Major Ranting against Shelfari

Addendum | 29-Oct-07

Michael Boyd Clark has linked to this post of mine while writing about the shelfari.com spam on his blog. He have also listed few more posts talking about the same issue. There is a constructive argument happening on the comments section between him and Prateek Dayal

Addendum | 12-Nov-07

More on the shelfari.com spam. LibraryThing has come out with this exhaustive list of around 50 blog posts where people have frowned upon the spam. The list also links to this post of mine. LibrayThing is one of the first amongst these social networking site based upon book reading habits.

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Caution: Explicit Language follows, reader’s discretion.

NO!! We don’t bloody like the same books!

I, in fact don’t even like books, yeah! I don’t like them at all, the very utterance of the word ‘book’ freaks me out and makes me run across the room making a screeching noise, pulling my hairs and scattering them all over, the sight of a book appears as a King Kongish dinosauraseous creature ready to gulp me any moment or at best kill me by trapping and suffocating me in between those freaky pages…

Now will you show some mercy, use your useless brain (quite difficult it is I know to use something that’s useless but Try, dammit try) while fancying around the internet joining all possible network you whim to BUT for mother of your God and all her born / unborn children / grandchildren and the whole fucking family STOP spamming my mail box by sending bulk Shelfari.com invites or any other damn invite to any damning network…Phew

Am really angry. What’s with people? why can’t they spend a few seconds in actually selecting the friends you genuinely want to join a certain request and not just select all on your address book. I got the same spam “do we like the same books” from the same person on all of my mail IDs.. this is so fucking disturbing…

I got it from people I haven’t heard in, like some million years, got it from people I know absolutely hate me and would rather ask “do we both want you dead” instead of asking “do we like the same books” got it from people I know have never read a damn book themselves, got it from people I have just met once, don’t even remember how and when…and I feel like responding to them, “I don’t know, we may we may not why the hell do you ask, you don’t even know me.”

People, I am well aware of the new network mushrooming around the internet and I like to review explore and then decide to join or not join a network. I don’t fucking want your unsolicited invites. Now I don’t know if you think it’s the kindest gesture you could possibly ever show to me, or if it’s your way to express your love and care for me but Thanks but no thanks dammit.

And then there is “Are you my Yaar” Saale tere baap ki yaar lagti hun main, bol kya karega…” ‘Yaar’ the word itself skyrockets my temper, such a cheesy word.

I once got a Linked IN invite from this friend. The invite begin like this

[Start: Quoting an example]

Sanjukta,

============
(anything above this is LinkedIn’s automatically generated text)
============

[Few lines of hello here followed by the below paragraph]

I’ve tried to pick carefully, limiting this mail to people I’ve had some contact with, but I may have slipped up somewhere (it’s a *large* address book, as befits my advancing years), so sincere apologies if this is an inconvenience, and I won’t whimper as you trash this.

[End of quoting an example]

Now that’s what I call a mark of an intelligent mind. Such a personalized mail not only reflects upon your smartness and net etiquettes but also gives the invitee a message that the sender is genuinely interested in connecting to you and therefore handpicked you.

Now, if you are my friend you would know I am not too fond of reading so I’d not really be interested in joining such a network. However if you personalize the message by saying something like, “Hi, am aware you are not so fond of reading but this site is not the ususal ones, if you join you’ll benefit from it….” Then, I might just take interest. When I know all you doing is sitting on your fat ass, idling away, one-clicking your mouse to send bulk requests I absolutely abhor it. So beware! And no! I don’t regret such a rude response.

I rest my case.