I get only a few legitimate comments a week, but I’m fairly inundated with spam. Most of it gets caught by a fairly efficient spam catching plug in, but the rest filters through for me to “moderate”, meaning I have to pre-approve it before it actually gets published. In fact, I have to approve every comment that comes in from a first time commenter. The comments come via email, with convenient links to approve, disapprove, or spam the comment. Once a commenter has an approved comment, future comments get published automatically. That’s the way it’s supposed to work, and with one exception, (a frequent commenter who I have to approve each time he sends something),= it works.
One indicia of a probable spam, besides the fact that they are obviously computer generated (usually consisting of regurgitated snippets from the post in question, which some generic language “commenting” on it in an inane fashion), is the fact that they tend to comment about posts from the relatively remote past, unlike real humans, who can’t be bothered to browse the archives.
Today I got a comment about this post about the Mormons, which dates from more than a year ago. It seemed nearly cogent and reasonably responsive to the subject of the post, so I clicked on the approve link, which brought me to an “are you sure?” dialog box. At that point I had second thoughts when I recognized the sender as a spammer I had seen many times before.
Could these folks have possibly come up with sophisticated software to get through the front door, so to speak, so they could post “pre-approved” spam comments thereafter? It seems like it would be pretty difficult. Or, could it be, that “payday loans” was really reading my blog and truly wanted to post a comment. Highly unlikely, it would seem. On the off chance that she or he really wanted to join the discussion I am reproducing the comment below, since I have since marked it as spam. As to anyone else that might chance to read this, what’s your opinion? Is it real, or is it computer generated?
I’m sorry you have such a bad view of the mormons. I myself have had nothing but good encounters with the mormons. I too went to Temple Square, actually twice now, and I was permitted to enter the tabernacle. Its the mormon temple they don’t let you in because some special mormon ceremonies go on there. I guess non- mormons wouldn’t understand their symbolism or meaning so they don’t allow non-mormons to enter. My experience has been that mormons are very, emphatic is the word you use, so yes, emphatic about their religion and arguing about it. This is because so many people have ciriticized and hated them for so long that this is how they are trained. They go around in couples to preach their church to those who want to listen, and yet all most people do is try to argue with them, push them to contention and nonsense like that. They only ever want to tell me whatever I want to listen to. I say sure come tell me about your church, i’m not going to join it, but sure, tell me about it, i have no problem learning. you should try that. My study of religion has lead me to believe that if there is only one, true religion on this planet, I would go with the mormons. Mostly because they are the only ones bold enough to proclaim it, but they are also the only ones different enough to be it. Mainstream christianity is so much the same, every church is the same. The services may be different, but they teach the exact same things. How can one say they are the true one? Mormons have a leg up on the competition so to speak. I would give them a chance if I were you. Not join them per se, but I mean, listen to them, look into what makes them unique, and try to get past Ko lob and godhood and what not. They say, milk before meat. I think if you understand the basic doctrine and theology of the mormons, these crazy sounding things might make more sense.
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