Interesting how unquestioning the responses are that this isn’t engagement bait

In my experience it’s we know that they know that we know that they know …..

there is no shame in just doing the building software bit. but it does sound like you've built it up to be more than it is

AI bots are designed to pray and spray, essentially. Customizing the message doesn't change the fact. They're not designed to scan a job spec or article, look for a secret keyword and insert it into the subject line. They could do that, of course, but they don't. Not in March 2026, at least.

If the author wanted to only receive emails from real people, I would bet a lot of money that this trick would be very effective. Whether those real humans are also on the scam is a different question, but they would be humans who had taken the time to read the blog, that's for sure. which, based on the evidence presented, are not the problem.

So yeah, I don't really care if you ignore me or believe me or not, but if anyone is suffering from a similar problem, a simple request to insert a secret into the subject is very effective at proving you are human. I'd recommend giving it a try.

anyway, got to go read a book!

AI is so good these days I am using the laptop for quick changes more often, as I just push every change. I rarely need to fiddle. The general experience of using my desktop and laptop are converging.

Whether there's a thousand spam or a million spam is not at all relevant.

Based on the example emails he posts, the AI bot is NOT scraping his website to individualise the messaging. It isa bulk approach based on ai summaries of the actual books

These scams are a variation of the Nigerian prince scam; they rely on volume mostly

This isn't a new phenomena in the author world, it's been plagued by 'you have won 1st prize in a poetry competition' for decades.

a lot of people , including myself, are using AI as an excuse to push thru awkward changes

I've no idea what the storage is on either of them, I've never looked. The days of needing storage are behind me, personally

I did briefly see a psychiatrist and took amphetamines under his care, but ultimately decided that I didn't want the hassle of medical supervision, so preferred non-medical treatments.

But the experience made clear to me that meds do have a role. I suppose I use coffee as a mild stimulant. Although it's so mild, I'd never really think of it in that way.