My MySpace.com profile was recently deleted by “Tom”. I wasn’t spamming with shady porn embedded links, or phishing for private information… I was “social networking”. MySpace allows people to chose “networking categoriesâ€? that fit their interests or profession, but apparently they don’t actually want you to network or contact these people.
You might assume that filling out the Networking categories on MySpace is for other people interested in these same industries… to “network.” Absolutely dead wrong.
This little bit of info tucked into the Terms of Service is actually quite amazing…
"MySpace.com reserves the right to restrict the number of emails which a Member may send to other Members in any 24-hour period to a number which MySpace.com deems appropriate in its sole discretion. If you breach this Agreement and send unsolicited bulk email (remember myspace decides what is "bulk" at it's sole discretion), instant messages or other unsolicited communications of any kind through the MySpace Services, you acknowledge that you will have caused substantial harm to MySpace.com, but that the amount of such harm would be extremely difficult to ascertain. As a reasonable estimation of such harm, you agree to pay MySpace.com $50 for each such unsolicited email or other unsolicited communication you send through the MySpace Services."
So you know when you sent a friend request and note to that hotty who happens to be from your same hometown… yeah you owe MySpace $50 for that.
How about when you found a person who’s networking listed them as a PR person and you needed a press release? Well remove $50 from your PR budget cause that money is going to MySpace.
So… I’ve got a lot of “friends” on MySpace, around 4,000 of them. Most are people in my city or people who share a creative passion in design… but last 3 years of being on MySpace I’ve probably sent 6,000 “un-solicited” messages to people who share similar “networking” categories… so according to MySpace I’m deep in their debt. $300,000 or so.
And you thought MySpace was free…
*By posting unsolicited comments to this article you fully agree to the significant and substantial harm you cause this blog and henceforth agree to pay me personally $100 for each word posted. Actually, by reading this article you have caused unimaginable strife and suffering to our server and will be fined accordingly.
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