Social Networking Beggars

Here's something I've scrubbed friends out of my buddy lists, my Facebook, my social networking contats, and my life for: (Facebook notification in this case but it applies to a few other social ntworks as well)

"Xxxx Xxxxxx joined the group 'Social networking makes even more money for you. Too good to miss!' "

There's a good reason for the scrubbing you'll get if you hit me with one solicitation using one of these sites. One of my early longtime (and presumed until recently to be) friends joined this "social networks are your cash cow" things and since then all I ever get from him are "Xxxx Xxxxxx has just put new stuff their PayMeYouBastard site" and when I go there it's a thinly (or indeed not at all) veiled soliciting letter asking me to pay towards his "son's second tooth, putting on a pasteboard and sticking to the fridge" fund.

No longer fun. Or Iget told that "Xxxx Xxxxxx has published their new e-book, "Ripping Off Your Social Network For Profit And Profit!" and I'm supposed to make the book a self-fulfilling prophecy by paying for the damn thing. As a friend, you understand.

Things that strike me about all this are that 1)- Xxxx Xxxxxx doesn't actually send me that spam so he feels quite chuffed about it. When I say "please stop spamming me" I get told it's he way that site works.

2)- I also asked Xxxx Xxxxxx about that cargo cult attitude towards money.

"Don't you realise," I asked, "that this money has to come from *somewhere*? And in general since these sites target your friends, you're just taking money off people you claim are your friends?"

It was his answer though that convinced me there's just no way to proceed with these sites, no way that I could bring myself to use them. He said

"Well it's not like I make all the money off you, it's all my friends, little by little, that it all adds up."

In other words, he's prepared to screw all his friends "little by little" - and from there it's only a relatively small step to a full scale bend-over shafting...

I'd rather keep my friends I think.