It seems my blog readership is primarily spam bots. Two bot attempts to comment on my blog were blocked today. All comments must be approved by me before being posted. I emailed both “people” or bots who tried to comment and I got error messages for both. Neither e-mail address exists or could be found.
I’ve encountered the bot security procedures where I have identify “all the pictures containing cars/boats/bicycles”. In general, I have to prove “I am not a bot”. The question arises how much bot activity is on the internet?
I spoke to a representative of my hosting service about these spam bot issues. I can attach a captcha bot detection service to screen out bots, but have to pay for this. At the same time, I want to know what percentage, likely miniscule, of actual humans interested in my content come to my blog. I had 22 “visitors” to my blog in one day about a week ago, attempting to comment, so I emailed each individually under the false presumption humans were attached to these email addresses. I thanked each for visiting my blog and wanted to know how they found it, would appreciate any input, etc. I got 5 error messages immediately. None of the 17 remaining blog visitors emailed me back.
Bot World extends beyond the internet. I’ve had two bot (spam) phone calls today. One was selling me car insurance. I went along with the bot person calling me. I told her I already had Geico (cheap) car insurance. She asked if I was a homeowner or renter, and I asked why is that relevant for car insurance. Big pause. Her script or “bot programming” does not have a reply ready for my open-ended question. Thus, her option was to transfer me to I forget where. I answer my phone to investigate this Bot World I inhabit.
2nd phone call: For the 500th time I got a call about social security disability, due to my non-existent inquiry into that which they claim exists. I told the person in the midst of their bot script their information is false, false that I inquired about or sought to obtain social security disability benefits. Of course I blocked this number as I have done 500 times before. But the Bot World circulates this false information and I will get more Bot calls. Just like I get Bot visitors to my blog.
Folks, this Information Superhighway Al Gore told us about two decades is a dystopian cesspool of Bot BS and trigger-inducing click-baiting social media. I play around on facebook, instagram, twitter, and recently got into Tik Tok shlock.
I wonder how many actual humans will read this. If you’re human, thanks for stopping by.