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I wonder how long before people get 'viral' exhaustion from this crap. I suppose it would not be inappropriate to extend the analogy to suggest people are going

by sunir 15y ago

I wonder how long before people get 'viral' exhaustion from this crap. I suppose it would not be inappropriate to extend the analogy to suggest people are going to become immune to 'viral' apps. Is there anyone out there that has built an app that grows primarily through (ab)use of social network virality like Honestly? Are you seeing any interesting behavioural changes over time as the population gets tired (or conversely, accepting) of this model?

pstack 15y ago
It apparently won't ever happen. I'm surprised the author of the article took it so seriously. I've gotten spam like this for years and it just goes directly into /dev/null when I see something like "so and so sent you a..." or "so and so left a comment about you at...". If I saw that Honestly spam, it would have only held my attention long enough to delete it. That we're still putting so much attention into an email like that all these years later suggests that we're never really going to learn or become fatigued. We'll just accept it as "part of life".
jessedhillon 15y ago
I think Plaxo is probably the poster child for this strategy of growth through shameless spam.
- sunir 15y ago
  How successful is Plaxo, really? http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plaxo.com/ http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plaxo.com/ I think they had their greatest moment when Joseph Smarr negotiated the OpenID+OAuth hybrid protocol with Google. Google subsequently poached him. They don't seem to have any other aces up their sleeves to survive.
  - gyardley 15y ago
    Didn't Plaxo already get bought by Comcast for +$100MM, or am I thinking of some other company? There's 'make the world a better place' successful, there's 'make something people want' successful, but there's also 'make some cash for yourself and your investors' successful. Sometimes invite spam can get you that last type of successful, which is why we'll keep seeing it.
  - lurker19 15y ago
    Plaxo is a software tool suite, not a media website, so Site Analytics does not say much interesting about their business.
- lurker19 15y ago
  To be fair, Plaxo's core value proposition is in address book management, so it is in each user's interest to convince their contacts to join. That said, I do have dim memories of Plaxo spam from around 2005, which postponed my Plaxo registration until 2007ish when I found they have the best (only?) Mac AddressBook integration, in the stone age before Google/Gmail took overrun the world.
jonkelly 15y ago
IIRC Tagged got big that way and BranchOut seems to going down a similar path.
- ameasure 15y ago
  IMO BranchOut is even worse, their page now features a very clever and very evil "spam your friends" feature in disguise. The worst thing is this kind of crap is very effective. Look at Zynga, they've built a billion dollar company out of it.
  - jonkelly 15y ago
    Yep. What's sad is that because of BranchOut's pedigree, they'll probably get the Zynga treatment. Make enough money for Silicon Valley VCs, through a few pennies at local charities and, like magic, your sins are erased and you've got the TechCrunch CEO of the year.

by sunir 15y ago

pstack 15y ago

It apparently won't ever happen. I'm surprised the author of the article took it so seriously. I've gotten spam like this for years and it just goes directly into /dev/null when I see something like "so and so sent you a..." or "so and so left a comment about you at...". If I saw that Honestly spam, it would have only held my attention long enough to delete it. That we're still putting so much attention into an email like that all these years later suggests that we're never really going to learn or become fatigued. We'll just accept it as "part of life".

jessedhillon 15y ago

I think Plaxo is probably the poster child for this strategy of growth through shameless spam.

sunir 15y ago
How successful is Plaxo, really? http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plaxo.com/ http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plaxo.com/ I think they had their greatest moment when Joseph Smarr negotiated the OpenID+OAuth hybrid protocol with Google. Google subsequently poached him. They don't seem to have any other aces up their sleeves to survive.
- gyardley 15y ago
  Didn't Plaxo already get bought by Comcast for +$100MM, or am I thinking of some other company? There's 'make the world a better place' successful, there's 'make something people want' successful, but there's also 'make some cash for yourself and your investors' successful. Sometimes invite spam can get you that last type of successful, which is why we'll keep seeing it.
- lurker19 15y ago
  Plaxo is a software tool suite, not a media website, so Site Analytics does not say much interesting about their business.
lurker19 15y ago
To be fair, Plaxo's core value proposition is in address book management, so it is in each user's interest to convince their contacts to join. That said, I do have dim memories of Plaxo spam from around 2005, which postponed my Plaxo registration until 2007ish when I found they have the best (only?) Mac AddressBook integration, in the stone age before Google/Gmail took overrun the world.

jonkelly 15y ago

IIRC Tagged got big that way and BranchOut seems to going down a similar path.

ameasure 15y ago
IMO BranchOut is even worse, their page now features a very clever and very evil "spam your friends" feature in disguise. The worst thing is this kind of crap is very effective. Look at Zynga, they've built a billion dollar company out of it.
- jonkelly 15y ago
  Yep. What's sad is that because of BranchOut's pedigree, they'll probably get the Zynga treatment. Make enough money for Silicon Valley VCs, through a few pennies at local charities and, like magic, your sins are erased and you've got the TechCrunch CEO of the year.