Thanks -

You are on my top Entrecard droppers list.

Isn’t this ironic. I just spent several minutes praising you on the basis of the appeal to personal loyalty and warmth in business, and I believe I have discovered that this site uses Akismet, the one spam filter under investigation by the ACLU for excluding persons and groups not based on spam content, but on the basis of ethnicity, religious affiliation, political affiliation, business ownership status (women owned) and other protected criteria.

There is a great article regarding Akismet and its violation of the first principles of business at:

http://www.lindachristas.org/education/akismet-spam-filter-for-wordpress-the-banning-of-the-innocent-commenter/

As you may have guessed, I have been banned by Akismet, along with my Grandmother.

To my knowledge, I have never left a spam message anywhere at any time, but one day I awoke to discover that Akismet had decided my voice was no longer wanted or necessary in the WordPress community.

I just find it really odd, Sheila, that an article like this, which stresses the importance of the personal bond, would use the only spam filter I am aware of that reduces business by trashing new visitors sight unseen.

In many instances Akismet will white page a new visitor. That means that the comment written will never be seen by the blog owner because Akismet simply blocks it completely.

In contacting Akismet about the universal block they’ve placed on my and my Grandmother’s information, the only response Alex Shiel has ever given me is, “We are just doing what our users want.”

Well, white sheets worked very well in the South for a long time. Anonymity is a wonderful thing if, in this instance, it weren’t so illegal in America.

I hope you will save my original comment praising this article which is in your spam folder.

If you do save the comment, could you let me know. OR if I am wrong that Akismet is at work here, could you let me know that as well. I am very paranoid.

That way I can feel comfortable returning here without fear that my voice will be thrown in the garbage without you having a chance to make up your own mind about whether what I’ve said is spam or not.

I’ve removed the url here so hopefully Akismet won’t detect that I am attempt to sneak a message through to you.

Warm Regards,

Leone

Of course, to that one must add a service or product worth the asking price, and one must also have something unique about what one is doing.

However, if one can just establish that bond with an individual, one’s service or product, if the individual is in the market at all for it, will be sold on the basis of personal loyalty and warmth.

I agree 100%.

Warm regards,

Leone