It simply said “i would like to know how to broadcast to all the blogs on the internet” and “thank you”.

That would be blog spam, and nobody likes spam. To do it you would need software known as a spambot, and you would need a good one because blog hosts such as WordPress all use software which combats spam. So really, what you want to do would be impossible. The web isn’t a broadcast medium like radio or TV.

Blog owners, such as myself, use settings which control who can post to their blog. Your post was automatically held for moderation because it was the first time you have posted here. I am not going to approve it, in case you are a spammer trying to get past my settings.

I chose not to flag your post as spam, however, because I searched your name and I realise that you may be reaching out from a penitentiary somewhere. (I found it on a web site that requests penpals for inmates.)

Marvin this is not the way to do it. It takes time to develop a genuine presence on the web, to develop skills in searching and communicating, to find where you belong, and for the right audience to find you.

If any of you have been posting like this to lots of blogs, and if the blog owners have flagged your posts as spam, then all future posts you make might go straight into the spam. That could affect future posts from anyone where you are. If it looks like this is happening, let your IT administrators know and they may be able to change the IP address that your internet connection has.

I haven’t blocked you Marvin, so ask me something again if you need to. Below this comment would be the best place.

Also, we just posted some more Vusi on YouTube this week. He played at the launch of the NextEinstein project in South Africa, as part of the TED Prize. You can find it on the TED Prize blog: http://www.tedprize.org/?p=144

I had no idea it was an experiment - that should have been right at the top, first thing. I’m not a big fan of Jakob Nielsen, but his “inverted pyramids in cyberspace” principle is essential reading for anyone writing for the web. Next should have been the bit about it being OK to refuse. I am so used to EULAs, where if you click disagree you don’t get to use your software. It seemed like another one of those forced agreements (which nobody reads, except Fred Von Lohmann - he said that). That full privacy statement had to be there, no doubt, but a summary at the top contextualising it should have been there too. Otherwise, you can’t really call it informed consent.

But above all, did it have to be so intrusive? I don’t care if you know what I read. If that dialog hadn’t flashed in front of me every minute, I wouldn’t have blogged about it. I’m glad I did though. I’m impressed that you found my post and took the trouble to reply.

[guiltily goes on over to M-h's blog...]

And further to another blog of yours about viral marketing, I have have been *soo* irritated by the viral marketing ‘fun’ things circulating on Facebook, which I can’t participate in because I don’t want them to access my information. I am definitely committed to resisting full immersion in the marketing culture of the noughties.