07 December, 2012

Comments disabled

It makes me sad to announce this, but I am going to have to deactivate comments entirely on this blog. This means all previous comments are now unveiwable and no new comments are going to be accepted for the foreseeable future. I have disabled non-member comments. So all previous comments will now still be visible.

Even though the blog employs Google's CAPTCHA service I recieve on average 2-3 emails every day from crappy companies based in the UAE trying to cash in using SEO techniques and thereby reduce the quality of content already on this blog. This is on top of the dozens of CVs (thanks but I don't even have a job at the moment and I have no idea where people got the impression that I was employing?) and marketing/SEO offers that I receive too.

The number of legitimate comments is practically 0 and almost no posts/comments get made here anymore.

Again, I'm sorry for having to take this stance; but I don't want to watch what was a pretty successful blog get completely destroyed by greedy companies flooding the comment section with crap solely aimed at making a quick buck.

It wouldn't take much to get the blog active again, just a few legitimate posts a day from someone with a bit of passion. Unfortunately I am not based in the UAE anymore and I do not have the time to post anymore, I believe the majority of people that used to have some interest have all moved onto twitter/facebook.


If anyone is interesting in taking the reigns of this blog I am more than happy to pass it on. You can email me with a proposal to sam@samurai-sam.com


I am not interested in handing on the blog to someone with a commercial interest in it. This blog has been run ad-free for the past 7 years and despite the time needed to moderate the site (which numerous other people have also contributed to) its nice to see something in 2012 that runs without advertisements on every nook and cranny of the website.

I would also like to take this chance to thank the numerous people who dedicated their time to this blog over the past 7 years--the people who posted, the people who commented and the people who sent death threats.
Thank you for being a part of the 4000+ posts, the 28000+ comments and the 1,700,000 visitors.
Also, thank you to secretdubai for starting this blog, and thank you to the many members/contributors. The UAE Community Blog held an important place on the internet in the UAE for at least some freedom of expression and had a profound impact on at least a few contentious issues.

5 comments:

Para Glider said...

It's a complete pain these days. Even on my Paranormal blog I'm getting spam comments every day, trying to sell hotel space. mostly. It's getting out of control.

Akif Shamim said...

i had the same problem but reason i took care of it was, i used another platform called wordpress. I'm also working for some company but what i do? i always post related and genuine comments for anyone whom i am commenting for. my point is that there are good people and there are bad people or stupid lol anyway good luck with your blog its a good one!

Unknown said...

UnJane says - Thanks for the many years of interesting posts and comments!

Another Abu Dhabi Blog said...

Ditto.

booyahben said...

Damn spammers. You're not making any additional business and you're just pissing off everyone else.
Look at Ragini Singh.

I should really start trolling these fellas. Send them spam email and fake requests for pickup etc.

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