22 March 2023

Numbers

Here are two numbers to juggle with. They are 81 and 152. 81 is the number of  comments I found in my spam folder yesterday and 152 is the number of  comments I have found there today.

90% of the comments were originally posted by me in response to visitors' comments. They dated back to 2007. None of these comments were offensive  and none were written to promote dodgy businesses.

You can imagine how irritating and time-consuming it is to plough through a folder packed with alleged spam comments. You have to re-publish each comment individually and what I do not know is what tomorrow will bring. Will my spam folder be annoyingly refilled by mindless Blogger bots?

Although Blogger has been a pretty kind and efficient host through the years, there seems to be no way of complaining to the service or explaining user problems to them. It's the same with a lot of big businesses these days. They just don't want us talking to them or even finding ways and means of contacting them. It is very frustrating.

Still thinking about numbers. This old Beatles song contains a number which indicates precisely my wife Shirley's birthday age tomorrow. It is hard to believe that she was just twenty years old when we first met and fell in love over forty three years ago.  I was her Paul and she was my Linda.

31 comments:

  1. I find the same thing with my spam folder. I check it a couple of times a week.

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    Replies
    1. The spam folder problem seems to be getting worse and more illogical.

      Delete
  2. I have found old comments, many mine in response to readers, in the spam folder, but never n numbers like yours.
    And I hope, fingers crossed AND knocking on wood, that i won't find any.

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    Replies
    1. I had another 62 alleged spam comments to process today.

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  3. I just found 171 comments in my spam file and deleted them all. And I have used that song to comment on birthdays of my friends for years as they reached the magic number. It's a good one.

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    Replies
    1. I hope you didn't sing it yourself Bruce!

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  4. Happy Birthday Shirley (tomorrow, which is today in Australia)
    I love that song, Paul and Linda did make a great couple and clearly she did need and feed him at 64 and longer.

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    Replies
    1. She fed him vegetarian food. The "Linda McCartney" brand is still pretty popular in British supermarkets.

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  5. Have the comments already been published? At times I've found comments on older posts, not really old, that I know have been published, especially my own of which there has been some. I click the tick to publish them but I should check to see if they are still actually there. I try to remember to check the spam comment folder twice a day. Two comments were there when I checked an hour ago. There is less human contact when you need to sort it out but I am sure the company is quite aware of the issues we deal with.

    Happy birthday to the 'long suffering' Shirley. I am sure, not really. I wish I could say something positive about getting older but getting older is positive, related to your previous post.

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    Replies
    1. Your last sentence appear to have been written by a geriatric.

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  6. I check my Spam folder daily as previously published comments seem to migrate there quite frequently. You can click on multiple comments and republish them all at once rather than move them individually.

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  7. Happy Birthday to Shirley. I sang that tune on my 64th.

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  8. Happy Birthday to Shirley! I hope she's having a great day!

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    Replies
    1. She has had a nice day. I hope your birthday was okay too - even though you were at work!

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  9. It has just occurred to me wonder why in the world we would care if our own comments posted many years ago continue to accompany the posts? I do the same- click them back into existence. Numbers, numbers, numbers. It's silly, really.
    I hope that Shirley has a wonderful day.

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    Replies
    1. She received around thirty birthday cards. You must give to receive. I like to keep my comments in place even though they might never be read again.

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  10. The comments filter seems to have periodic fits of anger, I try to check every other day or so. Happy Birthday to your inspiration.

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    Replies
    1. The comments filter is probably maintained by spotty young men in red MAGA caps.

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  11. Happy Birthday to Shirley.

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  12. You aren't the first I've read about having this problem. Thus far, I am still just getting a few of mine own comments left months ago marked as spam, but nowhere near the numbers you found.

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    Replies
    1. This has been a recent surge for me. Another 62 today. Before that it was very much a minor irritation.

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  13. Happy 64th Birthday, Shirley! Hope your husband spoils you today with many treats and wonderful gifts!

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    Replies
    1. Message from Shirley: "My husband has been as wonderful as usual today. I am such a lucky girl!"

      Delete
  14. Mull of Kintyre is probably my favourite Macca song. Hope you both go somewhere special tomorrow.

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  15. I discovered a short cut to this admittedly annoying problem. At the top of the spam queue, you'll see the word "manage." If you click that, it gives you the option to check a box at top left that selects ALL the comments. Then you can skim down the list, make sure there aren't any real spam ones, and click the check mark to approve ALL of them at once. Easy-peasy!

    If there ARE spam ones, you can click those to unselect them and deal with them separately.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for this helpful explanation Steve. I used your tip on the 62 alleged Spam comments I discovered today.

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  16. Belated Happy Birthday to Shirley! I hope she liked your gift of spoons and the story that came with them.
    Spam comments on my blog tend to be in single-digit numbers. I have very rarely had to retrieve one of my own replies from the spam folder. But then again, I do not have nowhere near as many readers as you, and we all know those spam bots search for sites with a certain amount of traffic on them.

    ReplyDelete

Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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