Skip to main content

Spam Classification Isn't Going To Be 100% Fair

Every week, we see the complaints from blog owners, whose blogs have been unfairly accused of hosting hacking, porn, or spam content.
This is so unfair! My blog was just getting started, and now it's been deleted!
or
How can my blog be spam? This other blog is worse!
These are just a couple examples of how capricious fuzzy spam classification can be.

A couple years ago, I told the policeman
Everybody was doing 80 out here yesterday with no problem - and today you stop me for doing 70?
and his answer
I wasn't here yesterday. Sorry.
Though we parted not as friends, but still respecting each other, I had to pay $200 for the experience.

Crime is decided, one case at a time.

No criminal detection process - spam classification, or traffic law enforcement - will ever catch all of the bad guys in one day. There will always be those who get away with blatant spamming one day, and others who get caught for mild spamming the next.

Unfortunately, for spam classification - or traffic law enforcement - to work, each case has to be decided on its own. We cannot let the righteousness of one spam classification depend upon a comparison with similar blogs.

When you are caught, you must pay the penalty.

When your number's up, it's up. If you feel that your blog was unfairly classified, your only recourse is to get it reviewed. And be helpful and polite to the folks who are trying to help you.

And, avoid repeating your mistakes. Don't spam - and don't speed.

Comments

REM said…
What is Spam? Spam has an increasingly shorter self life.

Popular posts from this blog

Adding A Link To Your Blog Post

Occasionally, you see a very odd, cryptic complaint I just added a link in my blog, but the link vanished! No, it wasn't your imagination.

Embedded Comments And Main Page View

The option to display comments, embedded below the post, was made a blog option relatively recently. This was a long requested feature - and many bloggers added it to their blogs, as soon as the option was presented to us. Some blog owners like this feature so much, that they request it to be visible when the blog is opened, in main page view. I would like all comments, and the comment form, to be shown underneath the relevant post, automatically, for everyone to read without clicking on the number of comments link. And this is not how embedded comments work.

What's The URL Of My Blog?

We see the plea for help, periodically I need the URL of my blog, so I can give it to my friends. Help! Who's buried in Grant's Tomb, after all? No Chuck, be polite. OK, OK. The title of this blog is "The Real Blogger Status", and the title of this post is "What's The URL Of My Blog?".