Well, campers, the readership of the grokmedia | mediablog is growing by leaps and bounds. That’s good. Unfortunately, along with that growth comes a bunch of associated problems – mostly of the spam variety. At first, it was enough to simply delete entries that were obviously spam. That worked for a while, but as you would expect, spammers have gotten increasingly more aggressive, not to mention crafty. Whereas before, I’d get a comment that was obviously spam (my favorite had to be the Viagra ad that was posted in reply to a piece I wrote about the Episcopal schism). But recently, the spammers have gotten sneaky – they’ll actually reply with some text that looks as if it’s a real comment…but then link back to a bogus website that either attempts to sell you the latest in sexual dysfunction products, or (even worse in my book) attempts to infect your computer with a variety of virus code. Not fun.
So with something of a deep breath and a great deal of trepidation, I’ve reconfigured the blog to require everyone to register before commenting. Furthermore, I’ve implemented a WordPress plugin that is designed to detect bots and gently discourage them from registering…or posting.
Frankly, I’m a bit fed up with idiots trying to spam this blog. I’m trying to share what I know with a larger audience. It’s a lot of work to post on a daily basis. While I enjoy all the “real” feedback I get, having to deal with a bunch of second-raters who parasitically glom onto creative work and then use it to spread their useless snake oil wares is a colossal waste of time. I’m in hopes that I can eliminate the spammers from the site, and get back to spending my time talking about marketing.
If you have any problems with the registration process, please let me know.
Got your attention? That might be a stretch, but one thing is for certain, figures might not lie, but liars figure (at least according to Mark Twain). The problem is, it’s remarkably easy to take legitimate numbers and spin them to mean whatever you want them to mean. It’s even easier to pose poll questions in such a way as to push the subjects to give answer that you want. That makes surveys, polls, and questionnaires…well…questionable. Think about it. How many times have you been asked a question, and you gave a less than truthful answer? If you’re like most people, the answer is “a bunch.” Turns out, most people answer survey questions with an eye to what they think the people running the survey want to hear. Others simply don’t care. Some like to attempt to skew the results, just for fun. Then again, some take surveys seriously. Problem is, it’s almost impossible to tell the accurate data from the bad. Oh, sure, you can try making the surveys double-blind, expand your sample to eliminate statistical aberrations, even try and cloak the party who’s commissioned the survey. Those techniques can help – a little – but they cannot overcome the central reason that surveys are inaccurate.
[Editor's Note: this blog post first appeared in our sister blog, Captain Digital Speaks! on November 11.
One of my favorite stories involves a blind street vendor of hot dogs. One day, one his customers suggested that if business was good, he should consider expanding. The customer offered to help the blind vendor with introductions to a banker, and so the vendor ended up buying a second cart, and hiring someone to work for him. That worked out so well, that he was able to buy more carts, and hire more people. This gave him enough discretionary income that he was able to send his son to college. The son majored in business administration. When the kid graduated, he returned home to see that his dad had purchased a corner lot and an old diner trailer that he rennovated and opened as a freestanding restaurant. The son was horrified. “Dad…don’t you know the economy is lousy! You shouldn’t be expanding right now…you need to pull in your horns and hunker down for a long recessionary period. This has got “Depression” written all over it! You’d better be careful, or you’ll lose everything!”
The father thought, “Well…my son did go to college, which I’ve never done, and he did major in business, and he did get a degree. Maybe he’s right.” So he sold the restaurant, sold off the other carts, and went back to working a single street corner, selling hot dogs. He thought, “Boy, my son was right. The economy is lousy.” Read the rest of this entry »
Cars have been much on my mind for the last few days, much like in the halls of Congress and across our great land. (For my take on what ails Detroit, please visit www.captaindigital.net and read today’s post, Motor City Madness.) But from a marketing perspective, this epic battle between Detroit’s finest and the lame duck Congress is…interesting.
What we’ve got here (with apologies to Strother Martin) is a failure to communicate…the truth.
And it’s that failure – and the framing/spin/mendacity that’s going on that is so bloody fascinating. To wit… Read the rest of this entry »
After what seems like a decade of debates, centuries of commercials, and eons of excess, the day has come to vote, and put this madness to rest – for at least a few months.
Thank God.
No matter how the election turns out, I look forward to watching television broadcasts bereft of ads slinging mud, making unsubstantiated claims, and generally boring me to death. (Whoever came up with the idea for DVRs gets to jump the line into Heaven, in my book.) I can’t think of a more important election within my lifetime – or one that I’m more eager to see done and over.
I voted over a week ago. I’m not alone…a staggering 46% of Texas Panhandle residents voted early. (By comparison, that’s close to the total number of ALL the people that voted in the last Presidential election – early voting, absentee voting, and regular voting combined.)
The time for bending people’s ears about who’s the better candidate – and who will lead us down the road to destruction – is, mercifully, over. If you haven’t already voted, I encourage you to do so – no matter who you support. Voting is a precious right in America, and we should never take it for granted. Whoever is elected (fair and square, I hope and pray) faces some huge challenges – perhaps bigger challenges than any President in history will confront. I pray that God watches over this election and guides us all to vote for those who will put country before party, and what is right before ideology, working not as politicians, but as statesmen (and stateswomen) and servants of We the People.
Now go vote and let’s get this thing over with, so the nation can begin to heal from this long, divisive campaign.
As I sit here in my loney artist’s/writer’s garret, typing away as I expound on maters with a marketing bent, it occurs to me I might have need to say a few words about the very serious subject of rational thought.
This was prompted by a reply to yesterday’s post, where your humble correspondent was taken to task by someone who chose to respond with slogans and things he’d obviously heard – as opposed to things he’d studied, considered, and investigated.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a skeptic. On everything. I like what President Ronald Regan said – “Trust, but verify” – and I apply that to my daily life. I think it is prudent to take everything you hear, see, and expereience, with a critical eye. In this age of media maniuplation, it’s easy to forget that everybody has an agenda – but not everyone is up front about it. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s veer into the political arena for a nanosec, and talk about a couple of recent events – and how they pertain to marketing.
Yesterday, John McCain announced he would temporarily suspend his campaign, in order to go back to Washington and help pass the bailout legislation that would save our financial bacon. Those that support McCain insist that his move was statesman-like. Those that don’t, insist that he was practicing gamesmanship. Read the rest of this entry »
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Cars have been much on my mind for the last few days, much like in the halls of Congress and across our great land. (For my take on what ails Detroit, please visit 
As I sit here in my loney artist’s/writer’s garret, typing away as I expound on maters with a marketing bent, it occurs to me I might have need to say a few words about the very serious subject of rational thought.
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