Reading today’s xkcd popped a thought into my brain.  The ‘alt-text’ (see below for an explanation of the jargon) on the comic referred to the glut of … “enhancement”… remedies peddled on the web.  What if, in other situations, there really were phenomenal deals out there?  Nigerian 419 scams that actually were real?  Products and inventions that could solve the world’s problems, but are drowned out by the noise and spam of herbal remedies and get-rich-quick schemes.

How do we get through the noise to uncover the gems, which usually have much less promotional power than the hordes of spam zombies and schemes, to actually make them  noticable?  Get people to treat them as relevant?

It’s a thought.

(FYI – all xkcd comics have an ‘alt-text’ that pops up when you mouse over them.  That’s what I refer to.)

Social networking’s foremost aim is to achieve a self-sustaining critical mass of people joining their platform. Only then will advertisers pay them big fat sums of money to place advertisements there, with the result that the company behind the social network will be valued in millions. In order to achieve this goal, sites use various techniques to attract users, the most common being to get hold of the email credentials of all participating users on the big e-mail hosts.

It’s hardly surprising that social networking sites blatantly access the users’ contacts – they can send invites to also join the network, but on behalf of the new member; far more effective than cold calling! Now when Sam joins a social network, and ends up giving his credentials for his Gmail account during the signup process, all of Sam’s contacts will receive an invitation with the subject line – “Sam has invited you to join …”. How cosy?

Actually no! I have come across numerous stories where people like Sam have been caused deep embarrassment, when for example such emails reach contacts that are business superiors, like Company CEOs, Managing Directors, and (worse in a business sense) Clients, who may find such invitations overly familiar, and a nuisance. Sam, whose name is emblazoned across the messages, has no option other than to accept blame and offer an apology – not a good business move. Clearly it’s not just Sam (who is guilty of the sin of omission), but the social networking site (guilty of the sin of commission) that brought the trouble down on Sam’s head. 

And it can end up far worse than mere embarrassment, like in the case of Dylan Osborn, 37, from Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire. He joined Facebook, so naturally the site sent an automatic “friend request” to everyone on his email list – including his ex-wife. She had previously taken out a court injunction, banning him from contacting her. Although the message was sent without his knowledge, Dylan spent three days in jail.

The obvious question now arises is that can people like Sam and Dylan avoid getting into this trap? Most social networking sites target users during the sign up process, when they are in unfamiliar surroundings, and a little disoriented. The sites claim (in bold letters) that they will not store a user’s email address or password; the request is presented as beneficial, because it will be used to check who amongst the user’s email contact list is already in the network. Most users consider it safe to share their information. Result – spam mails to hundreds of contacts.

Careful observation of email invitations display a number of patterns, worthy of comment (why not set up an experiment to investigate the patterns in such ‘social’ spam?). For example, I once received multiple invitations from the same person; they reappeared at regular intervals. This clearly means that, despite their promise not store users’ email passwords, that promise did not extend to the contact lists derived from them. Hence the users’ (or should that be victims’) names being used to bombard continuously their contacts’ mailboxes!

In a recent discussion with the CEO of a popular social networking site, I was shocked to hear him proudly claim that the success rate of people joining his social networking platform from such invitations was close to 4%, and that consequently their user base is growing by thousands every day. He had no plans of discontinuing this act of spamming. After all, the bigger the user base, the more money he makes out of his company.

This obviously raises the obvious observation: maybe social networks are nothing but businesses who fool members, steal their information, bring trouble, all the while presenting themselves as helping the community to communicate, entertain, and bind with each other!