Dealing with Google+ Spam

As with most of the world, I'm still figuring out Google+. It seems to be more like Tumblr than anything else, except you can post comments. You can manage who sees stuff, kind of like Facebook. And, also like Facebook, you get notified any time someone comments on something you comment on.

And this is where it's looking bad.

I added a comment to a public posting. It's a blogger I intermittently follow, and he has a LOT of people following him -- it's not unusual to have a half dozen or more comments tickle that little red notification after I post something. But today, I posted a comment and almost immediately got a notice that someone else commented… and I saw my first Spam comment on Google+.

No problem I'll just… Hmmm… wait a second… I can +1 his comment, but there's no -1… I can add another comment… I can… Damn it, there really isn't anything I can do. And then he hit another posting, and I had the opportunity to see his links IELTS training links again, whatever the hell IELTS training is -- I'm certainly not going to click on the link to find out.

The only thing I can do is visit his profile and report his entire profile for spam. Which means I need to see his entire profile, and all his links again -- rather like being forced to go into the drug dealer's house to call the cops. And it isn't easy to find the 'report' and 'block' links once you are there… there's a little text link way down in on the left, nowhere near where you 'add to circles.'

But, at least they give me that option, which is okay, I suppose. Except, Google then gives me this message:

We've received your report and will review it as soon as we can. Please note that we will not personally notify you of our decision. If you see the profile is still available within a few days, it's likely that we've determined it is not in violation of our policies.

It's the way of the Social Media world, I suppose… We tell them that there's a problem, but it's like tossing it to the wind. 'Maybe we'll do something, but if we do, we won't tell you. And you're going to have to live with this guy for at least a few days. Maybe longer. We really don't care if you get upset, you're just one of millions.'

It's not the fact I'm forced to see spam. It's the fact I get notified about spam -- it's another Frustrated social-media serotonin hit made worse by Google's over stating how little they care. I mean, sure, Twitter doesn't exactly send me a written letter on fine milled paper every time I block someone, but they don't bother telling me, 'we might not do anything.' And they make it really easy to block someone.

It's funny, I suppose, that a man of so many words such as myself is pissed because I didn't get a little 'Block' icon but instead I had to read the whole page to block the offender. And when I did, I got pissed that I was given an explanation rather than a simple 'Okay!'

But as much as I like clarity, I like brevity in my social media tools even more. One click, bam, he's gone. Then on to the next comment about Farmville.