WebRing News and Tips -  - 
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Thu, Oct 16th - 1:49PM
WebRing Responds to Blog Spam
The Web 2.0 revolution has offered internet users a whole array of wonderful tools. These tools allow us a tremendous level of interaction with others from around the world. Of course, as the Grateful Dead sang, "Every silver lining's got a touch of grey."
Blogs. They are a signature tool of the Web 2.0 revolution. They've given anyone who wants one a platform. People, organizations and companies have used them to quickly and frequently communicate with an audience. In most cases, blog readership is unsolicited; it grows with word of mouth and keyword searches. Enter the spammer.
Typically, a spam blog has the same pill-popping, Russian-dating, cheap-Photoshop offers as the unsolicited email spam you receive. But, are blogs of this nature really spam? This is where the "gray" in the "silver lining" comes in.
On our blog system, we have had our share of blog spamming. Comments aside, more than a few blogs that offer a pharmacopeia of medicinal bargains have popped up on our blog system. Several of our dedicated bloggers have spoken out against these types of blogs. Our official position has been that, although we don't think they offer anything of value, they aren't really spam; they're spammish.
Our most rampant blog "spammer" would come into the system and create 4-7 such blogs every couple weeks. We did nothing, but kept a close eye on their activity. This last week, that spam blogger turned up their efforts, creating over 350 new WebRing blogs within 12 hours. Each was dedicated to one pharmacological item after the next. The "grayness" of their activity suddenly became black-and-white.
We deleted each and every one of the blogs they created that day. We've been extremely reluctant in the past to delete such blogs, as they don't directly violate our Terms of Services. But, this person crossed way over the line. As a result, we formed this formal position on the use of our blogs:
Acceptable Use
One blog with multiple posts with typical "spam" offers is acceptable. We will not delete your blog, but do encourage you to provide some genuine content. A good example is the person hawking Acacia berry products. With each post, they provide some history, statistics, or testimonials to its medicinal properties.
Unacceptable Use
Multiple blogs each with a single post for some typical "spam" offer is NOT acceptable. We will delete each and every blog you create. Additionally, we will delete every WebRing account you create in order to activate a blog, and we will do our best to block you from ever accessing the WebRing system again.
About Adult Blogs
We have adult blog designation in the works. Until then, we ask that you do NOT include explicit media like photos and videos on your blog. Links are fine, as they generally point to pages with the necessary safeguards in place. If you post any explicit media, we will delete the blog post in question (not the entire blog). If you repost the material after we have deleted it, we will then delete your blog altogether. We are sorry for this limitation, and thank you for understanding our reasoning.
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