Sunday Blog Chatter: An Apology and A Plea for Sponges

I'm in trouble.
Again.

I don't think this is what mom and dad planned for me. A life of crime. And on the Internet.  
How scandalous.

OK. I confess. I didn't fall off the global groove yesterday. I know what a spammer is. At least I thought I knew what a spammer was....until yesterday when I got cyber-arrested (so to speak).
Do you think they'll let me have French Vanilla for my coffee in jail?
Seriously. I worry about those things.

It's not enough to say I am disappointed in myself. I didn't intend to break the law. OK OK. I confess (again). I know what spamming is. And I think I did it.

Let me tell you why. Because when they call you to be a witness at my trial I want to make sure you understand where I stand - in shackles and unshampooed hair and no makeup (oh the thought) - that there's a more important issue here. I'm talking to my lawyers right now. And my dog.

If I sent you more than one message about peace globes, I apologize. I didn't intend to do that. If I left a reminder in your comment box and insulted your intelligence, I apologize. Most people responded with "thanks for reminding me" or "I didn't know about the last one and wanted to participate. Thanks."

I did not intend to send ANYone more than one invitation and if that took more of your time, I apologize. I wouldn't do anything to offend my blogging friends or infringe on your blog space.

Wikipedia defines blog spamming also known as spamdexing as "... automatically posting random comments or promoting commercial services to blogs, wikis, guestbooks, or other publicly accessible online discussion boards. Any web application that accepts and displays hyperlinks submitted by visitors may be a target."

If that is spamming then I guess we all need to stop linking our blogs to anything we say. And we all have to stop inviting people to our blog events. I "automatically" posted with my busy little fingers and there was nothing random about it. It's simple. I'm one person trying to reach as many people as I can. I am not a robot. I try to comment on what the blog post is about before I state the invitation. Someone recently said that appeared illogical in itself so I went back to simply posting the invitation. That doesn't make sense either to people who are looking for a response to what they wrote. It appears I need to change my strategy. And I will. What are your thoughts on this?

Although I am not asking for money and am certainly not a commercial site, from here on out I will not leave a link in the comment box although interestingly enough, I am now seeing a new thing in comment boxes "so&so's last blogpost" hyperlinked after the blogger leaves a real comment. I wonder if that offends people as well. Is that "artificially increasing the site's search engine ranking?" Does that offend people? I think not. It doesn't offend me. I don't think those who do that mean to offend anybody. Neither did I.

When I get a 500 word diatribe on the sexual habits of jelly beans in my comment box, that offends me. But I digress. Gosh, that just reminded me I'm so hungry in here......somebody send jelly beans.

I don't have any paying customers, I don't ask for money. This is not a commercial site. Do you see any ads? Are people sending money ? If so, where did you send it?! Sigh. Just kidding.

My thoughts - which are worth about a plug nickel now that I'm incarcerated.
It's not a good day to need a manicure.

During the last BlogBlast I sent mucho emails. I got very very little response to those emails. I almost felt like it was a waste of time. I did it that way because I thought it was more respectful and less spammish. I am promoting an event ONLINE. How else can I tell people about it?

So, this BlogBlast has been more promotion by yours truly going personally to each and every site and leaving an invitation. That HAS gotten more response, mostly positive, until I left one on Engadget yesterday - the number one ranked website by Technorati - now I know that wasn't exactly smart and I did try to find an entry about war and peace that I could relate to but honestly folks, they just wanna talk about gadgets. I've emailed them. I've asked them nicely. They pay me no mind. And let's face it. I've been known to push the envelope just a wee bit for the cause. So I expected to be booted off for spamming. Read tomorrow's post to find out what happened. You won't believe it. But I'm not through apologizing....

When I get a promo from a BlogTalk Radio blogger in my email box, an artist promoting an art show on their blog, a blogger needing participants for an upcoming Carnival, or an invitation to join yet another social networking list, I personally do not think of it as spamming. I usually know these bloggers and appreciate the hard work it takes to maintain what they're doing online. And yet I am now being accused of spamming for peace globes doing the same thing. I consider it an invitation. Where is the line? People have to know about what you're doing or it won't be successful. That's just the way it is. I don't have time to lick a stamp for 70 million blogs. Well.......I do now since I'm in the slammer.

Anybody got a sponge?
OK. I get it. I will learn to change my one-woman media machine speed to something else. Not sure what yet. But now I have a lot of time to think about it.

Seriously, forgive me for crossing that quasi-grey line in the cyber world and trying to kill two birds with one stone. I didn't mean to offend or insult anyone. Perhaps I got carried away. What are your thoughts?

Hmmmm....Carried away? Maybe. Inspired? Absolutely.

Just tell my parents where I am. They don't have a computer. And somebody please feed my busy-body dog.

That's the last apology I will make. I just got a globe from Seoul, Korea -because I left a comment and sent an email. I guess some things are worth going to jail for.

I hope I'm out by November 7th.

Update! Cybercelt of Endangered Spaces just posted an announcement on the PayPerPost message board. Excellent idea! Thank you!
Prudence and Madness also wrote a post this week. These are new blogging friends to me. And this is how the news is spreading. .......as I've said many times.......one blog at a time.....