I think part of the problem here is that there isn't a lot of information on exactly what you're offering the people you contact. Given that goodside referred

I think part of the problem here is that there isn't a lot of information on exactly what you're offering the people you contact. Given that goodside referred to it as spam, the default assumption is going to be ... it's spam. And indeed, asking for some "slack" isn't going to get you any sympathy on HN, nor should it honestly. However, what might help is to explain in more detail exactly what you're doing, and be open to suggestions on how to improve it, while hopefully still maintaining some marketing benefit. For example, if you contact someone with a message along the lines of, "Hi, we're _____, and we've got someone who's perfect for you. Just sign up for our service at _______ to get started!" that's definitely spam. No question about it. On the other hand, if the message is more like, "Hi, we're _____. We think one our clients, ________ would be a great match for you. You both enjoy _______, and in particular, he(she) like that you mentioned _________. Here's a link to his(her) profile. You can contact him(her) at _______." that doesn't look like spam to me at all. Effectively you're just acting as a proxy in that situation. The OKC user is indeed getting exactly what they're looking for. So I guess my point is, it all depends on the message. If you make them sign up for your service, spam. If your message is generic, spam. But if you give them information about a real person, and a way to contact them - ie exactly what they would expect to get in a message directly from another user - that seems fine from the user's perspective. Of course, OKC would likely still not appreciate your use of their service to facilitate competition. In that case, a better model might be to strictly act as the agent of your user; search OKC for them, and if you find a good match, help them create an account and message the user directly. Obviously this might require tweaking your model a bit.