As it may be obvious, the Quechup incident really got to me. Whenever I get really upset about something, I like to understand why.

First, it was the circumstances. I received an invite from someone who is reputable in social networking circles. I don’t blame her personally, but I do think her perspective that this is not a big deal is a little off. It is a big deal because before I could trust references from her, and now I can’t. Sure, we’re not close buddies in RL, but I trusted her judgment. But obviously, due to the manner in which companies feel compelled to operate, I never should have. All of us are operating electronically on borrowed networks, of which we will not always have control.
Second, I have taken the social networking thing for granted. Social networking, for lazy people, would consist of facebook, myspace, ning, friendster–whatever sites allow you to access all your contacts via a simple log-in. Why do I say lazy? Because, of course, one could socially network via blogs or wikis or whatever, and have more local control, but you don’t get access to a larger community. But let’s face it people, we’ve all been had. When companies like rapleaf and upscoop come along, and I will add to that spock, a very clear objective of these sites becomes apparent. As ZDnet notes, a lot of personal information is being traded, and the process is not transparent for users. So is social networking really about cultivating relationships online or is at all a big scam to follow my spending habits and market shit to me.

Maybe I was overreacting yesterday, but I’m thinking pretty clearly today about where I want to stand in relationship to these companies.

Post subtitle: The end of unsolicited invites

Do I now have a personal vendetta against Quechup? Yes.

The question is why?

All they did was ask to see who else from my contact list was in Quechup. So I obliged. I’ve done it with facebook and had no problem. I did it with Linked in and was pleasantly surprised. Instead Quechup does something different.

They spam your entire contact list without telling you they are doing so.

I thought that was SO CUTE, that I would post about how sad that is, that a social networking site would engage in such a practice to build their network. I even went through the steps that I had gone through a second time in order to see if I might have inadvertently check off: SURE EMAIL MY ENTIRE CONTACT LIST. I didn’t do that at all. But I suppose now my entire contact list will be invited again.

Why does it make me so irate? I don’t know. I only checked out Quechup because I was invited, no doubt through the same duplicitous practice. I am angry because I like to know who I have agreed to email. I don’t email forwards to people, I don’t mass invite people. And then this fecockt social networking site goes in and violates my principles to advance their aims. It sent emails to people’s cell phones, it sent emails to companies that I had reported errors or problems to, it sent emails to people I haven’t talked to in years. And I intend to show my gratitude as best as I can by alerting anyone I can, to avoid this site–because it is just a front for a spam operation, as far as I am concerned.

And guess what: Other people had the same problem: here, here, here, here, and here…

Ok, I have a new respect for how viral they are, and I wonder what other sneaky stuff they are up to. Gone forever is good will toward invites for me. Seriously. Keep that in mind other would-be-community-developers. New policy: I no longer accept unsolicited invites and will educate others accordingly.