[CTSARA] A quick PSA on social network friend finders

[Chris- KB1QXR]

Greetings all

Just a quick Public Service Announcement on social network sites...  
Many of you have used Facebook or LinkedIn, and have seen the option where
you give them your email login and password and the service will 'find your
friends' (aka, vacuum up your address book).  If you are going to use this
function, do it cautiously.  
The default or first option is usually to blast out invites to everybody in
your address book.  Don't let it do this, instead manually select people you
KNOW would WANT to get those advertisements.  

Or better yet, just use the friend finder to find friends that are already
members, not send invites to nom-members.  If you want to invite
non-members, email them personally and ask if they're interested before you
let a social network vacuum up their email address.  This is better
'internet etiquette' and your friends will appreciate not getting
advertisements from social networks they may not want to join.


Some background / more info-

Social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn are like ham radio HTs- having an
HT is only as useful as the number of people you can reach with it.  Same
with telephones, back in the early 1900s a telephone wouldn't be of much use
to you if none of your friends also had telephones.  The social network is
no different- you aren't going to use that network if none of your friends
are also members.  So it's in the social network's interest to try and get
as many members as possible.

Allowing them to vacuum up your address book is like giving your bank
account password to your gardener and telling him to pay himself- probably a
bad idea on its own, and definitely a bad idea without careful supervision.

A fresh address book full of ripe users is extremely valuable to a social
network.  It will connect you with your friends who are already members
(making it more likely you'll stay on the network), and it can gain even
more members with e-mail invites.  More members (and more active members)
means more money for the social network.  As a result, the default option
(or the easiest option to click) is usually to send an invite to everybody
in your address book.

But just letting it blast everybody is a Bad Thing.  If you do this, every
single person you know will get an invite from the social network, usually
more than one.  As we've seen recently, if an entry in your address book is
actually a distribution list, a great many people (more than intended) will
get these invites.  

In my opinion, the auto friend finder tools should be used only to find
friends who are already members and send friend requests over that social
network, not e-mail.  
I think (and this is my personal opinion, yours may vary) it's bad etiquette
to let any company spam or advertise to your friends.  If your friend gave
your phone number to a company and told that company to start telemarketing
you, would you appreciate that?  As I see it, this is not much different.
If you want to invite friends to a social network, send a personal e-mail
asking if they'd be interested.  Even a blast e-mail is okay (remember to
use BCC), the important thing is it comes from you.  Then if they are
interested, refer them using the social network's 'refer a friend' feature.

Please email me at kb1qxr at arrl.net if you have any questions about this, I
am more than happy to provide additional information or advice off-list.

73,
Chris KB1QXR