Social Media Is Not Without Faults
Written by: Don Miller
Posted on February 23, 2008
Filed Under Starting your Online Business
This week I read a post about lessons learned about communities and social media. It was typical of the quality I see on that site.. I commented about the way the author handled the situation which I thought was admirable. The Stumble community had thumbs downed her site on a review. Apparently they were not terribly enthused with my site and domain either. This is the story of how it happened and hopefully helps you. The author of the article is Wendy from e-Moms. I got to learn my own lesson. Folks I love social media and what it can do for anyones site, but it does have some downside.
I began researching why my Stumble Traffic has suffered such a drastic decline. I spoke with friends and researched blogs for information I know to be knowledgeable on the subject. My Group Writing Project results post was Stumbled 25 times with reviews and still no traffic. Then I noticed my site reviews were gone, vanished into thin air. I check where my traffic comes from most nights while I am alone with my thoughts and plans for the next day. Then I had an awakening, I noticed several visits from a group on Stumble labeled spam something or another. The actual name doesn’t matter; the point is my site was on some sort of list as a spam site. My blood pressure suddenly rose to un-healthy levels. My ears flushed with warm blood as they often do in times of stress. I read about my site and wondered a loud. How in the heck does someone think my site is a spam site or refer me to me as a spammer? Ok, I didn’t use the word heck, so fill into the blank. I took a deep breath, decided it was best to walk the dog. Left to my own devices I would have reacted in a not so positive manner.
Things I thought about doing
- Launch a full scale verbal attack on the accusers.
- Create a sign off post and change my domain and start over
- Do nothing, and stay the course
What I did about it
I tried very hard to do nothing and stay the course, but that didn’t happen. I contacted the person responsible for the comment on Stumble, he may or may not have been the first, but he is the person I chose. I think we traded 10 or 15 e-mails and messages. I asked him why I had been singled out. It seems he wanted to run my site by a couple of people to check out. Hmm, how about checking with site owner first next time, deal? He then replied with a post to the group that said, I promised not to spam and I was a good guy. Uh, excuse I did not promise not to spam, because I never have. Not quite the solution I was looking for. ….so I continued the conversation, he replied , “I can have it removed if its ok I will add a good remark till its gone I just sent a message to the person that will take it off.” And in a few minutes it was gone and this message followed, I am sorry I am trying to have it removed as fast as I can, Its nice to meet you Don I am glad you are here I get caught up with this some times and I do make mistakes.
The young man ended up leaving me a positive review on my site and I am grateful. My previous reviews are gone and I suppose one day I will get a few back. People I am not a spammer , nor have I ever been. I despise spam and spammers and frequently write about that.
I love Stumble even though they don’t love me right now. Think before you act. There is an alternative to a thumbs down. It’s called a mouse that you can point and click elsewhere. We are not going to stop spam. There is no social media group that will stop spam, but we all need to be more careful before lashing out and labeling someone or someone’s site as spam.
I still have my fans and friends and I will recover, but it sure doesn’t feel good as you are walking through it. For future reference I Stumble sites and articles that I like. I will continue to that. I will continue to post about the home based business topics and related products that I have purchased and reviewed myself.
My new found Stumble friend wrote me one last message, “I am going to leave the spam group for a little wile and have fun I hope your traffic comes back Don have a good rest of the day”.
Case Closed
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Tags:bloggin, business, social media, spammers
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12 Responses to “Social Media Is Not Without Faults”
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Social Media Is Not Without Faults…
I suppose it was bound to happen , but my site=was labeled a spam site , give me a effing break, oops, Oh well It s how I feel. Want to get under my skin quickly? Attack my integrity, and you’ll get to see a whole new side of the usually mild mannered…
The world is full of idiots, and social media is no different. In fact, social media has more than its fair share. A bunch of powerless losers suffering from a Napoleonic complex who are so disgusted with their own lives that they have to take it out on anyone happier or more successful than they, which is just about everybody. That’s why they prefer the virtual world over the real one.
I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.
Wow, everybody’s nightmare Don. Do you mean that if some person gives a thumbs down you’re suddenly branded a spammer? If so that means we’re at the mercy of power crazy surfers.
I don’t know how deep rooted it goes, I only spoke to one individual, after visiting the site he reconsidered his position, my domain name doesn’t lend itself to people who dislike the make money online crowd, which I am not, I do know that at one point my Stumble traffic was outnumbered by the Stumblers of the post, I’m not smart enough to know all the ins and outs of that, I just write , publish it, and wherever it goes form there is up to the readers. The gentleman posted a nice review of my site after it was said and done. Mistakes are made and he admitted to that, I made a few today too, Staying the Course
Gosh, this is dangerous.
