The Real Meaning of Al Roth’s Spam Blog Email: Time to Leave the Bargain Bin

Michael Giberson

Al Roth, at his Market Design blog, mentions that his site had been flagged as possibly in violation of Blogger terms of service by his blog host’s anti-spam blog software.  He reports that he can still post, but until he gets a review by the Blogger folks he must prove he is probably human by responding to a Captcha challenge.

He doesn’t offer any commentary on his blog being mistaken for spam, so as a dedicated reader and a fan, let me offer my interpretation:

It is time for Roth to move Market Design out of the ‘blogspot’ wasteland and into a proper host.  Blogger is a fine place for a trial, for an experiment, but like having your consumer products show up on the shelves at the Dollar Store, it sends a particular signal.  Roth should jump to WordPress (or similar) and get his own URL (unfortunately marketdesign.com is already taken, as Roth knows, but marketdesignblog.com appears to be available).

The blog is approaching it’s first anniversary.  The experiment is proved a success.  Time to get out of the bargain bin and into a respectable commercial district.

In a nicer location, perhaps with a few tweaks in the site’s web design, the Market Design blog will do an even better job in matching readers to ideas.