It begs the lead line ‘What’s the difference between a bunch of law professors and some horny sluts?

Neither one gets paid as much as they could for services rendered.

So you’re all frigid *****es? :-p

I’m just holding out for Easterbrook.

The VC’s spam filter blocked the “compliment spam,” but some must get through and accomplish the spammer’s purpose. Any idea how much their efforts can net them? More than what those who spam me with the Viagra crap can expect? Higher Google or other search engine placement for a website holds the prospect of more paying customers for the website or more in ad revenues, or possibly both?

I don’t understand the “Tweets that mention…” stuff, but I’ll save that question for another time. Again, thanks for the enlightenment about the cyberspace “underworld.”

neurodoc: That nonsensical reply has to picque recipients’ curiosity enough for them to click on a link to see what is there, and if they do, then the spammers purpose of generating traffic for their site is accomplished?

That’s incidental to the purpose of most comment spam, though it can be a bonus for the spammer.

Spammers place links to (call it) spammersite.com on pages served by Volokh.com (and on the zillions of other sites the spammer hits). These links may coincidentally bring in some clicks from readers of the infested sites. But their main purpose is to fool search engines (like Google) that constantly spider the intarweb to build databases.

The search engines use their own proprietary algorithms to determine which websites are more worthy of top placement in their search result displays. These algorithms are commonly believed to include considerations such as the number of websites that link to a given website. So if spammersite.com is linked by a larger number of websites, so the spammer’s reasoning goes, it will get a higher rank in search engines’ result displays.

No “clicks” from users browsing the infested website are necessary. The spammer hopes to generate traffic by appearing near the top of search results.

The actual text (distinct from the embedded link) that the comment spammer generates may be incidentally for purposes of attracting “clicks”, but it is also camouflage to avoid detection and deletion by the infested website owner, directly or through some automated anti-spam filter/scanner. That latter camouflage purpose is why comment spam sometimes contains random strings of words that occurred in other places on the page.

Nick

Fub: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, also known as Gaming Google for search ratings.The algorithm that determines which search results to display at the top of the results page involves how many sites link to the result site. Comment spam has links to a site that the spammer wants to elevate in search engine result displays.

Yes, I imagine that is what it is about in the end, but I still wonder how it works. The scammers’ computers go looking for something to glom on to, and the title of EV’s prior thread (“Is Sex More Likely To Be Emotionally Traumatizing”) did it? Then their computers pluck some buzz words (e.g., “sex”) from the thread and generate a pretty nonsensical reply with incorporating those buzz words? That nonsensical reply has to picque recipients’ curiosity enough for them to click on a link to see what is there, and if they do, then the spammers purpose of generating traffic for their site is accomplished? It seems a bit like setting thousands of monkeys to work typing to see whether they will produce anything like Shakespeare, or anything of any value. But it works for the spammers?

I don’t imagine that too many people pay to buy counterfeit Viagra online or fall into the clutches of Nigerian fraudsters, but when they do, not insubstantial sums go into the crooks’ pockets. How much gain can there be in driving a bit of traffic to a dubious website? How much are the extra clicks worth? (Yes, I know there are people in China paid to click away all day to drive up the number of visits, but that is directed, not blind, more or less random activity.)

theobromophile: There are women on the internet and even at the VC; we just aren’t horny sluts, though.

So you’re all frigid *****es? :-p

[/sarcasm]

PeteP: It begs the lead line ‘What’s the difference between a bunch of law professors and some horny sluts ?’ :-)

I think that difference was starkly illustrated in a parable on contract formation I heard aeons ago. It involved a slightly drunken conversation between a lawyer and a woman of a certain profession in a tavern. I won’t bore you with the story, but the punchline was “Paint my house!”

It begs the lead line ‘What’s the difference between a bunch of law professors and some horny sluts?

Easy versus hard?

( you may each now invent and enjoy your own response lines )

well they’ve gotta learn sometime, there are no women on the internet.

There are women on the internet and even at the VC; we just aren’t horny sluts, though.

In this case, the use of the male pronoun is not entirely a function of grammar.

Obviously.

neurodoc: Can someone explain what the spammer achieves through such nonsense?

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, also known as Gaming Google for search ratings.

The algorithm that determines which search results to display at the top of the results page involves how many sites link to the result site. Comment spam has links to a site that the spammer wants to elevate in search engine result displays.

After all, keywords are invisible to the casual user not perusing the source HTML, and don’t have to bear any relationship to the actual page content….

Cheers,

Not complaining, jez askin’….

Cheers,

I came for the horny sluts

I bet you did !

None-the-less, it’s an amusing lie.

David Nieporent: Not necessarily; I’ve heard some pretty wild things about John Bingham…

Does this count wrt the drinking game?

I should also say that I feel sorry for anyone who does search for “horny sluts” and then is cruelly deceived into following a link to this blog. Boy, must he be disappointed.

Not necessarily; I’ve heard some pretty wild things about John Bingham…