I Read Over My Blog... I Mean Your Blog...

Don't you hate the feelings you get when you have scorned a certain practice in the past, but now find that you yourself are forced to do it?
Here's what I'm talking about: advertising. Blog advertising. It used to bug me, and for a while I was reduced to doing it. Now most of it just makes me laugh. Sometimes you'll get on your blog (or, as it often is with me, see on some other blog) a comment which is all advertising and shows no sincere interest. Or at least a very small amount of interest. These advertising comments come in a few different forms. One form, the "Blatantly Offensive" form, often looks like this:

"I [sort of] read your blog and found it [some mildly flattering adjective]. I think you'd like my blog about [something really stupid], so check it out!"

Please. In the past, I tried to reply graciously to comments like these. I even went to the advertised blogs sometimes--but when I did, I could really see why they needed publicity. Those blogs were about things like styrofoam, or candy wrappers, or bird feeders. Holy crap! I thought, upon reading the first ten words on blogs like that. Why would anyone in their right mind want to visit these? So I stopped. And you may call me a hypocrite because my blog's topic isn't really of any great meaning either, but at least it's got more of a point than bird feeders.
The other form of advertising comments I have seen is the "Sly and Creeping" type. A comment like that usually goes something like:

"Wow! I like your blog a lot, maybe I'll bookmark it. I liked how you put ____ and how you forwardly stated your position on ____. My opinion on _____ is a lot like yours, but I also think _____. Oh by the way, I have a blog about _____. Come check it out if you like!"

I have a bit more leniency towards people who post these, because it shows that they at least skimmed what you wrote on your blog. However, it still amuses me when I read a perfectly normal comment and then see at the end that their real intention was advertising. I also empathize with these people, because I was in the Sly and Creeping business for about a week at one point. But I didn't go around to random blogs and advertise; I advertised only on blogs I liked. I am a choosy solicitor, you see. :)
Before I myself was forced to advertise, I had absolutely no patience for it. Now I just look at it and laugh. After all, if we didn't laugh at our crazy world once in a while, WE'D go crazy.
TFATF!!!!
-Ahaneen