Quechup a wanna be social network has ticked off a number of users by harvesting their members e-mail address lists and then e-mailing them invites to come and join the social network.
Ken Camp in two postings has absolutely lost it when it comes to talking about the group, even down to swear words, and general pointing out the TOS, and the owners of the company. While the TOS is public and the owners are public information, Ken has not controlled his own image by getting down and deep into the rant. Calling the Quechup web site “Social networking VD”.
In the mean time, Hacking Cough and Download Squad has a more in proportion but not as much take on the whole thing.
It is important to read out the Terms of service of any thing you sign up for. Hacking Cough states:
I’d link to a bunch of them but you’d get the same effect by plugging ‘Quechup’ into Google’s blog search (well maybe one, someone who seems more than a little irritated by the episode). It seems that, when people did the usual trick of plugging in their address books to the site to see who was also on the network, Quechup simply sent an invitation email to everybody in the address book. Those people using Gmail probably then found that meant everybody who they had ever exchanged emails with. Source: Hacking Cough
In all it makes for an interesting way of approaching the way to get more people to sign up for an account on a web site. Depending on how the back end coders work, it is possible to get every address out of Google or outlook, or any other e-mail system you give it access too.
We have seen this when we did the Spock Beta test, and was able to quickly take care of the damage control on our part, and sooth over friends opinions and thoughts on being randomly invited to join spock, at the time it was not a big deal. We were dealing with a beta version of spock, and have never been back since.
Quechup might have done something similar, and while the rant is funny, sometimes poor code just does things, bad if poor code is intentional, and even worst if the poor code is programmed and planned for. Quechup has some public relations work ahead of them.
Actually, you haven’t come close to seeing me lose it. But then again, I make absolutely no bones about saying precisely what I think on my personal blog where that is posted. I never have. And while I know the f-bomb screed can in fact offend some, or be laughed off by others, the flood of thank you emails I’ve been getting all day assures me that I was not out of line. If being brutally honest and direct hurst my reputation online, I’m ok with that. And whenever I’m wrong, I apologize just as loudly.
Note that none of the management team from Quechup has called me to discuss things or tell me I was wrong. That speaks volumes about a Web 2.0 social networking site.
Cheers!
Ken
Ken, believe me we are not trying to silence your voice, I am laughing it off, but have been there too, we use humor in some respects, and yes, we have opinions about unregulated user content. Quechup might be a fly by night, never ran into them, don’t know of anyone who has, that is what makes it interesting. Thanks for your note.