The blogosphere has changed dramatically since I started in 2005, in many ways for the better, of course, there’s always the other side, the haters who love to rant away about who knows what and the ones who use blogs as a marketplace to sell their goods and it’s rampant with scammers. The way I protect myself is by putting all comments in moderation and choosing 100 days to keep them in moderation.

WordPress has a section that states it will block certain blogs, but it doesn’t work. There is no blocking people from visiting or commenting on your blog. There are some settings you can pick from, I chose to have people signed into WordPress, does this work, I’m not sure but it appears to. If a comment comes in and it’s spam I mark it as such, eventually it may get recognized as spam when it comes in. I check spam every day or so because good comments get sent to spam as well. I delete all spam permanently, that doesn’t really make a difference that I can see but it’s deleted anyway.

Only open a link in a comment if you have conversed with the person and feel a high level of confidence in the person. 

We are on the internet, the vast space where everything published is there forever, once posted there’s no going back. That is why you don’t see a photo of me in my Gravatar. Any image posted can be manipulated and used in the most violating way you can imagine. I’m even more cognizant after having all of my personal information released in a data breach in January of this year. The information is on the dark web, whatever that is and I don’t want to know and it’s there waiting for people to take and try to steal my identity. It’s frightening and I have to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life.

You can find anyone’s email very easily but it takes more savvy to find all the pieces of your life to do harm, and there are many ways to harm. Don’t obsess, it will only drive you down the rabbit hole, be vigilant and ask yourself, “Do I want to publish this?” I don’t go about life worried about anything, including my identity, it’s on me to be vigilant and work with the bank and any creditor in a hypervigilant way with their tools, keep an eye on my credit report, and double-check all my charges. I set my bank and credit card to $50, any charge over that sends me an email that a purchase was made. I’m not the breadwinner so I know exactly what charges are made. My husband has his own way of protecting our information.

Don’t let others control your life and cause you great frustration and fear. You control your own life to a point, what people do with your information is on them but you have to stay on top of it. It takes very little time after you set up systems to protect you.

Don’t engage with scammers, that’s a game to them. Don’t feed it, if you do you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Breathe, and let it go. When they get no response they will leave alone unless they are a stalker. In that case, it’s the same, don’t engage, and eventually the game will end. I’ve been stalked three times and I see my role in making the situation worse. I can only say that by looking back, in the moment our emotions get the best of us. that’s what we have control over. Be smart!

This is just a heads up, take what works for you.

Melinda