Flushing Away Credibility With Veiled Sincerity

SPAM graphic 1 
 

What's The Inspiring Salman Khan, Founder of The Khan Academy, Doing on a Blog Post Discussing Spam and Insincerity?

Recently, Mitch Joel published this great article, Why We Should All Respect The Internet (Just A Little Bit More) in his Six Pixels of Separation Blog.  The post highlights  Salman Khan's 2011 TED Conference presentation on the The Khan Academy

The article included the following video: 


 

Making a Difference by Leveraging the Internet's Power.  Doesn't this video make you feel good about truly making a difference in other people's lives?  Isn't the audience's standing ovation and Bill Gates' appearance at the end of the video uplifting?

Salman Khan's passion and vision to reinvent and reimagine education (e.g., "create something of social value") inspires tremendous possibilities.  What he's currently achieved took courage, passion, and blind faith because he initially financed the entire operation himself. 

All That's Good About The Internet.  The TED / Salman Khan video highlights all that's good about The Internet.  Khan's actions represent the values Mitch Joel discusses about online media in his Six Pixels of Separation book:

  • Being Helpful and Being Sincere (pages 168 – 169; a repeated theme throughout the book)
  • You Can't Fake Sincerity / Passion (pages 130 – 131; another important repeated theme)
  • Online Digital Channels are All About Transparency and Trust (a quote snippet from page 126)


What's Got Me Worked Up: This Spammer's Veiled Sincerity

Flushing Away Your Credibility (in 23 Words or Less).  The article generated and attracted a number of comments.  And then, this comment appears … 

Spam Comment

When I read this, I thought "doesn't the commenter realize the Salman Khan he's referring to is not the person in the TED video?"  I clicked on this commenter's name (the hyperlink was enabled at that time), and up pops a spammy website for some shady, loan business.  

Spam Ready for Table 5!  Apparently, the spammer did a Google search on "Salman Khan."  But, he quickly and mistakenly decided the first two results are the person in the TED video. 

Apparently, he didn't have time to click on the search results and read the extra details.   I guess that happens when you're too busy cooking spam and serving it while it's still hot!

Salman Khan Google Search 

 
Conclusion 

Justice is Served.  I checked Mitch's article a few days later and he disabled the hyperlink to this person's website — VINDICATION!  And, I'm glad Mitch published the spammer's comment to expose his real name and uninformed comment so others can witness and promote this person's credibility loss FOREVER.  If you go to Mitch's article, you'll see this commenter's inbound link is the only one disabled.   

Attention Does Not Equal Trust.  Mitch explains this concept on page 167 of Six Pixels of Separation.  This spammer did catch my attention (and for all the wrong reasons).  And, I know better now not to trust him in the future. 

More, importantly, I hope others will spread the word about this person's lack of credibility.

Am I Overreacting?    Maybe, I'm taking this too seriously.  Please tell me what you think.  I'd like to know.

 

Photo Credit: by arnold | inuyaki via Flickr