Tag: spam

Spock Deletes Me (finally)

Back in December I wrote about my recent experiences with Spock. Full Circle Associates » Dislikeing Spock Even More (Oh jeeze, I love that I made a type on the title. I’ll have to go back and fix that.

I have not gone back to see what people wrote about me. I asked to be unsubscribed from their emails. And look what I get. Oi vey! Here is the email from Spock telling me I have been deleted. But look at the REASON! I am a VIOLATOR of their guidelines (but no specificity of what exactly)!! This is interesting because I’ve done nothing on the site. And I wonder who the “Spock users” are who “flagged” me. Sigh. This is a complicated world and we try and do interesting things (including Spock) and look what it gets us.

From: Spock Team
To: nancyw@fullcirc.com
Subject: Your user account has been removed

Hi Nancy,

Spock users have flagged and deleted your account. This could occur for a number of reasons including:

  • Impersonating another person
  • Using a fake name or identity
  • Inappropriate behavior
  • Presenting private information

For more information please visit our community guidelines.

If you believe that an error has occurred please contact us at info@corp.spock.com.

–

Unsubscribe: (link deleted)

Hm, considering I asked them in December to delete my account, I find this strange. Here is the email I sent them December 17th:

1. Please do not send me any more requests from “trusted contacts wanting to invite me to spock.” As it turns out, many of them did not understand your invite process and were embarrassed that mail was sent on their behalf. Your invite process leads a person to believe that if they found a friend in search, that meant they were members. In fact it only means you have indexed them.

2. Please delete my account – you seemed to have created one and sent me a password despite the fact that I did not request one. I do not want an account. I do not want to appear as if I am a member.

3. No, I do not want to log in to change my email settings because I do not want an account. Please, allow me to opt out without having to join your service.

Thank you

Uh, I continued to get requests from “trusted associates. I never heard from Spock. Here is my latest response to them:
To: info@corp.spock.com
Subject: Fwd: Your user account has been removed

Dear Spockites

1. I asked for my account to be removed in an email to you on Dec 17th, 2007. Happy to forward it to you if you lost your copy.
2. I have not been on the site since then, so whomever is violating your community guidelines, it is not me. I’d appreciate it if you would look into your system that sends emails to people who don’t use your system accusing them of misusing your system. I know you are working out the bugs.

Good luck

Nancy

Will that be the end of it? I hope so.

Dislikeing Spock Even More

Today I sent feedback to Spock.com to advise them that I did not want any more of their spam and I did NOT want to have to register to opt out of the spam. I have begun forwarding the “trusted connection requests” from my friends and colleagues back to my colleagues asking if they really did want to send all this spam to me (having made this mistake in October with Shelfari, heavens help me.) So far, two of them said they were simply experimenting with the system, having received so many invitations themselves. One felt compelled to join to correct erroneous information on the system. Now THERE is an interesting marketing ploy. You have to join or we will make you look bad! The other responses have been that they joined because someone they trusted invited them. The question is, did the trusted person really know what was going to happen with the system?

I have created a rule in my email box to send anything from Spock to the spam file, but something in the Spock emails seems to evade the filter (I haven’t figured that out yet.)

Now I have started getting Spock alerts. Here is an example:

From: Spock Team <donotreply@spock.com>
To: XXXX
Subject: Spock Alerts

Below is a list of updates to your Spock search result.

Go to your contributions page to see these updates.

—Jim Benson added 1 tag to you.

—Jack Vinson added 4 tags to you.
–

Want to change the types of emails you receive from Spock? Click here to change your settings: http://www.spock.com/do/settings/email

If you go to the contributions page, guess what you get? A sign in. Yet another way to try and get you to join. So now not only do I get the awful “trusted associates” bacn, now I’m getting alerts.

I am sending mail to my host today submitting a complaint for spam. Spock, did you know you may be violating Washington State spam laws? The way you manipulate your users into sending email to their trusted contacts may not violate the law, but I believe the update email does. I am making the assumption that there is a commercial model behind your service, thus making it a commercial transaction.

More importantly, you are violating our good will and trust. That will sink you.

Bottom line: Spock is using similar tactics Shelfari used and which the blogosphere condemmed. Shelfari adjusted their process. Will Spock? Spock tries to convince registrants to allow Spock to send email on their behalf by making the impression that other people, SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ARE IN SPOCK’S database scraped from other sites on the web, have opted in to the service and thus should be logical connections on the service. Then it starts spamming. I should not have to opt out of Spock’s system. I should not be subjected to their bacn. Spock, don’t opt me in. Offer me the opportunity but assume until I say yes that I don’t want your bacn. Put an opt out form on your site ASAP.

Update Monday Afternoon:

A few more things come to light about Spock.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/news/2007/08/spock_reputation

http://stupidspam.blogspot.com/2007/12/spockcom-another-creepy-social-network.html

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/law-legal/criminal-law/LAW_CLW/137733-8687328

This is not a new problem… http://www.joeszilagyi.com/2007/09/19/spockcom-spam/

http://www.5thwind.com/?p=70

And one with a great visual http://www.itgumbo.com/mumbogumbo/2007/08/spock_shocks_but_fails_to_rock.php