Well there was no way I was going to use the 'S' word was there? That would really get the bot[toms]s going wild. So instead of the 'S' word I'm going to use CRM. I was going to use 'corned beef' but thought that was just a bit too silly even for me.
During the last couple of weeks I've had 98 CRMs posted to my blog. That doesn't count the odd ones that have been deleted when I've seen it on my phone first. Nor does it include the dozens and dozens which I have deleted in my emails because I have ticked the 'Notify me' box in the comments section of other blogs. I always click it because I like to know what going on. I know some people don't because you get a lot of emails and as someone once said to me 'Once I have commented on a post it's mental history. I never go back to that post'. I do and I know a lot of those who read the blogs I read do as well.
I have always had comment moderation activated for posts over 14 days old. That is mainly so that I could make sure that I don't miss comments made a lot later than the post. Nowadays I don't usually post more than once a week. I have noticed that most users of CRM and their bot[toms]s do not usually post to the current post. So to ensure that you, dear reader, don't also get inundated with CRM I have now reduced that. Not many genuine commenters will be inconvenienced but, hopefully, you and I will be spared the majority of the CRMs actually appearing (other than in the Blogger interface comments section).
On a happier note it's this time of year again. I've posted about the Damselflies before on several occasions with much better pictures, so I'll just leave this as a reminder.
The garden is doing exceptionally well at the moment because my social life was curtailed by lockdown. I rather thought that these orange lilies would bring a bit of cheer to the post too.
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Oh yes to the cheerful photos.
ReplyDeleteMy recent spate of CRMs seems to have stopped. No idea if it is down to me marking them as CRM in Blogger or not but hopefully a brief respite for a while.
JayCee, I'm getting a bit fed up of the number I have to delete but in the greater scheme of things it's not a problem.
DeleteIt looks like a Large Red Damselfly.
ReplyDeleteI have spam at least once a month. I enjoy it, less keen on corned beef unless it is fried up with mashed potato and mustard.
Adrian, it is indeed a Large Red Damselfly. They breed in my pond. My first post about them was in 2008.
DeleteI used to be rather partial to pork luncheon meat. I can even recall having it as a fritter when I was young. I love corned beef hash. Thanks for reminding me.
Graham, you have called it a Mayfly in the text. They are much smaller beasts and I thought it a typo. Either a typo or I'd found a kindred spirit but most folk can tell the difference between Mayflies and Damselflies.
DeleteOne of my all-time favorite breakfasts: Two fried eggs with hash-browns and corned beef hash, rye toast (with butter), hot coffee, small OJ. MMMMmmmm!
DeleteThank you, Adrian. I obviously had a brain-fart. Now altered.
DeleteMarcheline, if I ate that for breakfast I'd be full for the rest of the day.
DeleteYou've written about his before, not too long ago. Some readers of your blog get upset about them, CRM, and some don't. I don't. I just delete the ones that go back for a few days and don't bother about the rest. I have had 100s over the past few day, and of them about 20 have been deleted. Not a lot else to say on the subject. I expect the same people who get upset about them will still get upset about them and give all sorts of gloom stories about what they might be doing but actually these computer generated CRMs as you are calling them, just want to sell you a herpes cure or an ATM card. Blogger marking never helps.
ReplyDeleteRachel, I don't get upset by them I just find them a nuisance and have taken steps to lessen the number that go onward to other people. I do have one very explicit person who either has a computer with a vivid imagination or actually writes them all individually. They are only two lines so it's hard to avoid seeing them. I never read the long rambling ones because they are easy to spot and delete. It's just the sheer number that is a nuisance. I've had 12 already today on my blog never mind the ones on other people's blogs which get copied to me.
DeleteThe lilies are beautiful, their colour is so cheerful. I, too, get fed up with CRM which is why I use comment moderation all the time - I didn't want to subject my wonderful readers to such rubbish, even for a short time :)
ReplyDeleteI love lilies, Margaret, and have lots of different colours scattered around the garden. My blog usually generates some conversations so I think it's worth having the immediacy of no moderation. However, as I mentioned, hardly any of my CRM comes to the most recent posts so as moderation is enabled for older ones I don't think many people get CRM via my blog.
DeleteThose lilies are magnificent. The mayflies are pretty good too. And yes, we got you on the CRMs - fact of life these days I guess, like midges in Summer.
ReplyDeleteTigger, give me CRM over midges any day! I can ignore it. I can't ignore the wee blighters though.
