I wanna be a splogger-splatterer

I’ve been splogged. Splogged by two charming types (can you read the sarcasm there?? if not, read again, placing your tongue to side of mouth, and, well, you get the idea now). Now before you go clicking on these links, be aware, that by doing so, you are putting ca$h in the creeps pockets, keep reading and I’ll tell ya more bout that. Anyway, one of these charmers is http://trevoro.com/  (January 2019, link does not function.). This nice charmer also splogged my cousin and friend Anne over at Gene Notes. The other is http://rvsandmotorhomes.reviews-online-blog.com/ (link does not function in January 2019).

Ok, here is a wordy description of Splog I found at Whatis?com

“A splog (spam blog) is a fake blog created solely to promote affiliated Web sites, with the intent of skewing search results and artificially boosting traffic. Some splogs are written like long-winded ads for the Web sites they promote; others have no original content, featuring either nonsense or content stolen from authentic Web sites. Splogs include huge numbers of links to the Web sites in question to fool Web crawler s (programs that search the Web for sites to index). The sploggers associate popular search keywords with their pages so that the splog links turn up in blog search results and are sent out as search subscription notifications through e-mail and RSS feed s.”

Gotta admit that is a bit techy for ole Carol to understand, but, I get the “artificially boosting traffic” part and the “no original content” part.

How did I learn I had been splogged? I owe all my thanks to Thomas MacEntee of Genea-Bloggers. He has oodles of good information about trying to protect yourself as a blogger. For example, he discusses sploggers in a very detailed and informative article at http://www.geneabloggers.com/blog-content-theft-deal-splogs/ (sadly link no longer functional in January 2019)
 
Another hint that Thomas shares with bloggers is to use Google Alerts.
 
I set up a alert for “Reflections From the Fence”.  I get a report every day. Now, I have to say, I love Google and I love Blogger and I love my gmail account, and I love my Picasa photo storage and a lot of other stuff Google does, but, I am not sure that the Google Alerts works at 100%.  But, it does work good enough to have shown me the two charming types that splogged me.
 
When I started figuring out that I had indeed been splogged I contacted Thomas, who kindly spent a nice hunk of time pointing me in the right direction and educating me.

So, what action did I take?

I notified all my Rving friends over at the Montana Owners Club and asked that they not do any business with creep, err charming person number 2.

I contacted the domain one of these charmers are using. The end result of that contact was disappointing. Actually, it was about what I expected after chatting with Thomas.

I did a Google search and attached notes to the comment button that shows up next to search results. That was a learning experience. I had no idea I could do that. I do NOW!  (As of January 2019, I am not sure this action is possible.)

Now what??

I spent a couple of days of angst, this does not set well, ok, it realy ticks me off.  So, I wonder, should I continue, or just take this blog down and go play in another sand box?   I spent some time fretting and contemplating and then remembered one of the last comments that Thomas shared with me, "My experience has been that these splogs fizzle and burn within 6 months. Just like spammers, they then try something else."

So, I am still here, and I will continue to await my daily Google Alert reports.  I will leave notes when and where I can on Google search comments.  I do not currently plan on filing official complaints with the domains that carry these charmer's blogs.  They threw enough legal nonsense language at me to discourage me, actually it made me even madder, they pretty much make it impossible for a regular ole gal to proceed, no, I cannot afford an attorney, and they know it.

Larry over the MOC in a reply to my post there told me, "Go get him you poster/blogger/splogger-splatterer."

Larry, I gave it my best, and I ain't giving up!  I still wanna be a splogger-splatterer.

Splat graphic found at Splat WiseTome.com, sans lettering, ole Carol added that.  Link no longer functional in January 2019.

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence.
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