As of today, Christmas Eve, I have received my first batch of comment spam. Someone promoting a certain male “vitamin” posted a comment on about half of my entries each with the single word comment, “Interesting,” then left his name and a link to his insalubrious website.

In the true spirit of Christmas, a marketer thought it kind to plaster my site with advertisements for his website and product of the insecure. He thought not of taking, but giving - giving the gift of information, the gift of medication, the gift of annoyance. Iím sure he sleeps well at night thinking that he is doing his job well, and he is. But what kind of job is it? Instituting a program that infiltrates otherís websites, posts ridiculous entries, and then waits for his siteís ranking to skyrocket is not a job, it is a pitiful existence.

I have written before about the unscrupulous behavior of marketers. This is just another sad example. Some may argue about the validity of these methods, and they may have a point. Whoever posted this spam to my website may go bankrupt in a few months (and I hope he does). But it still doesnít change the fact that he caused myself, and Iím sure countless others, the inconvenience of having to purge his waste from our sites, all the while raising his ranking on Google to funnel more customers his way. I don’t like being an intentional marketing tool, and I definitely don’t like having a “kick me” sign stuck to my back or, in this case, a “buy _______ (insert product name here)” ad.

I realize that I am just preaching to the choir. There are no marketers that read this blog (there are only a handful of people that read this blog for that fact). I just needed to get this off my chest. If this keeps up, comments may be shut down for goodÃ? um, thereby making the site about as comment-free as it currently is.