DeleteThe orange lilies are so beautiful, they are a real cheery thing to see which after my weekend I could do with.
ReplyDeleteThat is one of the reasons I don't tick the Notify me box...I try to go back and check posts, but don't always remember which is a shame, as it is nice to get some dialogue going sometimes. I used to quite like it when you could reply direct to people - not sure if that is possible as most seem to be 'non-reply' bloggers.
Serenata, I haven't read your blog yet today so I hope your weekend wasn't as bad as it sounds. It is nice to be able to reply direct I suppose but unless I really wanted to make a personal point I prefer just to comment.
DeleteThose orange lilies are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I have comment moderation activated for posts older than 14 days, for the same reason. Also, I go back to posts where I have commented, and on those occasions where the blog owner does not reply, I am always left a little disappointed.
As for the comments that are not genuine ones, I mark them accordingly and delete them. So far, it has been annoying, but there are so many real problems in the world that I refuse to be truly upset about such rubbish.
I share your being disappointed when a blogger doesn't respond. To me it's a matter of courtesy. After all, a reply does take - so one hopes - a bit of time and thought.
DeleteA long time ago I came across a truly interesting blogger. Amazingly intelligent. She is German, lives in England, and writes very very very well. Alas, she never responds to ANY comment left on her blog. Not one. Ever. It sort of makes her appear (she may not be) high and mighty. No, let's modify that. She is high and mighty. I know this, to my cost, because as we got friendly we starting speaking on the phone. By golly, rarely in my life have I been clobbered round the ears as much as by her. A court room couldn't have been more exacting. Her communication was just one big question mark and reprimand, the whole time. To describe her style of talking, taking you to task, as abrasive would amount to the famous English understatement. Initially I put it down as her being NORTHERN German. Not that that is an excuse. One of my best friends (the one you remind me of) is Schleswig Holstein. Yet she is gentle. No pushover. Just gentle.
The punchline on this, make that two punch line: Firstly, and this reminds me of another (English) blogger who shall remain unnamed, she actively despises her commentators. I know this because she told me - in no uncertain terms. It was horrible. When I questioned her approach she severed all contact. Well. Maybe I had a lucky escape.
Orange lilies greetings,
U
Hmm... I wonder if the blogger (German, living in England, writing very very very well, and showing a rather abrasive side every now and then) is the same one I know, having the same first name as you, Ursula.
DeleteI wouldn't be surprised!
My Dad's paternal side of the family are from up North. Lüneburg is very much THEIR town. There is even a street named after one of my great-grandfathers. I feel European most of the time, but definitely a Swabian European.
Ursula and Meike thank you for your interesting thoughts. I just love lilies. I don't love abrasive bloggers.
DeleteOh my, my, my, God, Meike, isn't the world a small place? Even in cyber land.
DeleteI just checked back on aforementioned blog's comment boxes, and am mortified. How extraordinary that you know who I was talking about. How did you come across her? Please don't tell me she is your aunt. I never meant for her to be identified. It was an encounter that, to some extent, still haunts me. That voice, or rather tone, still ringing in my ears.
As to feeling "European". Don't make me cry. Ever since that fateful day in 2016 I feel like a sitting duck; waiting to be kicked out of the country I have lived in most my adult life. I say this with a heavy heart since I have had two run ins with the home office already, nearly ruining my life twice in the last ten years. If you want Orwell, Huxley and Kafka rolled into one, for months on end, come to the British Home Office's attention.
Lueneburg? Just at the foot of Hamburg, the mighty. Ein Schwab? If nothing else you'll be not so much counting the pennies as looking after them. Or so folklore goes.
U
Don't worry, Ursula, she's not my aunt. I enjoy reading her blog and we have occasionally been exchanging emails; more than anything, she appears lonely and not a happy, cheerful character, especially since her husband's death. I actually can not remember how I first came across her blog; probably like it happens with most of what is on my reading list now; someone leaves a comment either on my blog or one that I am already reading, that makes me visit their blog, and if I like what I see, I come back again.
DeleteJa, a richtige Schwäbin! O.K. is a Badener, so we have hours of fun just comparing dialect terms.
