Idio Magazine: A Social Spamming Experiment
A new website called Idio Magazine opened this week. It keeps track of the music you enjoy and offers you similar articles, videos, songs, photos, and blog posts.
The site is setup to look and feel like a real magazine. When you mouse to the page corners, they curl up. Clicking on them flips to the next page. It’s intriguing how the virtual feel of a real life magazine can draw you in.
Idiomag integrates with Last.fm, iLike, MOG, Mystrands, and Facebook. But here lies the problem: Idiomag integrates too well with these social websites.
Being a fan of Last.fm and regular contributor, I decided to test out Idiomag’s integration with Last.fm. Idiomag’s website said that allowing them to have access to your listening history would enable them to more accurately feed you music you enjoy. I decided to experiment with this in case I would decide to write about Idiomag later.
While I was filling in my username information, I checked a tick box. Unfortunately, I didn’t fully read what I was agreeing to, and assumed it was an “update me by email” option. What it really said was:
“Tell a select few of your friends about idiomag, based on their musical taste”.
After giving Idiomag access to my Last.fm account, I began receiving automated emails from Last.fm, informing me that people were posting in my Last.fm shoutbox. I clicked my way to Last.fm and saw that a friend had written two posts in my shoutbox:
“Since Stars are one you of your favourite artists, you should definitely read http://www.idiomag.com/peek/3922″
“You like Stars? You should check out http://www.idiomag.com/peek/3922″
At first I thought it was a personal message, but why would he have given me the same link twice with different text? Something didn’t quite look right.
Visiting my friend’s Last.fm pages, I discovered that I had been sending messages such as,“I (heart) www.idiomag.com”
Comments in my Last.fm shoutbox began to flood in. Friends were thanking me for sending me a link to Idiomag and how much they loved the website. Most of my friends shared they were signing up for an account with Idiomag because they enjoyed the website so much. All this gratitude for messages I didn’t actually send.
Here we have a beautiful looking website that seeds through your contacts to spam them. I hate spam. Especially when it is sent in my name.
As a blogger, my online reputation matters. A website bent on spamming your contacts damages the relationships you work hard to establish.
I’m not able to quote the reactions from fellow music bloggers, due to graphic language. We feel betrayed and used.
Idiomag responded to the music blogger community, saying:
Wow we’ve really screwed up here. Sorry.
Ok so here is what happened (just to be clear):
On sign-up, for those users who sign up with last.fm usernames, there is a tick-box which asks you if you will allow us to “tell a select few of your friends about idiomag, based on their musical taste”.
It’s now removed. Gone. And we would still be interested in hearing your suggestions and thoughts on the actual magazine - although we are aware they will be understandably rage-tinted. And feel free to also drop expletive-ridden cursings to feedback@idiomag.com
Puddlegum contacted Idiomag and asked them about this “feature”, and they replied:
Sorry about the shoutbox mistake. And it certainly was a mistake.
It was only meant to go to a couple of friends - after a clear opt-in.
The “feature” has now been removed.
Sorry if we have spoilt it before it has even begun.
We all make mistakes. Without this “feature”, Idiomag seems like a great website to dive into. It doesn’t need spam to bring traffic, because the design will draw traffic as friends tell friends.
It was a great reminder to always make sure you look at what you’re agreeing to. I’ll never assume that I’m agreeing to an email update again.
Tags: Facebook, Idiomag, iLike, Last.fm, MOG, Mystrands
Consumer protection org warns: resist Vista, "back to the future" with XP
In yet another blow to the reputation of Windows Vista, the Dutch Consumers' Association (Consumentenbond) has recommended that customers who purchase new PCs insist on obtaining Windows XP over Vista. In addition, it called on computer shops to provide Windows XP downgrades to customers who have already obtained Vista from said shops. After unsuccessfully trying to persuade Microsoft to provide those free downgrades, the DCA said that consumers would have to take matters into their own hands since Microsoft does not agree with its assessment of the OS, which the organization said appears to have been released before it was truly ready, according to comments recorded by Expatica.
XP on OEM hardware? Not after January, 2008
Microsoft's OEM catch-22: XP still in the driver's seat
Report: Vista Business, XP Pro sales down in Europe
Forget big service packs, Vista "high quality right out of the gate," says exec
The organization's spat with Microsoft began when it conducted a survey on Vista's performance. According to the survey results, the OS performed quite poorly, racking up 5,000 consumer complaints in less than five weeks. Commonly reported issues center on printer and hardware compatibility, system crashes, and slow peripherals. The DCA met with Microsoft to discuss its concerns before issuing its statement warning consumers away from Vista—evidently, whatever olive branch Microsoft offered wasn't enough to satisfy the group.
Vista's troubles are two-fold. Windows XP is a mature product that runs well on older hardware, and whose strengths and weaknesses are generally known. Vista, by comparison, is still fresh out of the gate, requires newer hardware to function well, and is virtually guaranteed to have a greater number of significant bugs/issues than its six-year-old predecessor. If you're an organization in the business of protecting consumers, as the Dutch Consumers' Association is, Windows XP is the safer, more reliable choice. Note that Ars Technica has continued to recommend Windows XP in its System Guide, as we too believe that Vista is not yet capable of meeting the needs of our entire audience (particularly with regards to gaming).
As for Microsoft, the company has already taken steps to extend the life and availability of Windows XP. Vista sales may be up or down depending on how you read the data, but the OS environment has changed considerably since XP launched. In 2001, XP offered consumers a far more stable product than Windows 98SE or the train wreck of Windows ME, even when we factor in the fact that Windows XP had teething problems of its own. In contrast, Vista has no blockbuster features to tout in marketing, and is consequently a tougher sell in the retail market. We do generally believe that Vista's security model is superior to that of Windows XP, but many businesses and users are skeptical even of that, preferring to "wait and see."
Customers do have other options—a Microsoft spokesperson Ars spoke to stated that buyers of Vista Ultimate or Business editions have the right to downgrade to XP if they so desire.
All available historical data suggests that over the long-term, Windows customers will migrate to Vista. The only OS that bucked that trend was Windows ME—but that particular OS is generally viewed as a profound step backwards compared to Windows 98SE in terms of system stability. While Vista has had some problems of its own, there's nothing to indicate the OS is such a market failure that it has triggered an active, widespread reversion from it to XP. Microsoft won't say so publicly, but we believe the company is hoping that Service Pack 1 will—despite the company's insistence otherwise—mark the true launch of the OS.