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Automated Addressbook Spam
from the make-it-stop,-please dept
David Coursey is explaining why he's been spamming people in his addressbook as he tests out a variety of contact management solutions that spam everyone to make sure they update their info. He trashes Plaxo, and gives plenty of reasons to stay away from them - pointing out that they still haven't announced their business model, and he's not at all comfortable giving all his info to a company that hasn't indicated how they plan to make money. My problem with Plaxo is that there's no way out. I don't ever want to receive another Plaxo spam. I've received way too many - and almost all (no joke) are from people I don't know. Maybe I met them at a conference somewhere or I emailed with them once. I don't know. All I know is that these people are not people I know - and there's a good reason for that - and the last thing I want is to be receiving spam messages from them telling them they want my latest contact info. I understand the thought process in using this type of tool, but it's a short-sighted thought process. If someone wants to stay in touch with me, let them stay in touch with me - not some Outlook plugin they installed.
Reader Comments
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plaxo and my email filter
I'm wondering if any other email administrators are actively blocking PLAXO spam, as I am??
As soon as I heard about Plaxo and did some initial digging, I suspected this company was up to something and warned my users (hundreds internationally) not to install it or we would stop supporting their email client. This was enuf to scare most of them away from this and all other programs that alter Outlook, or otherwise try to use our email clients to further their spooky, so-super-secret-we-aint-telling-you-till-you're-hooked business models.
Drug dealers and outfits like Plaxo work on the same principal. The first taste is free! (Same principal Peapod tried on me and that didn't work out so well for them either.)
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Re: plaxo and my email filter
This tool will soon be able to filter plaxo spams llok at: www.thespamwall.com
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No Subject Given
Not everything needs to be automated.
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Re: No Subject Given
But some place to have one's contact niformation always up to date is a good thing, as long as access is controlled enough - that, of coure, requires a centralized authentication - so that you can say "Look. Here's my address, but only Bill, Chris and Sandy can see what it is." and have it stick.
It's another gadget like the fax machine - we don't *need* one, and certainly today we can get by without one, but for a small window in society, it was an absolute essential.
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Bring back planetall.com
I agree: having your contact info up-to-date and accessible to others is convenient for everyone. However, Plaxo took that idea and turned it on its head, by updating each individual address book rather than just my address in the central registry. Planetall.com, before it was bought by Amazon and disappeared (WTF?), had the low-maintenance model -- you update your address, my Outlook contacts update automagically; no snotty emails telling me subtly that your time is more important than mine.
Of course, they say that if I become a Plaxo member, I won't receive any more emails. Shades of Tony Soprano!
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Plaxo
One strategy is to reply to Plaxo requests with false information.
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Re: Plaxo
If I get a plaxo "invite" from someone I have sent a message to, is that because plaxo is working as a spam filter? That is the recipient of my message doesn't see it unless I confirm that I am a real human trying to send the message?
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Update! - David Coursey - Plaxo member
Plaxo Reconsidered:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1644423,00.asp
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