The internet is a strange place

Today I found a blog titled "Adult Webmasters Resource Blog." Joking? 'Fraid not. This site proclaimed itself a resource to all those interested in becoming "adult webmasters," and the entries were all posted by an amateur "adult webmaster" in progress, discussing blogging techniques and good companies to call with questions. The site also featured a comprehensive list of links to sites like "Ghetto Booty". And I think that this guy is really in earnest--he's just a rookie, after all, starting out in the big sea of adult 'net publishing, hoping to help others however he can.

It's never actually occurred to me that the online porn-folk "start" somewhere. But there you have it. It'd be sad if it wasn't so damn funny.

I found another blog titled "Iraq Information Site", that repeated the phrase "attacking Iraq resources" throughout the body of every single entry. Over and over. No punctuation or nuthin'. Strange way to get the information out.

Also, I found a blog with one entry, dated Jan.2.05. It read something like, "I need to write in my blog. It's my New Year's resolution. I don't know what I'll write about. I probably won't know until I start writing it."

There were no more entries after that.

And then I found several sites that were, well, ads. I'm sure this phenomenon has been noted many times by other, more blog-savvy folks than myself, but honest to God, I found sites that looked suspiciously like fake blogs. The entries were all links to other places, the sites themselves looked poorly maintained--as if someone set it up in a day and then left it, like a snare, lurking among all those other blogs, waiting for a poor, unsuspecting blog-hopper to land on its lousy page, and then...snap! The blogger would realize that yes! He does need to see pictures of a garden gnome with an eyepatch (dead serious, I saw this advertised)! I didn't know such a thing existed, but there you have it. What a waste.

Of course, this would be like the mysterious "Maria", who left a comment on my website that had nothing at all to do with my entry (which, ironically, was about Atlas Shrugged)--her "comment" was just a plug for some product site. I deleted it.

The really sad thing is that I'd estimate at least 50% of the blogs I was randomly shuttled to were ads. Most of the time it was difficult to tell what they were actually advertising--one site, called "Vege Comm", listed 2 entries: "Vegetarian Weight Loss--This is a detailed source for vegetarian weight loss", & "Vegetarian Stickers--this is a detailed source for blah blah blah." I can only suppose that you click on these links and head right into a porn site?

*ping!* (That would be the proverbial lightbulb pinging on, above my thick skull.)

Oh, I get the Flag function now! Suddenly it makes sense! Am I contradicting my 1-800-Hero entry, by writing about what, precisely, Blogger is trying to prevent with its handy little Flag key? Oh well. Oops, I apologize. It now seems glaringly possible that I just might be wrong.

Actually, if you read the little About Flagging bit on Blogger (which I did, just now), they're really pretty cool about site content--turns out they offer the Flag buttons so that they don't need to monitor the content of our sites. It's a way that we independent, uncensored bloggers may self-govern. Pardon me, kind folks at Blogger. Carry on.