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Uh-Oh! I owe MySpace $300,000!
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.
February 14th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I can’t believe they deleted your account. Do you have a copy of the notification they sent?
February 14th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
hahaha… they don’t send notifications.
They don’t even answer tech support questions. Have you ever looked at the FAQ or tried to contact them for anything?
I think at this point MySpace is focused on selling as much ad space as they can, to the highest bidder (ignoring lowest quality), and for as long as they can until it all implodes on itself.
February 14th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Do you think they see the writing on the wall that clearly? I’m not sure that they are that savvy of business men to see that their reign is and will fade. I think they have too much momentum to just instantly die but I think they will fade and probably level off to be some middle class dating site.
That sucks that you lost all of those contacts. I think that would be the biggest let down because it’s not like if you created another account you could just send out another 6,000 invites.
February 14th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Wow. Automation is key for many aspects of business, but it seems a computer has overtaken MySpace headquarters.
Let us know when the summons arrives. lol
February 14th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Who should I write the check to for the $1100 fine?
February 14th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
What a crock of shit.
February 15th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Whoa, well how weird… Isn’t the whole concept of myspace about unsolicited emails because that’s how you meet new people? They should at the very least give warnings first before deleting whole accounts on the fly….
February 15th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
UPDATE:
There was this alert in my inbox this morning. (a sign of hope?)
View the alert message
The help I got from clicking the link…
February 15th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Go to the consumerist with this one!
http://www.consumerist.com
February 15th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Hahahaha. I can’t believe that. Lucky my friend network is too small-time to bother charging me for :)
February 15th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
“Just wait it out.” That’s gotta be the best customer service line I’ve ever heard.
The wheel you installed on my car fell off. “Just wait it out.”
February 16th, 2007 at 10:27 am
That is hilarious! This is like a comedy…
February 28th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
yeah right……………….send em over! Ill sort em out!
April 10th, 2007 at 4:49 am
Suspicious activity??? Who defines that?