections in an attempt to make themselves look better, but I suppose that’s a whole other post. Anyway, I try to keep up with this stuff and de-spam your comments so your links are active, but sometimes it takes a few days for me to find the time to do it. So if you post a comment and it doesn’t show up right away, give it a few days before you email me telling me my blog is broken, please. Then, if 72 hours pass and your comment is still absent, email me and tell me my blog is broken and I’ll go set Akismet straight.

I want all of you to be able to use the comments section to give a little extra link juice to your BANS sites and niche blogs, but I get a ton of spam so without Akismet the comments section would become a totally useless mess. That is why I have arrived at this happy (enough) medium of letting many comments through automatically and then manually checking Akismet for anything that should not be spam and de-spamming those comments every few days. I hope you can appreciate where I am coming from and I hope it doesn’t deter you from continuing to make the wonderful, insightful comments I have come to expect from my wonderful readers.

Oh, one more thing, if you write “Great Post!” and put five links to your Adsense blogs in the comment, I’m gonna let Akismet keep it. =) You have to at least pretend you are interested in the post.

Sorry if this note has been a bit rambling, I’ll blame that on the time. Thanks for taking the time to read it and I hope it clears things up for some of you. The Trip Around the Blogosphere (new and improved with the help of Link Luv Post Builder) will be published later today. And, let me tell you, it is jam-packed with great articles that are perfect for an interesting and educational, but nice and relaxed Sunday.

I don’t say it often enough, but I really do love my readers and being able to offer you some link juice is one of the few ways I can repay you for sticking with me.

Thank you,

Sara

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  • Looks like you got a great conversation started.

    You mentioned bloggers pruning their comments to make themselves look better ... I don't really understand this. I don't doubt that it happens; it just doesn't seem to be in anybody's best interest. I delete everything from my blog that's obvious spam, and I get my share. If there's doubt, I tend to look into things - the site somebody signed with, the history of their posting, etc. And then make up my mind after some thought. Luckily, I don't get so many in-between comments, so that's actually feasible.

    Real spam - the kind that everybody in the world will agree is spam - is a huge turn off. It looks unprofessional, and I don't doubt it chases the users away. And it looks unprofessional. The problem is, so much of it isn't quite as obvious. You could take a few dozen PhDs and not get a consensus. Which makes the job of the who who writes Akismet code pretty difficult...

    Forrest's last blog post..God Beams
  • Hi Sarah,

    This is my first comment here, I find all the info here so helpful. And thank you for the link love, unusual and generous!

    I have to say that you're generosity is not unrewarded, as I ran across a link to you from another site where a reader was praising your content and link love. And this was actually the second time I had ran across such a link to you yet another site.

    Thank you from a new fan
    JR
  • Thats very generous of you to offer up such an open environment. On my person blog I also reward commentators with a link to their site. I feel that by opening things up, people are more likely to comment. I will delete any comments that are just comments for self "gain". You know what i mean?

    Anyways, I have a theory.... and lets see if its correct. I think that Askimet will block words in the name that are too lengthy, or more than 2 words. I think this one will go threw, and if it does, its because I was right. Its just a hunch though. On my blog I don't use Askimet, I use something else, I forgot the name, but it does a good job too, and rarely do I see legit comments get trapped.
  • Hahaha! But Akismet can't do a better job in moderating spam than you yourself. =) Just make sure to check once in a while to see would be fine I guess.
  • There are some other methods that can help eliminate some of the spam and make checking your Akismet spam a bit easier by eliminating bots altogether. I try to check the site too to see if it is a real blog or not.
    Links in comments are fine with me too, as long as they are not used as blatant spam. If there is doubt, I will unspam and then delete the comment so as not to undeservingly mark someone as spam with Akismet. Akismet would be much more useful if people would check to see if something is really spam before they mark it as such. Because people are lazy, nearly everyone finds things labeled spam that should not. Just because you do not like it, does not mean it is spam. I really did not like some of the comments Darren Rowse had on a similar post on his blog a few week ago.
    I have been getting more and more contact form spam lately. This is something I do not understand at all. Who would even think that would work?
    I really like the CommentLuv plugin you have here and I will look into adding that to my blog in the near future.

    James - DigitalKeyToInfo's last blog post..Is Linux A Good Option For Internet Marketing?
  • Sara,

    I really love you policy with respect to leaving anchor text links in comments. Bloggers too ofter penalize other bloggers by not allowing you to shape the keywords you want to have authority for. I think that your approach is great. No one should leave a "nice post" comment. However, if a comment adds value to a post, it is not spam and should be included as part of the discussion.

    Regards,
    Fred

    nike golf irons's last blog post..Nike SQ Sumo Hybrid Irons
  • First time visitor here. I effing love your header. I'd choke a bitch with a boulder for those bunny slippers. Any idea who the manufacturer is?
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