An open dialogue

Several of you have sent me emails to alert me to a comment spammer who seems intent on alerting innovators to all sorts of great multi-level marketing opportunities. Thanks for your notes.

I started the Innovate on Purpose blog to foster some dialogue, to put some ideas out into the ether and see if anyone else would pick them up and discuss. For a dialogue to exist, we need several people who are interested in the same subject and willing to pick sides and debate their points. Unfortunately comment spammers exist to take advantage of the open forum and paste their marketing messages all over the discussion. Right now I think my blog feels a little like a telephone pole near a university bar - it's just covered with unwanted ads.

To that end I've enabled some comment spam blocking. Not because I don't want comments or critiques of the concepts I'll publish, but to keep the discussion focused mostly on innovation. I think a very logical conclusion to this comment spamming, especially by one person, is an investigation into what amounts to virtual trespassing. If someone I did not invite constantly violates my virtual property, wouldn't that amount to trespass? Of course one could say that I've left the door open for comments. This could be an interesting segment of law - when does comment spam become a legal issue?

At any rate, I hope that those of you who read regularly and comment frequently will continue to do so with gusto. I've been forced to add some basic comment spam filters but please don't let that stop you from participating in our discussions on innovation.

While I find the comment spammers a real nuisance, I also have to admit that they are just filling a market niche by identifying real estate where they can place their ads and billboards. Never underestimate the power of the innovator to find new ways to advertise. Hopefully the blog software developers will be as quick to develop new features as the comment spammers are to create new ads.