Not too long ago I set up a web page for the new Palin book. An unexpected source of entertainment has been the spammy comments left by the international peddlers of Viagra, pet meds, seamy tapes of pop tartlets, and, bizarrely, dubious Lyme Disease cures.

The clever spammers set up automated web crawlers leaving generic comments with embedded links on blogs in hopes the clueless blogger will approve them, and thereby provide them with some free advertising or at least a higher search ranking on Google.

These internet bottom-feeders have gotten pretty adept at crafting a comment that is complimetary and yet applicable to almost any post on any subject. For example, I got this one the other day:

Exactly how did you figure all this out about this topic? I enjoyed reading this, I’ll have to visit other pages on your site straight away.

Sure you will, buddy. Then there was this one:

This topic has been up for debate quite a lot of times but none of the posts were as detailed as yours. Admin I hope to see such quality posts from you in the future.

Well, I’ll do my best. Sometimes the spammer lays it on just a little too thick. Some guy with a web site that had the words “silver bullion for sale” in the url wrote:

Merely want to say your article is stunning. The clearness in your post is simply striking and i can take for granted you are an expert on this field. Well with your permission allow me to grab your rss feed to keep up to date with succeeding post. Thanks a million and please keep up the admirable work.

No I will not give you permission to “grab my rss feed.” The last stranger who grabbed my rss earned himself a punch in the nose.

But at least those guys seemed to have learned English as a first language. I liked this valiant attempt:

Appreciate it for publish really very good informations. Your internet is fantastic! I am impressed by the facts that you simply have on this weblog. It exhibits how nicely you recognize this subject. Bookmarked this page, will come back for additional. You, my pal, I discovered just the information I by now looked everywhere and just couldn’t uncover. What a perfect web page. Such as this websites your ?nternet site is one particular of my new favorites.I such as this information proven and it has provided me some kind of idea to have achievement for some reason, so retain up the decent work!

Well, that’s high praise coming from you, sir. It has been my pleasure to have provided you some kind of idea to have achievement for some reason. And I will endeavor to retain up the decent work. But I make no guarantees.

Keep those comments coming web bots. And I’ll keep not approving them.