Month: December 2011

Friday Five: Best comment spam of 2011

On those days when I’m feeling unloved and need some positive reinforcement, nothing warms my heart more than looking at the comment spam that shows up on this blog.

Yes, comment spam may be annoying, but the spammers, despite their often poor command of English, say some of the nicest things! Here are a few — nay, five — of my favorites from 2011:

1. Keep writing such more posts.What more could one ask for from a good blog.This post is very precise yet loaded with information.

Yes! That’s exactly what I’m trying to do: Write posts that are precise yet filled with information. This commenter gets me.

2. Interesting entry. I was terribly impressed and felt had to induce a valuable expertise when reading your info. Bookmarked this page, will come back for more and subscribed in Google Reader as well.

Regards,
Evelina

I love that this one even bothered to sign her name. Pleasure to meet you, Evelina.

3. The post is absolutely fantastic! Lots of great information and inspiration, both of which we all need!b Keep ‘em coming… you all do such a great job at such Concepts… can’t tell you how much I, for one appreciate all you do!

And I, for one, appreciate the comment love.

4. Hi Friends, This day am very lucky. I saw good post in your blog. I pass this news to my friend and share to my FB. My work is [redacted] and [redacted]. Please Post different news for catch the all people. bye and all the best for your future project. bye.

I love that this spammer was thoughtful enough to say “bye” — not once, but twice.

5. What a great post! thanks a lot for sharing with us!! like it!

*blush*

If comments like these don’t warm a jaded blogger’s heart, then I don’t know what will.

Merry Christmas!

Resolution for 2012: cut the communication clutter

Leave it to the Onion‘s funny folks to get a serious point across about how poorly some of us communicate.

I’m referring to this recent bit of satire about our commander in chief’s communication style:

In Major Gaffe, Obama Forgets To Dumb It Down

CINCINNATI—In a serious miscalculation that may prove devastating to his bid for a second term, President Barack Obama neglected Tuesday to simplify a statement to the point where it could readily be grasped by anyone with the vocabulary of an 8-year-old.

“Instead of saying, ‘There are many global variables at work here, and unless they all fall into place, we could find ourselves back in a recession,’ he should have just said, ‘Times are hard. We gotta be strong,'” said Washington Post political correspondent Brian Meltzer, noting that Obama’s statement during a speech on job creation was met with dumbfounded looks and audible gasps from the crowd.

“Americans are so used to meaningless homespun homilies, they don’t know what to do when they’re treated like thinking adults. The president has to understand that if he goes out there throwing around words like ‘currency’ and ‘economy,’ he’ll end up being branded an elitist.” In an attempt to correct the error, Obama concluded his speech with the words “Jobs good. No jobs bad. God bless America.”

Obama isn’t the only one with a communications problem. Leaders of many organizations — from CEOs to college and university leaders — have a hard time communicating clearly. That’s because the world of business, education and technology thrives on obfuscation and tossing about empty buzzwords.

I recently attended a meeting where the speaker, introduced as “a good communicator,” talked about what he planned to do “on a go-forward basis.” What does that even mean? I think he was talking about his plans for the future, but I’m not entirely sure.

And then a couple of weeks ago I was editing a document on our campus when I came across this doozie:

Resources have been allocated to incentivize faculty members to convert their face-to-face lectures to lectures delivered by electronic media utilizing the internet.

I revised that slightly to read:

We have made funds available to encourage faculty members to deliver their courses online.

I’m not sure if my recommendation was adopted in the final version. But I will assure you this:

On a go-forward basis In the future, I will incentivize myself try to cut the clutter from my communication.