Alec Saunders SquawkBox

I try lots of social networking tools.  It's the business I'm in, plus personal curiosity.  However, I have learned that not everyone has the same interest I do.  So, I try not to spam everyone I know with invites to each new social network, unless I really use those networks myself, and feel I can give them an unqualified recommendation.  Typically that means that when I sign up for a new one, I look for people I know who are already using the network, and ask to link with them. That way I can find out whether the tool will be useful to me by networking with people who are already using it.  Most social networking sites have tools which allow you to find your friends who are already using that network, and separate tools to invite any that aren't.

Sunday night I loaded my gmail address book into Spock, and found a bunch of people using it.  So I sent them all link requests.  Then Spock informed me that a bunch more people I knew might also be using Spock.  So I sent them a request as well.  My thinking was that Spock might simply not be able to determine definitively whether some other members were also people I knew based solely on my address book entries, and that it would ask these other members of Spock to confirm whether or not they knew me.  Clever trick, right!  After all, people do change their email addresses. 

But that's not what they were doing.  What they were asking me to do at the time was to invite people who weren't already using Spock to join it.  The language they used was deceptive.  They abused MY trust to grow their network.  I unwittingly sent hundreds of mails to people, asking them to sign up to Spock. Moreover, the mail message they received was a confusing message that asks the other person to "accept trust". It reads:

Alec Saunders has added you as a trusted contact on Spock. By accepting trust, you will be able to search each others’ network, share contact information, and get news.

What does accept trust mean?  Is it like accepting God?

As a result I have an inbox loaded with people replying to Spock generated emails with one liners like "?", and "what's this", and "I'm not joining any more social networks". Spock team, how about being clear and replacing the words "By accepting trust", with "By joining Spock"?.

A lot of other people must have complained that Spock was being deceptive about their invitation process as well.  I tried it again this morning, and the language has changed from informing that others might also be using Spock. This morning it now reads:

Contacts With Incomplete Search Results
Spock has incomplete search results for 993 of your address book contacts.

Please select which contacts to add to your Trust Network. An email will be sent to each selected contact notifying them of your request.

That's a little more clear.  But what it really should read is:

Contacts With Incomplete Search Results
993 of your address book contacts are not yet Spock members, and have not yet claimed their Spock identities.  

Please select which contacts to invite to use Spock and become part of your Trust Network. An email will be sent to each selected contact notifying them of your request.

The whole incident has left a bad taste in my mouth. Social networks are trust networks. Right now I feel like the organization that's running this one wants to deceive me.