The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Reading comprehension and user experience are not a spammer's forte

Sometimes I get the feeling the people who send spam just do a quick search for something and blast out email to any and all sites that give a result. Like this one:

From
"Bobby" <bobby@diydoggroominghelp.com>
To
sean@conman.org
Subject
conman.org Quick question
Date
Fri, 6 Nov 2015 13:11:55 +0000

Hi there,

I have just been on http://boston.conman.org/2002/08 and found some great links on London information and things to do. I have also found a great little site that shows some of the less known spots in London and thought you may like to add a link to it from that page or from a resource page on your site?

This is the link to the interactive map, you need to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the map.
https://www.thelondonhelicopter.com/­interactive-­map-­of-­london-­tourist-­attractions/

Let me know what you think?

Kind regards

Bobby

There are a total of four links, covering the entire month of August, 2002, that mention anything related to things British. And given the date, that was thirteen years ago!

So, reading comprehension is lacking in spammers—what else is new? Well, I did check out the site (but I will not link to it—why give the incompetent any page rank?) and yes, the interactive map is nice and all, but good lord! The huge content-less images and pointless Javascripty-wankery you have to scroll through to get to the interactive map is seriously annoying. Heck, the fact that the email says “scroll down to the bottom of the page,” and the website says “keep scrolling” says something: the website failed in delivering a user friendly experience!

Sheesh.

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