Bad Guests and Lurkers

Late last night I received a message from my web hosting service that my queue of pending guestbook entries was full and that I needed to approve or delete each entry before anyone else could try to sign my guestbook. I had forgotten that I had configured my guestbook to require review of new submissions before posting. No wonder I haven't had any new entries for so long!

THIS SPACE NOT FOR SALE

Excited, I opened the queue only to discover that most of the "entries" were actually links to web sites advertising medications, adventurous teenage girls, lonely housewives, guaranteed financial profits and the like. NOW I remember why I configured my guestbook to prevent automatic entries ....

I'm fairly annoyed right now; I feel as though someone tried to put graffiti on a work of art I created. I'm also disappointed that -- out of roughly 15 guestbook submissions -- only two were from people who were providing me feedback on the content of my site rather trying to use it as free advertising space. Why don't most of my legitimate visitors like to sign my guestbook, I wonder?

On a separate but related note, I was surprised to see the number of page views for my site jump to 82 yesterday. What in the world happened? I know I was reviewing several of my old journal entries yesterday -- did the system count each of the pages I viewed rather than log my reading session as a single visit? Or did I really have 81 separate guests, none of whom felt moved to provide me with any feedback on what they read? Who are these anonymous people lurking around my site?

I wish I had a better tool under my current web hosting package for tracking the people who visit my site. It would be interesting to see who visits my site, and why. I think I would have to double the monthly amount I'm paying my hosting service to find out, though. I'm willing to spend money to keep advertisements off my site, but I will have to think if it is worth spending even more money to satisfy my curiosity about my visitors. It would be one thing if I were trying to attract business, but this site is just a part-time hobby.

Would you like to sign the guestbook?