Mr. Linky is being ABUSED

(Thursday Thirteen post below this one)

Why are some of you leaving your link on the convenient Mr. Linky yet not leaving a comment?

Just because you are participating in Thursday Thirteen, Wordless Wednesday, the Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt or even my own tiny Green Thumb Sunday it doesn’t mean that you can link and run.

It’s RUDE.

I don’t go to your sites and leave only a link. I take the time to read your posts or view your photos and I leave a comment. On the very rare occasion when I can’t think of something to say about the post or photo – I don’t leave a link. Get it – No comment, No link.

I paid for a subscription to Mr. Linky. Yes there is a free version, but I like the convenience that the subscription affords me. However, I find that every time I use Mr. Linky on any of three of my blogs it gets abused. Either by link and run Meme participants or even worse, by people who’s websites were created with the purpose of selling items ie ad sites.

I just removed 5 links from Thursday Thirteen participants that didn’t bother to leave a comment. In the past I’ve usually left the links on if the person is a participant of whatever the current Meme in use is, but not anymore. Some of you never leave comments, only a link.

So here’s MY rules:

1. If you are a frequent commenter here, go ahead and leave a link. I don’t mind as I know you’ll leave a comment too. You’ve earned the right to a free link, even if you aren’t a Meme participant.

2. If you are participating in the current Meme please only link if you’ve left a comment. Otherwise I might delete your link. Whether it stays or goes is at my digression.

3. If you are trying to promote your site, and you don’t regularly leave comments and you are not participating in the Meme. Don’t bother linking. I will remove your link. Anyway, leaving a link doesn’t really promote your site, one of the best ways to get people to visit your site is to leave comments on the sites that you actually like and that you feel that you can contribute to by posting comments. I tend to visit sites that leave comments and sometimes I make return visits, heck, sometimes I like the site so much that it earns a spot on my blogroll.

4. If you are an Ad site, sales site and you are going around leaving links on all the peoples sites that have Mr. Linky you will end up getting yourself banned by Mr. Linky himself. I delete all the ad site links, and if the owner is abusive enough I report them to Mr. Linky, and he will or won’t ban them at his own digression depending upon how many other complaints he’s received (I think that’s how it works).

So there you have it. Leave Mr. Linky alone. He’s tired of the abuse.