PerthNorg

Got Your Shelfari Invite Yet?

What is it with some networking sites that makes them think it's alright to trick people into spamming hundreds of their contacts? 

If you're in my email address book you've probably already got my personal invite to join Shelfari.

Sorry to burst your bubble but my 'personal invite' doesn't necessarily mean that I meant to invite you. That's not to say that I don't want to check out what you're reading, it just means that Shelfari is a more than a little sneaky in the way they harvest email addresses.

I recently received a couple of invitations to sign up for Shelfari. They say on their front page, "Shelfari makes it easy to see what your friends are reading, what others with similar tastes have enjoyed, and even get and give book recommendations."

I thought I'd give it a go so I signed up and added a handful of the books I've read to my shelf.

Then came the 'Invite Your Friends' bit. I foolishly gave Shelfari my Gmail details and it gave me two lists, one above the other. The top list was those who are already using Shelfari, the bottom list was the rest of my address book ... my very extensive email address book.

As with all such 'Invite Your Friends' things it opens up with all contacts selected. I deselected most of the top list and then hit the button below that list. I didn't hit the button below my full address book because I was new to Shelfari and wanted to try it out before inviting too many people.

Seems Shelfari had other ideas. As well as those I selected in the top list, Shelfari mailed the rest of my email address book from the bottom list. D'oh!

A quick Google search shows that I'm not alone in being annoyed with Shelfari and that other users have had emails sent off to ex-lovers and people with whom they've conducted extended email flame wars. Ouch! Check out this very entertaining account written by Jesse Wegman of the New York Observer.

So far I've only had one person respond negatively and she was very understanding when I emailed back to explain the situation. I've emailed Shelfari to complain but haven't heard anything back as yet.

Even though I didn't press the button below the bottom list I still should have deselected the contacts before pressing the button from the top list. My silly fault compounded by what I consider to be a dishonest method of enlisting new users for Shelfari.

So the moral of the story is beware. Technically, Shelfari can say they've done nothing wrong and that it's just my own stupid fault, but with the many complaints I've seen around the web you can be assured that they well and truly know that this is happening and they're still doing nothing to stop it.