Current Song: Smashing Pumpkins - Crestfallen

Last Search Phrases:
sick things people do
change log location for gaim
change log location gaim
french flag myspace background
chinese zh google traditional
even when your hope is gone move along move along like you know you do
change the log location gaim
whitepride layouts (sorta weirded out by that)

Current Stats for the Day: 154 Unique Visitors, 582 Page views and 52 hits to the RSS

Weather: Windy and wet

In my last post you will see I was a jerk and a lot of that was based on the fact that I thought Hans was spamming my blog, but with a personal touch. The comment was in response to me asking for opinions on my site so I could change anything that bothered my visitors when I redesign the site. He was suggesting a theme he created and offered to help me for free, the way it was written sounded a little spammish because I have seen it before in spam. The free help really bothered me, since so many spammers are just morons that know nothing about what they are pitching I viewed it as an insult, someone who doesn’t know what they are doing is offering me help. Hans apologized and I have looked at his site and I like what he has done. I love the small home and contact buttons on the left, while it is not the first time I have seen them I am jealous because I have never had a design that fit that style of presentation.

Back the topic, I was a jerk and I think I made Hans feel bad for saying anything at all. I sent him an email, commented on the blog, and changed the post because I felt so horrible. That is the real topic, the things that spammers are doing create an environment that does not allow even offer help. It was borderline spam, meaning it could have been and could not have been, there were also two of them because he didn’t know I have it set to moderate all my comments. I am pretty good at picking out spam and phishing emails, but sometimes they are really good and it is very difficult to tell. I can’t imagine how hard it is for the novice computer user and when I think about my mom using a computer in the future it makes me worry she will fall for the scams.

In just this one situation a person felt insulted (because I am petty), someone else felt bad for something he shouldn’t have, and the person that felt somewhat insulted felt bad. All because so many others have sounded the exact same way when sending spam.

Spam already costs this country thousands of dollars with work hours spent in filtering spam from their inbox, the time users waste going to pointless websites, and the administrators time to setup and maintain spam software. Sometimes I think the internet needs to be reinvented, http:// needs to be changed to web:// so we create a whole new internet where sites are moderated better, basically starting over from the beginning. This would allow us to get rid of the domain squatters by requiring proof of intent for the domains, limit spam, and just create a new standard for the way we interact online. Hell maybe even make it like pay per view; no ads, content would be categorized to keep children away from porn. Also by making it web:// the statement Web 2.0 would fit better, but then you get away from the whole technical hypertext transfer protocol.

I don’t know I just know that previous spam caused me to be a jerk and I don’t like coming off like a jerk.

but really I’m just a jerk.

A visitor named Hans posted a comment on an old post I had about a redesign, and I considered it to be more spam than anything and it bothered me in some ways that I was getting pitched a theme and help for it. I was being very childish and when I originally posted this I talked about how I was somewhat insulted. I know now Hans is not a spammer and I feel horrible, he was really just trying to help me and I appreciate that.

So I am publicly letting the world know I am a jerk and I am sorry Hans. If you are looking for a good theme and a creator that isn’t as big a jerk as I am here ya go, ColorFull Wall