Meike, it happens, occasionally. You have such high hopes of a friendship in the making and then it all falls apart. Most unusual for me since I tend to go the extra mile with anyone who catches my imagination. Last time it happened there was no extra mile to walk. She was one of my son's teachers at college, also the mother of one of his close friends. We got on like a house on fire. Then, shortly after we clicked, she had the nerve dying of cancer, barely in her mid fifties. She is the one person in my life not having had the chance to get to know properly whose demise I mourn years later, and to this day.
DeleteOf the "other" Ursula I think with some regret. Even I know boundaries; unfortunately, she didn't.
U
I'm not sick of the world...but I am sick and tired...fed-up...angered by...the seemingly increasing number of brainless idiots, ignorant useless clowns who are inhabiting the world nowadays, with nothing better to do than annoy others...overstepping boundaries.
ReplyDeleteI've been, once again, receiving emails from fairly explicit dating services...with scantily-dressed young bimbos suggestively trying to sell their "wares"/company to me. For god's sake! I'm a 75 year old woman...I'm not even interested in scantily-dressed young men!!!!!!
These unsolicited emails etc., and an invasion of one's privacy, issued by brainless idiots! They should be out there doing good in the world, not being nuisances...useless pests!
And, that, folks...I all I have to say about how I feel...for the moment! :)
Take good care, Graham. Your flower pic has raised my mood! :)
Lee, I'm afraid there are far more brainless idiots in the world than many people realise. That is one of the many things that social media has highlighted. You take care too. Kia kaha.
DeleteI hope I never get too old to be interested in photos of scantily clad men... going on 54 and no signs yet - whew! 8-)
DeleteAs for abrasive bloggers, I had one crushing experience, a woman blogger who I followed for ages, always made positive and admiring comments on her blog, and then later found out that she had written and published a book in which she actually called out a comment (word for word) that I had left to her (meant to be encouraging) and bemoaning her blog followers "telling her what to do with her life". I was really hurt, because I had gone through years of her blog with her, including the loss of a few very dear family members and pets, and I had always sent sympathy and encouragement (she never deigned to reply to any comments, though - that should have been a clue to her nature). After seeing what she said about me in such a public forum, I was then actually ready to tell her what to do with her blog... stuff it up her CRM. There are some people who fall hard for their own overblown opinions of themselves, and they treat their blog followers like peasants who should consider themselves lucky to be allowed to read their tripe. (Can you tell I'm still irritated?)
THANK GOODNESS FOR GRAHAM!
Well, Marcheline, I certainly have no interest in scantily clad men. I think that I would have been reluctant to have a 'close' blog relationship with someone who never responded. Your last words were very kind but it's actually quite easy to be inoffensive.
DeleteYour flowers and Lee's comment have raised my mood! And now I have corned beef on my mind to the extent that I interrupted this to put it on my shopping list. On the topic of anything that annoys me at the moment, I don't have the energy to spare to work up a head full of steam about them.
ReplyDeletePauline, most things, if we think about them logically are irritations rather than annoyances. I couldn't care less about CRM in itself but the work it gives me is an irritation. I can understand you not having any spare energy.
DeleteI'm mystified by most of this. You've given me homework. But wait. Aren't you supposed to tell what a group of letters mean?
ReplyDeleteRed, like a crossword, the heading and the first paragraph should provide the answer.
DeleteI occasionally go to my comments page, and delete loads at a time. One really has to wonder how many people buy a useless ATM card, or a cure for Herpes, or even a witch doctors spell to bring back an errant husband/wife. I suppose there must be a few idiots out there, or they wouldn't keep bombarding us with their tripe!
ReplyDeleteCro, it has always been a complete mystery to me but someone, somewhere will click and be curious and suddenly find their computer stuffed.
DeleteWhat the heck does CRM stand for? I now use moderation to stop spam. Love the orange lilies, very bright and happy.
ReplyDeleteHello Diane, the headline of this post is a clue ;-)
DeleteDiane, Meike has provided the answer as I have slightly elaborated to Red above. I guess, though, that you don't tick the 'Notify me' box so may never know the answer.
DeleteGraham, hi,
ReplyDeleteI am not with you. What are you talking about? Spam? I have never had spam (tin or inbox). Probably because I ain't "worth it" according to the L'Oreal advert. However, my father's email box once got spammed via MY email address. My father never takes kindly to anything. So, naturally, first the spammer got it into the neck, then I did. Nothing to do with me. Never mind. Some people have a temper not easily pacified. I sort of lost respect for him on that occasion. Goes in increments.
Let it go over your head, Graham. It's all anon shite anyway.
