[2004-08-23 Update: Jas Dhillon's comments of 22 August, and my clarification are presented in a new entry.]
[2004-08-21 Update: recent flapdoodle over Multiply has led to a lot of new hits on this story -- see Slicing Social Spam Both Ways. I don't believe that email invitations to join social software is "spam", in the sense that it is generally used, a point I did not make clear in this piece, although I did use it in scare quotes.]
Yesterday, I hoped to review the new Outlook plug-in from Zero Degrees. But what happened is a bit more than I expected.
First, the tool supports finding uncaptured email addresses in messages -- which sounds like a helpful feature. I ran that, and discovered a few hundred email addresses that could be helpful to save, although a lot of them were various 'support' and 'info' addresses from emails directed to me from online services and product companies. Wading through them to decide which ones to keep permanently is a chore that I was not ready to face.
But I thought it would be good to upload my contacts to Zero Degrees' server -- as a backup, before proceeding with other contact housekeeping. However, Zero Degrees -- apparently in response to customer requests to simplify the use of the tool -- has made uploading and inviting all contacts as single step process! As a result, my one mouse click led to hundreds (maybe 1000+) people getting invited to join my Zero Degrees network.
If you are one of the many that I have 'socially spammed' -- apologies. Be warned if you are signing up that the Outlook plug-in has potentially unexpected consequences for users.
It is interesting to see how many positive responses this has led to, however. At least 30 people have signed up to Zero Degrees as a result of the invitations, so far. I have received dozens of rejection emails, as well, associated with out of date email addresses -- which Zero Degrees does not manage in any way. I also have several 'please remove me from your mailing list' requests, and several folks have deflected the invite with a counter invitation to LinkedIn or Spoke.
The Zero Degrees service has many attractive features -- which I will review at a later date, once the dust has settled on this little contretemps -- and has attracted a lot of positive comments from those who have signed up. But the company will have to reinstitute the multi-step, checks-and-balance approach for the Outlook plug-in: in the meantime, don't click the button to upload all your contacts!
[Note: I see Ross Mayfield is warning folks over at Many2Many.]
[Note: I see Chris Allen got burned, too.]
1. Jason Hardebeck on April 15, 2004 11:18 AM writes...
Yes, I've fallen prey to the Zerodegrees virus as well. I've spent the entire morning explaining what has happened to a few dozen of my friends. What's even more troubling is that I've spammed contacts who I would NEVER send a mass email to; people at the top of the food chain who would never participate in this kind of thing. Now, I've put my social capital into play with virutally everyone I know, and very little good can come of it. If my contacts (who trust me and my judgement) make the same mistake I did, I will be to blame.
ZeroDegrees needs to send out a mass email to every person who has received an invitation and explain the situation. Not only is this a fatal flaw in their business model (which I do not believe they will ever recover from), but it illustrates a fundamental misconception among a number of the advocates of these emerging collaborative technologies; social networks don't grow virally; discovery, trust, and interaction happen over time. Attempts to artificially accelerate that process can easily lead to unintended consequences, even if at first glance good things are possible. If we don't understand and respect these laws of nature, bad things can happen. The analogy of steroid use comes to mind...
Permalink to Comment2. Marc Canter on April 15, 2004 12:03 PM writes...
Hay!
I got spammed by both you and Chris.
:-)
Permalink to Comment3. Zack Lynch on April 15, 2004 12:54 PM writes...
I got spammed by you too...too funny...let us know how many joined the network...that would be interesting.
Permalink to Comment4. Darrell O'Donnell on April 15, 2004 09:03 PM writes...
Stowe - I got spammed by you - but I didn't realize that until I had spammed a ton myself - I am not sure if I just didn't read the message well enough, but it surprised the heck out of me.
Permalink to Comment5. Don Park on April 16, 2004 03:49 AM writes...
No problem Stowe. I am still tired from the Orkut experience anyway.
Permalink to Comment6. Zbigniew Lukasiak on April 16, 2004 04:51 AM writes...
And I thought I was really invited by you. Unfortunately they are a bit picky about their customers and don't support anything beside IE.
Permalink to Comment7. Torben on April 18, 2004 01:59 PM writes...
Apologies to my entire address book,for spamming them, bad news this product. The wording made promises it didn't keep. I would seriously question this tools maturity.
Permalink to Comment8. Menoo Cung on April 22, 2004 06:01 PM writes...
I have to add I was a victim too. Hope they will change their application. Although the outlook plug-in was an easy and convenient tool for uploading addresses to their server, I was horrified to find out that I had unknowingly spammed everybody in my address book in the process! There needs to be some privacy guidelines set, or at least some warnings on what these tools will do. The plus side was I heard back from a lot of people in my addressbook that I hadn't been in touch with for a while.
Permalink to Comment9. Jas Dhillon on August 22, 2004 03:24 PM writes...
I just reviewed these blog entries on ZeroDegrees and wanted to set the record straight - also see STOWE BOYD'S CORRECTION TO HIS ORIGINAL BLOG.
ZeroDegrees never on its own initiative emails out invitations to any member’s contacts - EVER. Only the member who owns the contacts can invite them to join ZeroDegrees and connect with them. The only way that ZeroDegrees could have sent out the invitations is if you actually clicked on the “Email Invitations” button – this is the last step of the invitation process. We also provide all new members who have uploaded their contacts to ZeroDegrees multiple options to "OPT-OUT or CANCEL" uploading and inviting their contacts at every step of the contact upload/invite process. Even at the last step in the contact upload/invite process you have the option to cancel by clicking on the (“NOT NOW”) button.
Our messaging is very clear and unambiguous about what happens at each step of the process. Members can always "OPT-OUT" of the process at any time.
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