" ...please where can I buy a unicorn? "
Thirteen months ago, the anonymous author of these seven words intrigued me. Could this commenter be my long-lost friend with scars on all eight of his fingers? (If anyone had reason to still remember the words on that sign it'd be him.) I re-dredged my decrepit and bleary memory of that night with the word 'unicorn' as a spotlight—still nothing. I replied with: " Ano..., I think they still sell them for a buck 3.80 on the other side of this sign. Tell ya what, I'll pick one up fer ya next tyme I'm sign time! "
This was not just flippancy on my part—this was me saying "Marco!" About a buck three eighty was a term coined by a forgotten comedian-of-yesterday. When my friends and I wanted to imply something was cheap or worthless we would say it was "worth about a buck 3.80" (it rolled off our late '80s early '90s tongues in a funny ha-ha way). Twenty years ago it was a broadly-understood inside joke (like quoting some catchy phrase from Robot Chicken today).
Almost a month later, I received this comment (which didn't contain the "Polo!" I'd been waiting for): " Hiya, I can't say thank you enough for all the advice the people here have given me over time!! Love this site! (:(:(: "
For several reasons—I'm not people (plural); I don't give advice; and...although I don't emote...aren't those scowling-sorry or worried-sad faces?—I chose not to introduce this comment to but, instead, to reply as if she were the unicorn-guy...so I wrote: " De Nada. I'm still lookin fer yer one horned horse. I'll get back to ya when I find one, kay? "
Nine months later: " In my opinion you commit an error. I suggest it to discuss. Write to me in PM, we will talk. "
Although every week of those nine months I'd moderated-deleted two or more spam-type advert comments from this post (and one other)...which is weird in-and-of itself...I wondered if the error this stumble-translating commenter was alluding to was my faux-surmise that the unicorn-guy and the scowly-girl were one in the same, so I wrote: " Which error dost youse allude to my dearest poorly-translating ay-no? I continually commit errors all the tyme (intentionally and un). And, any old evening you'd like to discuss the multitude of wayz I (errr we) fumble that there infernal ball, I'm wide open...only you'd have'ta do two things: 1 - Translate this comment of mine (and I've not made that easy for a computer program to do). 2 - Stop hiding behind the anonymous mask. Can ya do it? I doubt it. "
Within a month, twice-a-week became about two-a-day (still only on this post)—so, wrongfully concluding that it may be computerized, I embedded some spam-poison along with this sentence: " I'm unsure why, but this page seems to attract 90% spam (and 10% anon-loonies) so, I'm attempting a solution: Fight Spam! Click Here! "
Last week I received (from stumble-translator, I'm sure): " In my opinion, it is a lie. "
I (now) assume he is she, she is they, and they are all together (koo koo ka-choo)...one group of advert-planters who inject advertisements into Squire from a small village near Kuala Lumpur. To make their job easier, they put a random word or words (Like: Sign Story) into the goog, plant advertisements, and then bookmark the page where they plant...returning every so often to see if their ad-weeds are flourishing.
I suspect that they get paid a bonus when advertisements aren't deleted. I also suspect they occasionally post non-advert comments (sufficiently generic for continuous cut-paste) to determine if a moderator is deleting all comments or only advertisements.
Three days ago I wrote: " You unicorn hunters are definitely the loonies. And anonymous status guarantees that your opinion doesn't count. "
Today I had the pleasure of deleting ten of their advert-comments.
Although I'm getting tired of the persistent kudzu-planting fuckers, pissing them off has definitely brought me a measure of pleasure.
My goal is to create a metaphor that changes our reality by charming people into considering their world in a different way. It's time—for me, at least—to be clever and seduce people by entertaining them. I'll never be heard if I'm always ranting and griping. — Chuck Palahniuk
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2 comments:
I particularly enjoyed how you fired off one of your responses in colloquial misspelt English, in order to overheat their servers. You should've sent one in Nadsat, though. Maybe next time. :-)
If only we could harvest the relentlessly invasive powers of worldwide spambots for good. Cos I mean, jesus; the energy / technology / time / money that these people spend and utilise in order to promote dodgy goods and services is pretty gobsmacking.
Piglatin probably wouldn't have worked. Systematically translatable after all.
Pfft! Unicorns. A half decade ago the Isreali's bombed a Unicorn parade in Lebanon and no one friggin' cared.
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