One of the reasons I closed comments on this blog was the huge amount of Spam I had to deal with everyday. Since then, the Spam reduced dramatically. Now I don't have to deal with Spam comments, but Trackback and Pingback Spam only. Of course I can close Trackback/Pingback too, but so far they come in manageable count.

Last week, my spam counter crossed one million, thanks to Akismet for doing such a great job. This tool is the biggest single time saver in my blogging since I installed it couple of years ago.

Doing a little calculations to see how much time could have been wasted on this and assuming that if I had to moderate spam manually it would take around 4 seconds to track each of them:

* 1,001,169 comment spams X 4 seconds = 4,004,676 seconds needed for moderating comments.
* 4,004,676 seconds = 66744.6 minutes
* 66744.6 minutes = 1112.41 hours
* 1112.41 hours / 24 = 46.35 days (that's 1.5 months if I worked blogging non-stop 24 hours a day)
* 1112.41 hours / 8 = 139 days (that's 4.6 months if I worked blogging full-time job, 8 hours a day)

More if I took time off for weekends and holidays!!

Web-savvy criminals have turned Israel into the world's highest ranking source of malicious Internet activity per user, security experts have told The Jerusalem Post.

From July through December 2006, 9 percent of all such activity could be traced back to Israel. Taiwan came next with 8%, while Poland and the US tied at 6%, according to a report issued in March by security software giant Symantec, based in Cupertino, California...

The sophistication of Israel's Internet users and its developed hi-tech sector have contributed to the high level of malicious Web activity, said Arie Danon, Symantec manager for the Mediterranean region...

Reznik chalked the high amount of criminal Internet activity here up to the fact that Israel, according to a study his company performed in February, is a large exporters of spam, accounting for approximately 2% of world junk mail in 2006...

"The figures clearly show that spammers are operating intensively in Israel on an international level" said Yaniv Barzilai, TrekIT deputy managing director of sales, referring to the TrekIT report. Although spam is not itself considered malicious by the researchers and is not necessarily illegal, the Symantec report found that it is increasingly intertwined with malicious criminal activities. [Source: The Jerusalem Post]

Will this stop Nigerian spammers? One has to admit that some of the spam was priceless!
Here us some webcomic sets the imaginary scene for all those Nigerian spam e-mails that have plagued inboxes over the last few years.

I'm thinking about the comments option on blogs yet again. It is a question I have pondered numerous times already, probably ever since I started reading blogs and certainly since I decided to start my own.

For me, the question of whether a site that calls itself a blog has comments option turned on is actually quite directly related to what constitutes a blog in the first place. I realize this is a question that is probably impossible to answer in a way that would satisfy everybody, but it is one still worth asking and a definition would be helpful.

One of my concerns is whither the blogosphere is democratic or not. Blogs can have a democratic component, one of which is 'Comments'. But then, why is it that certain bloggers decide to go without comments? And what makes their Web site a blog in that case? Clearly I am showing my bias here in that I believe comments are an essential part of a blog. That said, I do realize and accept blogs as blogs even when they do not have comments turned on.. but do so mostly because the community has decided to consider them blogs.

So not having 'comments on' here. Does this make my blog more undemocratic than many other blogs? IMHO, not necessary. Someone can always comment on an entry posted on a non-commentable blog by posting an entry on their own blog. This of course excludes those numerous readers who do not have blogs of their own, but more importantly, it also leaves the original post untouched by critical response. But does that make blogs less interesting? And less democratic?

Of course, I understand some of the reasons why people may not allow for comments. But in my case, if I decide to switch comments off is because of two main reasons. First, it is an extra burden on me, specially with spam. Second, if one doesn't want certain types of material present on a site then one must constantly monitor comments. This can become tedious in the case of blogs that attract a lot of attention and response.

I certainly do not mean to glorify comments too much. There are excellent and very valuable blogs that do have comments turned on yet receive little response. That does not mean that they are not being read nor that people do not have reactions to what is said on the blog. It seems to take several thousand readers to produce a few dozen comments so only a few blogs will receive lots of comments.

So bloggers, readers, why comments? And readers, do you care? I realize it's a bit problematic to ask that question here, but this is just for discussion, it's obviously not a scientific poll of any sort.

Go ahead.. Hit comments!

Marwa from Lebanon is considered as one of the most famous Arabic pop music artists in the Middle East, characterized by an exceptional appearance on stage and on our Arab Music TV channels!!! (pic via Waleg)

In an unexpected move from within Dubai, Lt-Gen. Dhahi Khalfan (Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police) inaugurating an awareness campaign titled "No to Spam TV Channels" at the Dubai Women�s College (DWC), Khalfan said these TV channels continued to telecast such obscene programmes with the sole aim of attracting larger audience with an eye on higher profits. Unfortunately owned by Arab and Muslim countries, unmindful of the fact that they were causing harm to the young minds through such telecast.

Unfortunately, he is completely right...

Stating that there were over 150 satellite channels, which were not complying with rules and regulations, Khalfan said all such channels would face closure in the future. "I will take all satellite channels which do not comply with established cultural values to the courts," he declared, adding that he had decided to increase the offer from the earlier Dh100, 000 to Dh500, 00 in an effort to come down heavily on such satellite channels.

The society and the youth in particular should stand up against such satellite channels which broadcast disgraceful video clips with obscene content violating the moral and social values of our country.

Yes, we need to be more creative and to raise awareness among youth and families about the benefits of watching proper, decent and objective TV channels.

The affluent should learn to spend money on charities instead of "silly" text messages (since I'm working in a telecom company, if they hear me saying this, probably they will fire me :-p). The most regretful part of the issue is that the owners of most of these channels are Arabs like us. They are from the same religion(s) and they live among us. However, the love of money and the great profits made them overlook the dangers they are spreading in society and our traditions.

It's a double sword tool. Having these channels of communication is a must. Yet using them in the existing form is a disaster. If you are not already one of addicted people to these channels, just set and watch them for few minutes and tell me what you get out of them. NOTHING!!! Completely useless, wasted and destructive time.

The money that is spent on these silly text messages could be better invested in fighting Aids somewhere or helping the poor in our countries. Those who have lots of money should spend it on charity, whether in the country or outside, instead of wasting it on text messages.

Young people need to learn to censor what they expose themselves to. The one thing young people do not have today is time. Hence, engaging in non-productive activities will not contribute to society.