Several months ago I added a “Prayer Box” forum to my site. Prayer Box was a cyber-version of a tool used by people who feel overwhelmed by problems that appear to have no immediate solution.
In real life, you write down your worry or problem on a piece of paper and place it in the prayer box. The idea is that you are asking a Higher Power to remove your obsession with the problem. Then, theoretically, you go about your day with a sense of having “let go” of a problem you can’t control.
I struggle with the idea of God and am not religious at all — although I would like to be — so I intended the Prayer Box to be used by anyone, religious or not, who simply wanted support with an issue that weighed on them like an albatross.
In my forum, people could write in and describe a problem in their lives, and ask for support. I would check the forum and respond to that person. Also, if you were requesting support from others, you were asked to respond to the person in front of you in the prayer chain, to keep the good karma going.
Although a few people submitted prayers, the idea never really took off. So after months of checking the forum every day for new threads, and not finding any, I stopped checking. I kind of forgot about the forum.
Until the other day. What if someone had written in, I wondered, and had been disappointed never to receive a reply?
When I clicked on the Prayer Box tab, I saw that their had been 87 entries, most of them from someone named “MeerbDiz.” I felt AWFUL that MeerbDiz and others had cast prayers into the darkness.
Then I looked closer at the threads. And discovered they were ALL porn spam. Gross porn spam, mainly involving teenagers.
I felt sick. What if someone had come to the Prayer Box forum, only to be accosted by gross porn spam? I also felt violated. This stuff had been on my site for weeks, and I’d had no idea.
I started deleting the threads, but it took forever, and even as I deleted, new gross porn spam appeared on the thread.
So I asked my web designer to delete the entire forum.
Which is why Prayer Box no longer exists at the top of the home page. As it never really took off as a forum, I doubt it will be missed, except by the porn spammers.
Many people do contact me via my contact form, to share their experiences with crappy divorces or kids they can’t seem to manage, and I always write back. So if you’re looking for support in those areas, please use the contact form to write me. I get the e-mail immediately, and respond as quickly as possible.
Even with the Prayer Box forum gone, I am left with a sticky film-like feeling that makes me want to loofah. Who are these porn spammers? How do they choose the sites that they spam? And what sick freak would leave porn spam on a forum for people in need of prayers?
These are not rhetorical questions. When I did a google search for “psychology of porn spammers” most of what came up were youtube porn videos or articles on porn addiction. I am generally flummoxed by spammers and would love to hear spammer theories from anyone with spammer insight.
Pretty much anything that allows input will get hit with this kind of thing. I used to get tremendous amounts of porn spam comments on my blog until I added a CAPTCHA to keep the ‘bots out.
I’ve got no answers to your questions other than my stock one: It’s a big world. That’s the only way to appease the chaos, I think. Did you know there are porn sites that use photos of disabled children? Again, “it’s a big world.”
When my friend finally hit it big in the art world after a nasty divorce, her ex spammed her website with porn.
I think as Stan said, you may be trying to understand a spam-bot… Don’t take it personally!
That’s some creative revenge!
Good God — I don’t know how people come up with these things.
This reminds me of something I read months ago on tumblr about a disgusting guy who had an account there dedicated to upskirting or something like that. That guy and his crew were mainly interested in R- or X-rated images of women and girls who were UNAWARE they were being photographed, and who could NOT give consent.
A tumblr blogger noted that this is quintessential rape culture. It’s not that the guys wanted sex. A woman could willingly strip for these guys, just oooozing sensuality and CONSENT, and that would never be good enough. These guys don’t want consent. They don’t want women to GIVE them sexy-time; oh no, that involves too much body autonomy and agency. Can’t have women thinking we have a right to those things.
They want to dehumanize/objectify/”take-down-a-notch” every non-consenting woman who’s minding her own business on the subway, in the mall, in the park, on the street. Remind the world that no matter how educated or accomplished she is, at the end of the day, she’s just a body part tucked between a pair of thighs. I can’t find the original post anymore, but she ended her observation with these poignant words, “They won’t stop until we are ALL porn.”
What does this have to do with your prayer box?
These porn spammers may be robots, but I suspect the robots are dispatched by men who are infuriated that a divorced mom has the audacity to think she is fully human, an actual person, with something to say. Furthermore, other women are out there listening, engaging, responding — as if they have no better sense than to believe there’s more to their lives than parading their lady parts for some sleazy, ogling, rape culture enthusiasts.
(male gasp) The unmitigated gall!
Somebody ought to “teach them gals a lesson!”
And there you have it.
Interesting theory, Chestna — you may be right!