That’s scary, Don. Personally, I never bother giving a Thumbs Down to any site, I just move on.
Way to go, Don. You hung in there. I’m beginning to think SU and Digg and the like are not the way to go. What IS the way to go, I don’t know. I’ve read similar horror stories about Digg.
I don’t know about Stumble, but sk*rt gets hit up a great deal by spammers. In fact, they’ve asked us to hit the “Lose It” button when we see it. At sk*rt, it’s pretty obvious since it’s a women’s social bookmarking site whose audience isn’t interested in Viagra or 4 very similar posts on online gaming.
I haven’t had this happen to me yet, but odds are it will happen to all of us at one time or another.
Don, I think what you did was wise and admirable. I’m not sure I would have held my typing until I cooled off. I tend to be a bit of a hot-head.
Negative publicity can be just as good if not better than positive publicity, but being labeled a spammer is an almost unrecoverable problem unless you can find who labeled you and discuss it with them.
I was banned from Digg last summer after bookmarking my blogs incorrectly. I was new to social media and didn’t know what I was doing. I haven’t been able to get a hold of anyone there to find out if they will unlock my account. I’ve emailed support multiple times only to be ignored. If anyone knows anyone at Digg who might listen to me (I made mistakes, I was an idiot, I admit that wholeheartedly), I would appreciate contact information so I can go back onto Digg. I haven’t skirted the issue and created a new ID because I want to resolve this, but maybe that’s just not how it’s done?
Admirable action, Don, and great post!
Sherri
I posted this to my SU blog yesterday morning as a review of this article. Decided to post it here as well.
Keep in mind it was directed to users of Stumble.
———-
Again, I found this article, not because it was spammed or otherwise promoted to me by the owner or anything of that nature. In fact, I am only the third person who has thumbed it up. But the way I found it is interesting so I’ll recap.
Yesterday morning I awoke to a deluge of PM’s. All hell had seemingly broken loose. A couple were from my dear friend who wanted me to retract some statements he’d made to the Sp@m-Free Group. After reading this article I see what happened.
This morning I awaken to thankfully only one PM from a really nice guy, who on Stumble is Cidory. He was thanking me, thinking I was the one who had finally removed the damaging post. [I wasn't.] BUT, the larger point is that because he was humble and kind, I was curious to see what kind of outfit he was runnin over here at Making Sales Making Money. This article is what I found.
Yes, social media has its faults. It seems that careless accidents hurt real live people. It’s something to always consider. Yes, we’re viewing a website and no, we may not like it, but as it relates to anti-sp@m…is it really spam? I *am* proud of my friend for realizing his accident and trying to correct it even if the damage is longer lasting than an “I’m sorry.” This should teach us something.
I also appreciate how Cidory had enough integrity to not name the group or the person responsible. This is one fine example of not fighting fire with fire…but fighting fire with water.
—————
Some of the reviews on SU of this site claimed my friend was acting as an SU vigilante. This is not the case.
My friend was acting with mistaken zealousness. He is rather new to SU and in trying to fight the spam problem, he is confused over SEO, Marketing, and how it all relates to spam.
On SU we have tools at our disposal and yes, some people *can* travel en masse and hurt someone who is innocent. One person who thumbed me down for example…I would hardly characterize her as a vigilante. [After 4 yrs on SU to get my first negative review by a person who simply did not know the mechanics of SU and, I have deduced, hit the wrong button.]
The good news is that equally there are good people who will fight for the integrity of the person who’s been accidentally labelled #1.
#2, SU Power will never delete an account simply based on others opinions, flags or say so.
#3, Welcome to web 2.0. Add a platform and a little anonymity to a bunch of people with opinions [*or* crazy, or hostile or angry people] and ta da.
In my experience and opinion, the best way to outlive negative press from “Web 2.0″ [SU, Digg, MySpace, whatever] is to continue on in integrity and, if it makes sense, try to find an equally powerful advocate who will stand up for your integrity, giving *it* the voice it deserves in a sea of otherwise hostile misunderstanding.
Don, what I mean to say…is you handled this just plain swimmingly. I could not have handled it better myself. …and for the record, I think our friend has really learned a lot from this. At least for now. :p
Don,
You ought to be commended for the way you handled this matter. I feel for you and what you went trough. It sucks.
I also love stumble, as a matter of fact it is probably the network where I’m most active. To see this happen to a person I highly respect isn’t very nice at all. But like Kevin stated, the world is full of idiots and will continue to be.
Thanks to some people with actual brains you seem to have managed to turn things around. However having lost all your reviews from before really sucks.
A note to bloggers; don’t bother using the thumbs down button. Use your mouse instead.
I’m off to review this site I know and recommend to all.
Thanks for your support , eveyone is entitled to an opinion , some negative , some positive, its all good