Sunday, January 23, 2011

The (ad)sensible comments


I don’t live with the illusion that I am a popular blogger. Once upon a time I have tried to be one. Then I realized I may have to compromise with the content and gave up on the effort. I once tried the Adsense and found out that I am checking my earnings every hour. It was extremely repulsive, besides I am content with what I earn for a living and so gave up that too.


The last day I was having a small talk with a techie friend of mine over tea. To be frank I wasn’t aware of the intricacies of earning over adsense and I found it very amusing.( He doesn’t know I had a blog of my own.) That’s when I realized the mystery behind one-two word comments I have been getting.


Please don’t misinterpret what I am getting into. I am happy with the fact that people make money out of blogging. And I am quite aware of the importance of making friends/marketing in the blogosphere. I am very happy when you do it in my space.


The problem is I have always been a stickler to sincerity- be it in real world or virtual world. I may not be successful in it, but I try my best to do things with 100% sincerity. So when I learnt from my techie friend that Google pays extra dollars for particular key words and there are people who lift content straight out of books and sites on health tips and stuff I got curious. One another assured content you can get many hits are pornography.


Recently I got a ‘nice review’ comment from a total stranger and steered on to his site. There were some four blogs in his name. One was on downloads, other was on health tips and other on ‘Hot Desi Girls’. Well the health tips gave a feel of bland plagiarism. The Hot Desi girls were pure sick, as the pictures were lifted from some other sites and pasted here. I am a great fan of internet pornography. But I make sure that I enjoy the ones who consciously pose for it. When you put in your space innocent pictures of girls who posed while with their friends or family and label them as ‘Hot Karachi girls’, it’s really sick. The advantage for the particular blogger is Google won’t label this site as porn, as there is no nudity. But imagine a situation when your sister/mother/daughter opens the internet and finds her photo in an adult site with a not so nice label.


This is not an anti-porn post. I wanted to make a simple request to anyone who reads this. When you blog do it out of honesty. Whatever your views be, whatever your fantasies be don’t make your space worthless by focusing only on the dollars. When you drop a comment on someone’s space, give him/her a hint that you read it. Show the guts to point out the negatives. If possible avoid the ‘Lols’ and ‘Nice post’. There may be times when you have nothing else to comment but otherwise, believe me, it’s an insult.

8 comments:

Rachna said...

Good post, Jon. Well, I haven't come across any site the kind you mentioned through blogs. But, I have come across people who leave comments, which make me wonder whether they have actually read the post. Frankly, my aim is not to amass followers but to have a good discussion with varied people out there, I am not likely to meet otherwise.

BK Chowla, said...

Absolutely.
There are days when I read other posts but decide not to post comments.That may have made me unpopular. And I have never allowed Ads on my blog.

Anonymous said...

I don't really understand the Ads business - do you only get paid if comments are left?
Over here a writing group I am involved with often post comments about each others work - a small (but growing) number of us are fed up with the "awesome post" type of comment as it really has no meaning or value to the writer.
I don't always coment on every blog I read just as I don't always comment on my friends Facebook status - who cares if they are washing their car?
I enjoy most of your posts but don't comment on the ones about your local politics etc because I don't really understand them.
Don't change your style to make yourself a more popular blogger!

OtienoHongo said...

This is interesting and there was a time when I too had to ask myself why am I blogging? My question was not driven by the points you put across but it nevertheless it led me to similar conclusions. In the end I decided that I will blog for myself and not really care whether people read, leave comments or not. I have since found that some of the stuff I consider of value are the ones that never even have comments left behind (not that people comment significantly on my blog anyway).

Destiny's child... said...

It's disgusting really. I am glad you chose this subject. At one point or the other we've all had some 'Nice Post', Keep it up' comments on our blog, where we can be sure that the comment is another way of saying,'you scratch my back, i scratch yours'.

sm said...

nice post.
It happens in real life as well as on blogs.

Tys on Ice said...

yeah!!!!

iam with you on sincerity in commenting. If you have nothing to say, dont say it...just read and move on...applaud...

btw, iam glad u didnt go anti porn...that wud have been sad...but what really is it abt pictures of girls having parties that is supposed to be such a turn on? it is a lil scary knowing that people have to be careful abt what they do lest theres some sicko posting random pics in porn websites..

worrying...

Anonymous said...

Nice style. I wish I could write that way.