Need someone to lead product management at your software company? I create software for people that create software and I'm looking for my next opportunity. Check out my resume and get in touch.

This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

Conversation with a comment spammer

Freshness Warning
This blog post is over 17 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current and the links no longer work.

Over at Adsense Chat a budding comment spammer posted a link to one of my blog entries about comment spam. He [expressed shock and amazement]( that bloggers don’t appreciate his activity. He seemed truly confused as to why people don’t like it.

Apparently this technique that is hated by alot of "Bloggers" out there. ... I was taught by some people that this is a "New way" to gain page rankings on google without having to pay for it. ... Believe it or not, it’s not welcomed. Apparently, you’re pond scum if you choose less costly methods to get PR.

I created an account and spent some time talking with this guy in the forum. Read the thread—it’s a fascinating look into the tiny little mind of a spammer.

I tried a gentle tack at first. I thought perhaps he was new to this whole internet thing and might not really get why people were unhappy with his behavior. It turns out I was right. Someone posted a quote from another thread in which he mentions he’s being building AdSense sites since November and is frustrated by the lack of traffic.

No wonder this poor guy is resorting to spamming. Someone has led him to believe there’s this magical land of free dollars flowing out of Adsense and all you have to do is get some traffic in any way you can. (Perhaps it was a Web 2.0 VC who gave him this idea, but I digress).

Recently Written

A Framework for Scaling product teams (Oct 9)
The people, processes, and systems that make up a product organization change radically as you go through the stages of a company. This framework will guide that scaling.
Video calls using a networked camera (Sep 25)
A writeup of my network-powered conference call camera setup.
Roadmap Outcomes, not Features (Sep 4)
Drive success by roadmapping the outcomes you'll create instead of the features you'll deliver.
Different roadmaps for different folks (Sep 2)
The key to effective roadmapping? Different views for different needs.
Micromanaging and competence (Jul 2)
Providing feedback or instruction can be seen as micromanagement unless you provide context.
My productivity operating system (Jun 24)
A framework for super-charging productivity on the things that matter.
Great product managers own the outcomes (May 14)
Being a product manager means never having to say, "that's not my job."
Too Big To Fail (Apr 9)
When a company piles resources on a new product idea, it doesn't have room to fail. But failing is an important part of innovation. If you can't let it fail, it can't succeed.

Older...

What I'm Reading