Dear Diary: Confessions From A Blogger (4)

We all know what goes on behind the scenes at our own blogs but rarely do we lift the curtain and share those experiences with others. Dear Diary: Confessions From A Blogger stems from the curiosity. This week I want to talk about Spam. No not that gelatinous meat like substance that comes in a can the other type of Spam.

Here is my Confession: Spam [spam] n: disruptive messages, especially commercial messages posted on a computer network or sent as e-mail. I hate spam, I really do. If blogging had any downside Spam would be it. Before blogging I never had spam tweets, and very rarely had spam emails and if I did they went straight to the spam folder where I could purge them easily with one click. I've noticed recently that spammers have gotten really creative when leaving comments on the blog making them harder for the filters to detect. Thankfully, I don't receive to many spam comments but the uptick is a bit worrisome. Yes, I know it takes me two seconds to recognize and delete them but still doesn't make it any less annoying when it happens. Now while spam comments might be annoying, they aren't the worst kind I receive. Want to know the type of spam that I really hate? The bulk, generic, review requests. I'm sure you know the type, the ones where the mailer leaves the name of your blog blank and doesn't even attempt to hide that it's being bulked mailed. Those types of requests are the sort that really grind my gears. If an Author or publishing house really wants me to review for them they best at least put my name somewhere in the request and make an attempt to have looked at my review policy. Lately, I have been getting review requests for genres I don't read which leads me back to it obviously being spam. Two seconds glancing at my review policy would clue most people in that I don't read pure romance. I don't mind romantic elements in a book, but I don't want the romance to be the main focus. I also don't read those with biased religious agendas and yet I have an alarmingly increasing rate of Christian publishers requesting me. While I do state that if it piques my interest, I will give any book a shot. Generally this doesn't include the above mentioned style books. In the slim chance they do its almost always because I've stumbled across the book and thought it worth picking up. Anywho back to my original point, Whenever I receive these types of requests it takes time out of my day having to decline them. As a personal rule even if the request is spam, I always send a no thank you. I practice common courtesy even if they don't see fit to. In the end do I see Spam continuing? Sadly, yes. It is bound to happen as long as I'm reviewing/blogging. Do I have to like it? Hell No!! Maybe this will serve as a warning to those who want to spam my email, maybe it won't. If it stops even one person from spamming me though, I'll be happy.

Now that you've read my confession, Here's my questions for this week:
How do you tackle spam? Do you ignore them and shrug it off as part of blogging? Have you noticed an uptick in spam yourself. Leave your responses in the comments below, I love reading them. Have a question? Leave that as well and I'll try and answer it.


That about wraps up this weeks confessions from a blogger. Thanks for stopping by and reading,sharing, or commenting on this post. As always, it is appreciated.