Thanks for your update. I think my current post of January 15th is probably more relevant than this one at the moment. (http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/2008/01/16/spock-deletes-me-finally/)

I’d like to respond to your three points, simply from a “users” perspective (if someone who does not want to use a service can be called a user)

1. If you have read the various critiques of Spock around the time of this post, the things that made many of us dislike it were subtle. Yes, you give people the chance to view “which of their friends are on Spock,” but what was not clear at the time (I have not gone back to see if there were changes) what “on Spock” meant. A person could have been listed on Spock because your scraped their data. Not because they joined Spock. So you see this list of names. If you equate it with FaceBook, if it says someone is already on Facebook it is because they registered and joined. Not because their name was input by a machine or the owners of Facebook. That is a significant difference. So my perception as a user, and as a person who got tons of Spock trusted connection email it was NOT like a LinkedIn invitation. Further more, many of the people who sent invites I did not know. How could they be trusted? By whom? (See Jim Benson’s analysis of Spock)

2. It is good to know about the unsub button. I’m sure many people will appreciate it. If you read my latest post on Spock you will see I don’t have to worry because apparently I was deleted from Spock for violating your terms of use. Which is very interesting since I have not been on the site since mid December and have not “used” the site except to find a way to get out of it. I wondered how I can violate with no action. I requested that my account be deleted in December and never heard back. Funny, eh?

3. Finally, updates. Why should I have to register to opt out of your service? That IS spam. Opt in would be a better solution than having to go and opt out. Just good practice from my perspective.

I appreciate that you are trying to do something that you feel the market wants. I think we all are seeking ways to understand our online identities. But it will be fraught with problems. I guess I’d just say, if someone wants out, it should be easier.

Thanks again for your comment.

Nancy

1) Please note that what you were receiving was a user controlled invitation to join Spock. What this means is that a Spock user used our Address Book Import option. This allows a user to view which of their friends are on Spock, as well as view a list of contacts that are not on Spock. From there the user must pick and choose whichever contacts he or she would like to invite to Spock. Given that a user must select your contact, I fail to see how this is any different from a LinkedIn invitation, evite, or e-mail, and how this would classify as Spam.

2) Our unsubscribe button was implemented so that people could easily eliminate themselves from future invitations to Spock. Because our invitations are based on contacts that have your e-mail, this is an option that I would think you would prefer to have.

3) Updates are created so that you know when anything is added to your search result. This ensures that a person can correct any erroneous information the minute it happens. Please note that you have the option to not receive e-mails by altering your e-mail settings.

Feel free to contact me at patrick@corp.spock.com if you have any further questions.