Having been on Myspace for a while and enjoying a decent following on my blog there, I was excited to here of a new social network that paid its users to do the things I was already doing for free. I eagerly signed up as a referral of a friend and began posting some blog entries there. I quickly became the most read blogger on the site. Woohoo! Then my account was locked.
An admiring fan sent me a comment one evening, while I was away, that was a mildly sexually suggestive cartoon. No nudity or profanity; just suggestive. I returned home that evening to find my page locked where no one could view it.
The item in question was removed along with several others because they did not tell me exactly what was offensive to them, just 'a comment someone had left on my page'. I realized I had already removed it when the lady who had sent it contacted me to let me know she was locked out, as well.
It took them less than an hour to lock my account after she had left the comment, but more than 13 hours to get it back up after it had been removed. As noted earlier; I was generating a huge number of page views for them; making them money.
During this locked-out period, I re-read their Terms of Service and found nothing in the comment that would warrant locking my account and told them so. I was informed that regardless of what was stated in the TOS, the decision for locking an account was at the sole discretion of the Y-Guy. I later learned that the owner of the site and his wife were the morality monitors there.
I started pre-approving my comments, to conform to the new unwritten rules and toned down some of the language in my blog entries. I should also state here that Yuwie is a MLM site and the more active referrals you have; the more money you make. The price for a new referral has changed recently.
The site gets a number of unsolicited people joining because they are tired of Myspace. The Y-guy was pondering what to do with these people who were not in anyones referral tree. Should he auction them off, like slaves to an unwanted master, or what? The contest he devised will be the undoing of the site.
In his infinite wisdom, the owner of Yuwie (the Y-Guy) has started offering these people who came in over the transom as rewards for getting peoples pages locked. Narc on ten of your 'friends' and get a free referral.
Thats right! For every 10 accounts you get locked out, you get a free referral. Who, in their right mind, could ever think that this is a good business decision?
He released the details of this contest in his blog and posted a list detailing his definition of offensive material. The ensuing witch hunt has many pages being locked that do not fall anywhere within the guidelines he set forth. This has prompted many to close their accounts and take friends with them from the site.
The hunters have become the hunted. There are groups that have formed to track down the snitches and post their profile links in an attempt to get people to delete them from their friends list and to report the slightest questionable image on their page. The activities of both sides is beginning to create an environment of paranoia where people are afraid to add friends or leave comments. The Yuwie social network has become unsociable.
Has the owner of Yuwie gone too far in his crusade to have a clean site or are the people who are getting upset and leaving too blame?
An admiring fan sent me a comment one evening, while I was away, that was a mildly sexually suggestive cartoon. No nudity or profanity; just suggestive. I returned home that evening to find my page locked where no one could view it.
The item in question was removed along with several others because they did not tell me exactly what was offensive to them, just 'a comment someone had left on my page'. I realized I had already removed it when the lady who had sent it contacted me to let me know she was locked out, as well.
It took them less than an hour to lock my account after she had left the comment, but more than 13 hours to get it back up after it had been removed. As noted earlier; I was generating a huge number of page views for them; making them money.
During this locked-out period, I re-read their Terms of Service and found nothing in the comment that would warrant locking my account and told them so. I was informed that regardless of what was stated in the TOS, the decision for locking an account was at the sole discretion of the Y-Guy. I later learned that the owner of the site and his wife were the morality monitors there.
I started pre-approving my comments, to conform to the new unwritten rules and toned down some of the language in my blog entries. I should also state here that Yuwie is a MLM site and the more active referrals you have; the more money you make. The price for a new referral has changed recently.
The site gets a number of unsolicited people joining because they are tired of Myspace. The Y-guy was pondering what to do with these people who were not in anyones referral tree. Should he auction them off, like slaves to an unwanted master, or what? The contest he devised will be the undoing of the site.
In his infinite wisdom, the owner of Yuwie (the Y-Guy) has started offering these people who came in over the transom as rewards for getting peoples pages locked. Narc on ten of your 'friends' and get a free referral.
Thats right! For every 10 accounts you get locked out, you get a free referral. Who, in their right mind, could ever think that this is a good business decision?
He released the details of this contest in his blog and posted a list detailing his definition of offensive material. The ensuing witch hunt has many pages being locked that do not fall anywhere within the guidelines he set forth. This has prompted many to close their accounts and take friends with them from the site.
The hunters have become the hunted. There are groups that have formed to track down the snitches and post their profile links in an attempt to get people to delete them from their friends list and to report the slightest questionable image on their page. The activities of both sides is beginning to create an environment of paranoia where people are afraid to add friends or leave comments. The Yuwie social network has become unsociable.
Has the owner of Yuwie gone too far in his crusade to have a clean site or are the people who are getting upset and leaving too blame?
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