Lori – The writer you mentioned in response to Anne — total piece of work. Vanishing degrees (and income). Quite a trick to pull off when you're also busy screwing over your own contractors. I still wonder what happened to that one sometimes. Funny how those types of attention-seekers eventually quit or at least fade away a bit once they've been called out for their BS. Sometimes it's just a case of different styles not working for everyone, and that's okay. But when it comes down to blatant dishonesty, they get what they deserve eventually.

That's pretty insane! A lawyer, who should know better, pulling something illegal – I hope you told her in no uncertain terms you didn't care who put it up, but she's the gatekeeper and she's responsible for anything bearing her name. What a putz to think she could get away with that!

Paula, exactly. I hear so many people with the "You MUST do it MY way because I'm so smart I can't fail!" attitude. Ridiculous. Luckily, there are few of these and many more helpful people.

Jake, I suspect you're right. Those who think independently would smell the self-promotion within seconds. In one case, I did within two comments from a particular poster. There are enough people waiting to follow someone to feed those egos, but count me out.

Glad to hear there were polite ghosts and goblins at your door. I was surprised that all kids who showed up here would say things like "thank you" and "have a happy Halloween" without a parent in sight.

Anne, it's a little worse. Some are regular commenters sometimes who have their own blogs. Like I said, it doesn't happen often, but it happens. I'm inclined to ignore them, but there are newbies who may be led down the wrong path if they're smitten. I remember one a number of years ago who touted success at every turn while asking me for money via email to pay utility bills because this person was broke.

Jenn, that's true. It's prett sad when you see someone so self-absorbed that they believe every post HAS to be about them. Carly Simon's song fits, doesn't it? 🙂

I don't have a comment on the obnoxious posters (geez, I hope you're not thinking of me!), but I did run into a somewhat related situation yesterday–an attention-seeking source.

Color me stunned to stumble across a lawyer's bio yesterday in which she listed an article I wrote among her published works, adding that she'd co-authored it with me. Whah?!

I was furious. I wrote her a polite email saying that I was surprised, that she was one of five sources, not the writer, and that I'd like her to take the reference down immediately.

She responded toot sweet saying sorry, that she didn't know it was there, gosh, who in the marketing department put it there?!

Makes me wonder how many other freeloaders there are trying to promote themselves off our work.

I think you already know one of my "favorite" attention-whore types in the blogosphere. They're the ones who hear that you'll be covering something, and suddenly had the same idea (publishing before they know you will). Once in a while I like to pre-write posts for my blogs and announce on Twitter what's coming up the following day. Lo and behold, so-and-so suddenly decides to write about the same thing (repeatedly — so no chance it's a simple coincidence).

The worst is when it's a blogger who already gets a lot of attention. They're too unoriginal to come up with their own material, and they're happy to take the opportunity to make you look bad (as though you're parroting them) while they play the "I was first" game. I at least can take solace in the fact that their content usually pales in comparison — that's what happens when you rush something out just to be first instead of thinking before posting. I suppose that's just another type of Pseudo Originator.

Of course there's always the self-proclaimed martyr attention-seeker type too. You know the ones. Every other post or comment has some "woe is me" element or some attempt to validate their existence. Because, of course, everything you say must be about them. Fortunately readers usually pick up on that pathetic form of attention-seeking eventually. Unfortunately, often not fast enough.

Oh, and let's not forget the kiss-ass attention-seekers either. For them it's less about commenting to promote their links and such to your readers. It's more about getting your attention (or when reading other blogs you'll notice it's all about getting the attention of that better-known blogger). These are often the users. They want to ride others' coat tails, and in the process they tend to get in the way of actual constructive conversations. The blogger might not always mind. But it can be a big annoyance to other readers and commenters on the blog.

I so agree about that. What I really hate, though, is when I see a post of a blogger's opinion about something and a commenter saying, "Obviously you haven't read the article. If you had, you would know…" Please, no condescending tones for someone who is only stating an opinion. I won't take you seriously. Like you say, it's okay to disagree, just don't be an a*s about it.

On a related cultural note, my wife and I took note of the percentage of kids who said "thank you" upon receiving candy last night. I took solace in the parents with wee ones who coached them to say thank you — those are the kids for whom politeness will eventually be second nature when they're on their own.

Blog pimps are the most irksome to me. It's stealing the thunder from the blog or group you're commenting at without adding any meaningful contributions.

There is another sub-category. It's not quite the "I'm-the-one…" you mentioned, but close. I'm talking about the people who post under the pretext of offering helpful advice, but really do it to toot their own horns. I've seen a lot of what I'd consider fairly inexperienced freelancers trying to position themselves as all-knowing oracles of the freelance world. Most don't have the credentials or clips to back their claims.

You know the type: I'm the highest-paid writer ever; What recession? I'm turning away clients by the drove so you must be doing something wrong!; clients bow to my every demand because I'm the best. They usually follow up by directing people to their blog or to a website where they can purchase their e-books or hire the self-professed "expert" to be their writing coach.

Those overly aggressive types need to learn when and where self-promotion is appropriate before their hard sell tactics backfire and drive people away. Some smack of such desperation that I get the feeling they're actually trying to convince themselves they're successful professionals.