I have a humor website, Web Pickups, that I post to on a regular basis. Recent posts draw in the auto commenting software. Not to say that the software doesn’t find older posts to bother, just that the newer posts are at the top of the list.

Some times I think that I should post these comments on the blog for the comedy value. I doubt that my real visitors would get the joke. Many of these auto comments are so far off topic that they have some comedy value. Like comments about the wonderful article and the great writing style on a post that only contains a picture.

Many people that use this auto commenting software do not learn how to use it or set it up. They also are not aware enough of keywords to target the comments properly. I occasionally run across a blog that does not hold comments for approval, but most blog owners that care leave at least the default process in place.

The default handling for comments, and the options, are under the discussion link in the settings panel of the admin area. The default is to hold a comment unless the commenter has a couple of comments that have been approved. Another default setting is to hold comments with more than two links in the post body. My comment policy states no links in the post body, and I enforce that most of the time. Of course, auto commenting software doesn’t read the comment policy anyway.

Going through the Web Pickups Blog comments is almost refreshing at times. I have allowed a few of these comments when they are well targeted. I did that more before I had much experience and realized that most of these comments are not written directly by a real person. The blogosphere would be a better place without auto commenting software just as the email inbox would be a better place without email spam.