Bloggers Writing About Kanye/Donda West - Any Visits From 65.88.88.173 or tatiana & haley?

I'm taking a new position on possible marketing spam at ProHipHop and seeing if it can lead to some joint action to start identifying and eliminating the scum that infest our conversations.

If I'm making a mistake here, then I'm happy to work that out now while I have a few spare moments to draw on my obsessive workaholic nature [since I'm evading other responsibilities].

So I get two comments regarding the post Donda West's Raising Kanye Better Sell [Or It's All Kanye Will Rap About].  They're posted a minute apart with the same basic attitude, similar low case girl's names, same IP address.

tatiana, haley
65.88.88.173

Sure, it could be two little girls in Queens who love all things Kanye and are using the same computer.  But that's exactly what marketers using such a technique would want you to believe.

As Andrew Dubber says on page 12 of 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online:
If, for instance, you read that bands are making it big on MySpace, the first thing that should pop into your head is the question ‘who stands to gain if I think that’s true?’.

So I'm going to start treating such instances as spam but a bit differently than I have in the past.  I will ban the IP address but keep the comments and identify them as possible spam in the followup post including the IP address.

But here's where we can get together and put some of this nonsense in check.  If music bloggers, at the very least, start tracking these appearances, there's a good chance we can start exposing some of these people who are paid to post links.  Perhaps we'll then have to embarass the artists to get results but that ain't hard!

There are lots of ways that this could be organized.  For the moment, if you're interested, check your comments for "tatiana" and "haley" posting closely together from IP address 65.88.88.173, or for any comments from that IP address, and hit me up in my comments section if you find something.

If you do, please clearly identify yourself or drop me a direct line.  If you don't, go ahead and comment but anonymous posters will be deleted for this post.

Sure, this approach has many inherent limitations and if we make something happen, we also need to make those limitations clear but I think this could end up being both productive and fun if we work together.

Thoughts?  Questions?
clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com

PR?
hiphoppress(at)netweed(dot)com

Hey, tatiana and haley, if I'm wrong, hit me up!  I don't have a problem with music fans showing love.  But hit me up at my email, ya dig?