Spammer of the Week Episode 1: Ad2Me

AntiSPAMer I see your point, but here's the thing. That was one post on my blog - you can be pretty sure I was just one of (probably) thousands, so it does reflect on the bigger picture you touch on.

And I still don't see the relevance of a mobile text service and building social media bridges. The only goal was to sell their wares in a spammy way. :)

DannyBrown Again, not to condone or approve of their tactics, at first glance, my thought is that Ad2Me does promote the building social networks by promoting communications to one another by paying them to do so. Whether or not it was their intent, who knows. But there is some relevance. That's all I was saying.

AntiSPAMer Wouldn't it be better to promote social connections without the need to pay for them? That would be *real* social. And they're not really promoting social connectivity - they're promoting adverts that companies pay them to. It's a business deal, nothing more.

DannyBrown I don't see their method or business model is the issue here. Having looked at their site just now to see what it is they are really talking about, I'm actually intrigued by what they are offering. I do text people frequently and after some further reading on their site, it may be a good thing.

However, my point is this; OK, so they posted one spam ad you don't like. Just disregard it. A far better use of your time would be to focus your time and energies on those spam offenders that are pumping the sell products that are actually harmful to our society. Now if they posted several spammy ads I would be saying go for it. However, a single post to your blog that you don't want should hardly warrant a second glance. Just reject or remove it.

And regarding "That was one post on my blog - you can be pretty sure I was just one of (probably) thousands". This is logically a pretty big leap from a single post.

But perhaps your right. Maybe we should just burn them to the ground. Any business that wants to pay people money and doesn't want to keep all the advertising money for themselves is certainly evil and certainly violates some part of our constitutional rights. Lets just mob them, hang them out do dry and put them out of business completely. Heaven knows families and individuals in our current economy certainly don't need any additional income. And certainly not for doing the same thing they are already doing.

Doing the math based on info on their site. College students and young families could make an extra couple hundred dollars for doing exactly the same thing they are currently pay through the nose for, texting thousands of messages to each other each month. We are clearly in agreement that they shouldn't spam. Shame on them. Send them an email and let them know that. But as a business model, I say kudos to them for figuring out a way to help people put food on the table in the middle of a pretty tough economy.

Yes, the more I read about what they are doing and get my head around them, the more I like what they are doing and how they are doing it. So I'll send them an email asking them not to spam. I think its an appropriate measured response for a single post to your site. There are certainly worse offences in our daily lives we should be targeting like high volume spammers, fraud, bank fees, political corruption, poverty, etc.

Am I the only one that feels this way? Or should I get off my horse, give in to popular opinion, join the mob and just burn them to the ground.

AntiSPAMer DannyBrown Watching this thread, sounds like you work for Ad2Me. Wonder if college students and single moms will still think it's a great idea when the money earned from the ads is way below what their new extortionate cell bill is? Kudos, Danny, for being honest enough to call out shit.

KarenARocks Thanks Karen, and right there with you on the word :)

3HatsComm Thanks Davina - my work is done :)

paidfocusgroups Good to see affiliates taking action. I know many that don't - just makes the good ones stand out even more. :)

Sushi Some of the spammers are getting incredibly smart. As jennalanger mentions below, systems like livefyre really help. There will always be those determined to break through, which makes their efforts even more pointless because they'll just be getting deleted and blocked at the first opportunity.

jennalanger You must really want to post that spammy comment if you take the time to sign up just to spam. Bizarre. :)

TrafficColeman The irony, of course, is that it just makes me more determined to *not* buy any of their stuff. Plus ca change... :)

JacStar Funny how revolution and revolting are so close in letters.. ;-)

DannyBrown so is douche and touchu00c3u00a9 :)

jeffespo Cheers, Jeff - definitely a regular feature, and like I say, happy to share your examples too :)

stuartrcrawford That's what always amazes me, Stuart - someone *is* making money somewhere, else why would it still be happening? It's the same with these long-ass sales letters online - takes about a day to read, and it's always the same "Buy now and save INSERT DOLLAR SIGN HERE". They put me off in a huge way, but they must work for some folks. Oh well... :)

markwschaefer Ah, then my job is done, mate, if I've managed to get your day off to the right start. ;-)

Like you say, the issue can be the comments that get caught up. It's one of the things I like about Livefyre, though - you have to either register or log-in with one of your social profiles, so it does avoid the mistaken filter, while making you accountable for your comment (and how I was alerted to the "wonderful" Ad2Me guys...)

That's a great suggestion about the opt-out for bloggers. I guess the issue would be regulation and manpower / powers to do so. But I like the idea a lot.

Cheers, sir, always great thoughts :)

SeijiKato I'd love to see something like the Aksimet of WP-SpameFree system for WordPress in use on social sites. Of course, the way Twitter and Facebook spammers use these systems is different to a blog's commenting system. But it'd be nice to have something like that :)

DannyBrown True, that would be a wonderful program to have. I do wonder if they will though, even if people request it. The company's who spam are trying to make money, so any company who works to block their ads from being visible will not be very popular. Facebook and Twitter might not want angry company accounts in their service...

Robcairns Wow, I hate spammers but even I have to say a billion dollars seems kinda harsh, mate. Mind you, he did leave almost 4.5 million spam messages... :)

CoreenT Gotta love the irony, huh, Coreen? :)

What makes me smile is the non-relevance. I can almost - ALMOST - understand keyword spam on Twitter, for example, because a lot is based on auto-bots and the auto-DM's, and keywords you've been discussing.

But to register for a blog's comment system just to spam it? I don't know - seems a waste of energy. Hey ho... :)

DannyBrown Definitely a waste. Imagine if they put that energy toward something useful--oh what a world we would live in, right?