Dealing with Spamdoo: Guestbooks

Recently some internetmarketingguruwannabees have promoted signing guestbooks with your links as a very nice way to promote your lens. This guru was evidently totally unaware of the hideous problem such activities have caused the blogging community and the enormous uproar all over the web over such practices. When asked, one of the 'gurus' said: "well, I didn't tell anyone to spam!"

Yes, our guestbooks have been getting heavily spammed. Frequently I check my guestbooks for spam, and have been getting so much, from irrelevant comments to huge pictures left to suck up space.

We already have a lot to do to properly maintain our lenses, and this new task was another time consuming waste.

Gil has added some functions to the guestbook modules to help us, and I hope you will use them! This will eventually reduce the spamming we see, until these people find another way.

You will now see a 'ban' function, which means you can ban any lensmaster that leaves a spamdoo in your guestbook. In the group version of 'ban lensmaster' that person is banned from every group a groupmaster may have (I have 41). I don't know if you ban a lensmaster from leaving guestbook comments that they will also be banned from leaving comments on every one of your lenses or not.

Your guestbook still has the other options: you can have only signed in squidoo members to leave comments; or anyone can comment; you can disallow ANY html in your comments, or you can still allow links.

When you visit other lenses, which I strongly recommend that you do, don't be afraid to leave a comment and, if allowed, a link to a lens. However, I do recommend this:

1. READ THE PAGE! If you read the page you will be able to leave a relevant comment. Lensmasters LOVE that.

2. Find something (not a headline or title) that you liked and mention it in your comment. This proves you were actually interested in the page and aren't spamming.

3. If you can and do leave a link, try to leave one that is relevant in some way to the page you are on. Many of us have LOTS of lenses, and one of them may actually be relevant.

Remember that it isn't necessary to always link to a page of your own, because when you leave a comment, your entire lensmaster roster is automatically linked.

This isn't rocket science, and our lensmasters are terrific and gracious people. Let's set a high standard and example for others as we make our rounds and visit each other.

Iframes are OUT 7/12/07 D Day

Many of our merchants in all the Mall on Squidoo groups use iframes to bring their affiliate program offerings to visitors.

All that will be over with on Thursday this week.

Squidoo has been continually flooded with spamdoo lenses, and even a hideous number of spamdoo groups, and since our Google rankings and traffic are suffering, as well as our reputation all over the internet, something must be done.

This is one more thing we have to thank the spamdooers for. God bless them, each and every one.

For the Mall on Squidoo groups:

This slows down my own work renovating the Mall on Squidoo groups because of the many iframes that I use, and I really don't want my lenses to lose their visitors because of the dead space that will show up once iframes are stripped by headquarters. So I have to work on my own lenses.

You will need to prepare for this too, and work on your own pages. I won't be able to feature any lenses that have the iframes stripped from them that haven't been adjusted. I'll give you some time.

If you have any suggestions as to how other merchants can substitute for iframes in their lenses, feel free to leave that information in the comments, at the SquidU lounge, or email me and I'll post it here with a link to your page.

Participating in Squidoo- Groups

AS IT IS AT THE TOP, SO IT SHALL BE AT THE BOTTOM!

Be Outstanding or Be Washed Away!

The sea of Squidoo lenses is, like MySpace, filling fast.

How is it you will stand out in a crowd? How will your lens, your one little lens, will show up amongst hundreds of thousands or even millions?

It will be groups that make your little lenses stand out, stand up, be counted, be FOUND.

Splensed Repeatedly

Hello Mall groupies. I'd like to announce that your new friends and mine are splensing me. What is SPLENSING? I am being spamdooed with lenses! Yes, that's right, squidoo lenses!

Who on earth would be doing this to YOU, Margaret?

Our new parasite 2.0 pals who use lame, black hat seo, have driven all of our great lenses down the rankings so they could have top lensrank spots. To get famous and rich REALLY FAST. All in the name of OFFERING YOU A GET RICH QUICK OPPORTUNITY TO DIE FOR!!!

Silly me. Why would I want to withhold the awesome opportunity for you to also get splensed and taken for a ride by every cockamamie scheme the internet dreamers can regurgitate in our direction? I mean, who wouldn't want that????

Not happy. No, not happy at all.

see this from my extremely plentiful emails:

#1
Howdy, Groupmaster!

thevideosense wants to add a lens to your Group "Catholic Lenses": http://www.squidoo.com/groups/catholic.

The lens pending your approval is Official Squidoo Personals Site Find Lensmasters in Your Location.

#2
Howdy, Groupmaster!

thevideosense wants to add a lens to your Group "Americana": http://www.squidoo.com/groups/americana.

The lens pending your approval is Official Squidoo Personals Site Find Lensmasters in Your Location.

The list is going on and on and on.

No. Not happy.