I'm such a sucker

I got my very first "comment spam" this morning. Imagine my surprise and delight when I get an email from my Abandon Text blog declaring:

"Your site is on top of my favourites - Great work I like it."

It was from a complete, anonymous stranger, too. My heart skipped a beat -- "Oh my gosh, people are actually reading . . . ! And they actually like it . . . !"

I was half-way through writing a "hooray-for-me" email to my wife before it slowly dawned on me that I was being played. There was a link in the way, on a single character, evidently not intended to be clicked, or maybe clicked if the reader, like me, was wondering who the hell was reading their site. I almost, almost clicked on it. Then I read the text again . . . that utterly generic text . . . I didn't click on it.

The fact that I was duped did not surprise me. What surprised me was how completely susceptible I was to being manipulated through praise. Why was it that a single email from an unknown reader could make me so giddy? We are so hopelessly identified with our thoughts.