My blog has been in existence now for about two and a half weeks. Any kind of blog system or discussion forum system is automatically found by automated software on the web that looks for places to try and create fake links to another page. They are fake because they create comments that are not from real users. Someone is starting some webpage for something and they want to make search engines rank their page higher. Links from other sites to your website do help search engines find your site. My website does not get a lot of traffic but I do get referrals from some other creationism related websites that have links to it. In the years I’ve had my website, search engines have found my site via traffic linking people to my site, and the various articles with my name on other creation ministry websites. I can’t remember any case where I asked for such a link on another site, though I’m not positive. I certainly did not go all over the internet creating bogus links to my site just to promote it. This was slowly accomplished over time. So most of my traffic on my website, and requests to my newsletter, are real people. People have referred their friends to my site or my newsletter. I hope the same happens with this blog.
In the short time my blog has existed there has been so far 16 fake comments that some persons or programs have tried to post to my site just to make a link to their site. Their hope is that people reading my site will see the fake posts and click the link out of curiosity. But I have installed a system on my site called Akismet that prevents comment spam. So far it’s working pretty well. I can tell the fakes from the real readers, so far. So the fake comments haven’t been seen on the blog.
All this makes me think of Jesus’ parable of the weeds in Matthew 13:24-30. Here’s the beginning of this from the NIV Bible (1984). “Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat ….”
This is like comment spam. I put what I hope is worthwhile posts on my blog hoping that it will help some who read it. But there is more traffic from the fakes so far than from real readers. But I will delete the spam (the weeds). Operating a blog means you have to deal with the weeds some so that real readers can have something to read. In Jesus’ parable, the weeds are left until the end of history when Jesus returns. Jesus will send angels to get rid of the weeds so the righteous can live in peace. Jesus has the right to do this because of who he is and what he has done. The righteous in the parable are referred to as the wheat. The seed of the truth of the gospel is spread abroad among both weeds and wheat. The weeds and wheat both grow for a time. Some weeds look a lot like wheat (I know this because I grew up in Kansas). Some may have trouble telling the difference between weeds and wheat, at least when you look from a distance. But the God who sows the message knows the difference between the real believers and the fakes. One good thing is that it is possible for weeds to become wheat in real life! A nonbeliever can become a believer. Jesus has been making this kind of metamorphosis in human lives for a long time now.
Just a little update on this post. It’s now March 17, 2012 and there are 33 fake comments I’ve received since this post. More weeds with the wheat. Sending them to binary oblivion.
Wayne Spencer