Saturday 6 July 2013

Infertiles Only

I started blogging when I realised that writing about my experience with infertility was really cathartic. I could have just started a hand written journal, but a blog just seemed more modern and Husband even described it as 'trendy' -a word seldom associated with me. I maintain that I only write my blog for myself and I never imagined that I would have any followers, let alone develop so many friendship with fellow bloggers. I was a bit nervous about divulging so many intimate aspects of my life onto the World Wide Web, but I figured that the only people who would be interested in reading my accounts would be fellow infertiles. I inspect the statistics provided by blogspot from time to time, as I'm always curious to see what key words lead people to my blog. My Thanks, Masturbation!  post brought much traffic to my blog, but probably left a lot of viewers very disappointed. Despite the sexually laden themes, there is nothing sexy about infertility.

As recommended, I keep an eye on the spam filters, and I look out for new comments that show up on my older posts. Recently I discovered this note on a post I had published in February. I reported that my car sustained some structural damage and was written off by my insurance company. My essay explored how routine decisions about purchasing a car can be challenging to infertile couples, as we had to address whether to get a family sized car when we don't know if our family will expand beyond the two of us. This was the recent comment:

It's really disappointing when unexpected things suddenly came up, especially if it costs a lot. Good thing everything came out good. Anyway, how's your car now? Thorough inspection and good maintenance are always the key to make one's car extend it's life expectancy, and I hope that's what will happen to your car. x Bob Loblaw  x @ XYZTransmission.com on The Foreseeable Future.

I have to admit I felt a bit violated. More so than thinking about the various perverts who may encounter my blog. Actually, I kind of feel badly for them. These would be wankers are just looking to jerk off to some erotic material (and they say no one reads these days...) but they stumble upon my blog and their libido is instantly depleted. Although this guy expressed some concern for my situation, he walked into the world of my infertility just to pursue his own agenda. My car itself wasn't really the focus of the post, but I'm not surprised that a guy who can't distinguish an adjective and an adverb didn't pick up on that. By the way, my transmission runs well despite the fact that I'm usually late for my oil changes and I'm overdue for my 125,000 mile inspection.

My blog is exclusively for my own needs to express my infertility journey through writing and I only intended to share my stories with others who can relate. I realise I can't control the traffic or the viewers who come to my blog, so I'll just issue this plea: Please don't feign interest in my story just to promote your own business.

9 comments:

  1. Yeah, it's weird to see how desperate some people can be for business that they're trolling infertility blogs so they can advertise in the comments. I actually had one comment from a man a few months ago (which caught my eye, as I think all my other readers are female) and I ultimately realized that while he was offering sympathetic comments, his name linked to his own RE practice. I left it up as I couldn't be entirely sure he was solely being self-promoting, but he never commented again. Guess it didn't work out for him.

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  2. Wow, people will seriously use any venue to advertise these days! Geeze. That is seriously rude. I'm really sorry that happened :( I also worry about unintended readers, but mostly I'm paranoid that someone I know will find my blog. I'm starting to care about that less and less though. Not that I'm ready to "come out" about all our struggles to friends and family, but I just don't care about walking on eggshells around them anymore. I always worry that letting someone know they hurt my feelings will hurt THIER feelings, but now I'm starting to think, well if they didn't want criticism from me, they shouldn't have been such a jerk in the first place. Anyway, I really hate that that rude commenter invaded your space, but good for you for calling him out.

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  3. I held out against the captcha for SO LONG but after a while I just got so sick of the spam comments. Since I've enabled captcha, I've hardly gotten any. I did get a couple though, and I thought the same thing as you, "how desperate are you that you are going to sit down and type an incoherent comment on a blog that has nothing to do with what you are selling?"

    A while back, I also got a comment from the same guy as Aramis. Buggers...

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    1. It seems really creepy (and questionably unethical) to troll blogs looking for potential patients. I changed this guys name as I didn't want to promote him any further, but like Aramis, I think I'd leave the RE's comment up to name and shame!

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  4. I am starting to get more of these types of comments and may need to start using captcha. Sigh. I have gotten a couple of comments from someone (a woman, I think) who works at an RE's office and includes a link. I just left it, but I found it weird. I think she said specifically in her comment her job was to look at infertility blogs. So creepy.

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    1. I once worked with a physician (who is now in his early 80s and is still practicing) who remembered a time when just advertising was considered unethical for a physician. I wonder what he would this of REs asking staff members to troll infertility blogs to recurit patients...sigh...

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  5. Bob Loblaw. Tee hee. :)

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  6. That's just so random that people troll blogs to drum up business. It must work sometimes, or otherwise they wouldn't do it????

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  7. First, I want to tell you how happy I am that you are blogging. I love reading your posts, so I am so glad you joined the blogging world instead of using a boring old journal :)

    I got the same guy as Aramis and Ggpsy Mama on my blog. Weird. I also got the same person that said it was their job to read IF blogs. But to advertise transmissions on an infertility blog? Now that is desparate!

    I have wanted to figure out what key words bring people to my blog, but I haven't been able to figure it out yet. I didn't know the blogger stats will show us that. How do I use that feature???

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