Come to think of it, maybe one of the reasons I have never been targeted because I don't "follow" any blog: I don't tick the notify answer box. Instead of which I will click on those bloggers I am interested in (even those I am not) when I remember them, see what's going on.
All the best, Graham,
U
Ursula, I'm talking about blog post spam. As you no longer blog you won't get blog post spam via your blog. As you don't tick the 'notify me' box you don't get any that way either.
DeleteYes, I realize that. What I was talking about, and I think it far worse than what can happen on a blog, when someone hijacks your email address. Harvests all addressees, uses your name, a bona fide name, to get people to open a mail coming (in this case) from me - and bingo.
DeleteU
Ursula, that is usually because someone has a weak password or the password has been harvested in a security breach. The fact that people use simple passwords and the same password for more than one thing and don't change a password after a breach is avoidable if people took their security seriously.
DeleteLovely lilies and damselflies :) As for the unwanted comments, as I do usually click Notify on your blog (and some others), I get what you mean - they do seem to have become more frequent lately. I get them on my own blog(s) as well (sometimes on posts several years old!) But I have limited my "open" time too so that later incoming go to moderation. Sometimes it is indeed a bit tricky to decide what's genuine or not. Like (as you may have noticed) I have someone commenting in Turkish sometimes. The first time I deleted it because I could not make head or tail of it (even with Google - it's a very difficult language). But as I have learned a tiny little bit of that language (via Duolingo), I have been able to decipher enough of later short comments to find them relevant, though (and not offensive). So I've let those stand.
ReplyDeleteMonica, my admiration for your language skills is considerable! The unwanted comments are particularly plentiful at the moment - unfortunately.
DeleteLooks like one of the bots has a sense of humour, or else suspects someone might take an interest in it! I enable comment moderation. Particularly recently, I haven't been blogging much and don't want my comments to fill up with spam. I had better go and reply to them, too. I always value my comments. I wonder if it is a good idea to keep comments about a third party on the blog? I happen to know the Ursula that is mentioned, and I think if I were her I might feel a bit upset to be discussed in this way... also when speaking to her personally I have found her very pleasant.
ReplyDeleteYes, Jenny, YOU might "have found her very pleasant".
DeleteI was intrigued by her. We spoke (on the phone, several times). I found her difficult to take (and I have a thick skin, am not easily offended). The way she talked to me even my parents wouldn't. I felt harangued by her. Quite an achievement (on her part). A conversation with her is basically being stabbed into your chest. And don't even ask what she thinks of her blog's readers, particularly the Americans. She was very candid. And I was taken aback.
I grant you, Jenny, that to be talked about in the third person isn't great. Alas, in blogland, in certain circles, it happens to me all the time. There are factions out there who give me personas (like Anon, and two other alias I'd rather not mention) who have nothing to do with me. On the strength of which myh name pulled through the mud. One blogger will not give it a rest. Another blogger, who hates my guts, at least has the courtesy to delete me without trace. It's her prerogative. Can't say I respect her for not leaving perfectly sensible comments of mine stand but, ok, so be it. If blogs have taught me one thing it's that some people are narrow, some are wide open.
U
Ursula, given that that is two people who read my blog know to whom you were referring I'd appreciate it if we could call a halt to this discussion particularly as it is someone not even in my Blogland.
DeleteI am sorry, Graham, and I am not getting at you, but why single me out when it was Meike who named the person, and Jenny picked up the thread? I'd never done that. If anything, I am mortified. I wish, as so often . . . doesn't matter. I am done with commenting. Please don't get me wrong, you are a good guy. Neither am I all bad.
DeleteU
Ursula first let me say that your comments have been welcome on this blog and have added to the discussions. I did not single you out. You raised the person concerned in the first place and I know you well enough to know that you would have been the next person to comment. I have known Meike and Jenny for many years and I know that they have had their say and will let the matter rest there. I hope that you will too and that I'll see you on the next post.
DeleteThis was quite an interesting post, Graham, not only the post subject but the number of comment and exchanges that resulted. Like you and many others I try to avoid CRM as much as possible. While I do not comment moderate, I do check posted comments on a daily basis and you are so right in that many times CRM is found on older posts and then it is deleted by me. Sure, I may miss once in awhile but then I do have other things to do unlike some of these unnamed CRM folks.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice, once again I apologise for missing your comment. I obviously have to be more fastidious in going through all my moderated comments.
Delete