blogTO.com - Request to stop “spammy comment behaviour”...

So it finally happened.. I figured the day would come where I would either get banned from blogTO, or at least scolded by their Moderators for commenting and then signing my comment with my blog’s URL…


(http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/02/morning_brew_igor_kenk_spared_all_things_ttc_and_adam_giambrone_tweeting_the_mayoral_race_panam_games_ceo_named_pizza_olympics/#c776594)

It is a bit disheartening though, as I seemed to get a lot of responses to my comments from blogTO, and that seemed to get people to come and visit http://jackandcokewithalime.blogspot.com/ and see what else I had to say... (Like yourself possibly?)

Oh well, what can you do?... (as us Canadians love to say in surrender…)

I am just a little guy trying to make it in this blog game with the big boys, and I meant no harm to blogTO or it’s users by doing what I did…

I mean, there are people who comment in those message boards who use profanity and other such things, and in all honesty, I really don’t consider what I did to being even close to as bad… Especially given that they already allow people to provide a URL (which ends up behind the person’s name in the comment)… I mean really, at the end-of-the-day, what’s the difference?? (Aside from the fact that that link behind the name isn’t really as obvious as putting it right there in the comment…).

Anyway, I digress… I need blogTO for exposure. And blogTO definitely doesn’t need me (though I do feel that my comments cause a lot of “drama” on their stories’ message boards and probably lead to an increase in web activity as a result).

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Now, in case any of you were wondering about the email that I received from the Editor of blogTO.com, Jerrold, here it is:

Hi jackandcokewithalime,

Please stop the spammy link behaviour or your comments will be flagged as spam and not make it on the site.

Using the URL field in the comments form to link to your site is the accepted method.

Thanks,

Jerrold Litwinenko
Editor, blogTO

I thought that his email was very fair and civil, and definitely could have been much worse… Or essentially, they could have just banned me entirely without sending an email. So I have to give him credit for firstly, taking the time to email me, and secondly, for not being a dick about it.

I responded to him with the following email:

Hi Jerrold,

Thanks for your email, and for not just banning me from the site without warning. I appreciate you taking the time do so.

I love blogTO and love commenting on the site, so I will definitely honour your request.

But, it's unfortunate that the comments of a few based solely on the fact that they disagree with my views (if they agreed, they wouldn't have caused a fuss), has caused you to request me to stop singing my name with my blog. When I post comments on the Toronto Star, the Toronto Sun, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, CBC, CTV and Citynews.ca, I've never received even one complaint that I am "spamming", and they always post my comments... (And they do have moderation on their comment boards.)

Anyway, I expect that now you're thinking that I should just go there and comment then, and stay away from blogTO. And to that, I say, touché. I want to continue to have my voice heard at blogTO, so I would prefer that that not be my only option.

Again, though I am saddened by this, I will definitely comply.

Keep up the great work over there.

--jackandcokewithalime

Here are a few examples of comments I’ve made on other sites recently, and as you can clearly see, I’ve signed it with my Blog URL (and it was posted).

Toronto Star

Toronto Sun

CBC.ca

Globe and Mail

Anyway, I guess my question at this point, is whether this change that I have to make -where I don’t post my blog URL at the end of my comment- is going to impact whether I continue to get traffic coming from there or not…

We shall see how it plays out...

In the meantime, I would love to hear from you folks who came here from blogTO, whether you actually click on the name of the poster in the comments there, or if the only reason you came here was because I had my URL in the comment?

Also, shall I expect to see you again, now that my blog URL won't be as prominently displayed there?

If you could let me know (via comments or email), I would appreciate it.


--jackandcokewithalime

(Images taken from:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ttc/article/764352--toronto-needs-to-fight-for-the-funding#comments (Toronto Star comment)
http://www.torontosun.com/news/2010/02/11/12846601.html#/news/2010/02/11/pf-12846606.html (Toronto Sun comment)
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/02/01/tor-giambrone-mayor.html#socialcomments (CBC comment)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/smitherman-calls-on-giambrone-to-resign-from-ttc/article1451998/#comments?plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:5effcb49-7be8-4465-88f4-d536368cfcdf (Globe and Mail comment))