What's up with the Chocolate Blues spam?

[Ben Shine]

Has anyone else been overly spammed by the organizers of this event? It seems fishy to me. I have found them harvesting my email address from my profile to send me emails to my work account about their event. Not contacting me via SI, or inviting me to their event via SI. They acknowledged that they got my email from SI when I asked to not receive any more solicitations from them.

Now, there's a new "member" who's pasting the same message into everyone's profile about the event. He may be a valid member, but it seems fishy the amount of times the same message is being copied onto member's profiles every 20 seconds or so On top of that, someone from there called my wife at her work the other day. It's all been centered around SI.

I don't know why it's bothering me so much. It seems like we're being used, and that doesn't sit well wit h me. I noticed too that the organizers aren't from Indiana, and that got my Hoosier blood boiling! I sent Pat a message asking if their methods jive with the terms of service of SI, but got no reply. Isn't this blatent self promotion? Can anyone help me out here?

I don't mean to be snarky or mean. I wish them the best of luck with their business. I just think what they've done on here is a little over the top, and kind of shady. It definitely doesn't fit with the spirit of Smaller Indiana as far as I'm concerned.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

[Jake Roesler]

I personally haven't gotten the Chocolate & Blues thing, but SI seems to have two themes of conversation on blog posts and discussion boards.
1. Look at my business! Buy my stuff! Hire me!
and...
2. What's with all the self/business-promotion? It's annoying.

If I want to buy a condo, attend an event, or hire a freelancer... I'll seek them out on channels-NOT-SmallerIndiana. The good discussions get bumped and lost by the sales call. I really understand the desparation behind some of these attempts, but its reached the point of no return. People are leaving SmallerIndiana and not returning. Is this SpammerIndiana?

There's a special Netiquette that should apply to online communities like ours. And people need to be educated on the subject, warned and eventually booted for non-compliance. I'm going to the 5,000 member party tonight and I'm pleased with the connections I've made here. But, honestly I'd rather attend a "we're back to 3,000" party where the participants are authentic contributers to a conversations about things that affect Indiana.

This is not the classifieds.

[Nicki Laycoax]

Hey Jake! Great meeting you tonight!

I agree and disagree with your post at the same time...

Let me start by saying that I think that the Chocolate Blues Spam was absolutely ridiculous... I immediately commented back on his profile calling him out on the spamming. I had planned to go to the event, but am strongly considering not attending because of his spamvertising.

Because I've been around SI from the near beginning-I am member 400-I know that there are a LOT of talented and genuine people here that are being misrepresented by the folks that are blatantly self promoting and spamming. What I find, is that most of the people that do these things, are new to social media, and don't take into consideration that they are coming across as the telemarketer that interrupts your dinner and ticks you off. There are also folks that are really bad for the overall culture of the site that feel the need to jump into nearly EVERY conversation and find some way to skew the dialogue into something horribly negative. I think that people do not realize that their social media personalities are a representation of their physical selves and their businesses.

With that, I think that if you were looking to buy a condo, attend an event, or hire a freelancer, that Smaller Indiana is a great place to seek those things, but instead of posting in the general forum area, contact a trusted contact on the site. There really are a lot of good things going on!

That reminds me, I hope that I'll get to see you and talk more with you soon! I would love to have you join us for lunch tomorrow at Kazablanka's. If you can't make it there, I'd love to get together with you and Roger Williams of Helpindyonline.com.... I think there is great conversation to be had...

[Kyle Lacy]

I second Chris on this. I do think that the messages to attend Chocolate blues was a little shady but that is just the lack of knowledge from one individual on how to use the community.

[Nicki Laycoax]

Kyle, Are you seconding the first or the second portion of his comment?

Chris, if you don't think that your online personality and techniques are a representation of self and business, you might want to take a second to review this forum discussion... In addition, check these out:
http://bhc3.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/how-to-tweet-your-way-out-of-a...

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/09/12/companies-admit-facebook...

[Kyle Lacy]

More of the first half of the first comment. There is a fine line between letting employees or volunteers reflect a negative connotation on an entire group.

[Nicki Laycoax]

I find that interesting... I'm sure you've heard about this; http://shankman.com/be-careful-what-you-post/

[Kyle Lacy]

Well look at Ms. Links this morning. :-)
There is a difference between extreme posts and what happened with Chocolate Blues. Brandon made a mistake and that should not reflect negatively on an event. If he was pushing a blatant product then I would agree with you.

[Nicki Laycoax]

Haha ;-)

While maybe it shouldn't, unfortunately it did... As I said in my initial response, things like this are usually acts of someone that is new to social media, and while no harm was intended, it caused quite the ruckus and raised many eyebrows... Looks like he'd be a good candidate for your Smash course, especially with the good stuff Brandon is doing!

[Mike Seidle]

Chris, personal comments matter because they indicate more than anything what kind of person you are. It's a good thing yours are generally well reasoned and lucid.

[Nicki Laycoax]

If you were the HR person for a church, would you hire a person for a role within the church that posts pictures of them drinking, dressing and posing provocatively, or cursing online?

[Mike Seidle]

Political beliefs aside, you have to be kidding if you think business people should not use evidence of bad behavior on MySpace or nasty, abusive rants or simply is a spammer. At the end of the day, your words online are a great indicator of who you are, and a smart business person would be an idiot not to use them to decide if you are a good fit for their team.

And, yes your actions off the field matter. As big corporate brands diminish in value and personal brands are beginning to rise, who I associate my company's brand with matters a great, great deal. Does that mean you are not allowed to have an opinion? No. Does that mean if I sell candy canes that it might just be a bad move to hire a guy who doesn't like people telling him Merry Christmas?

[Christopher Collins]

I got the same message. I think this Chocolate Blues promotion is utterly shady. It is really disingenuous if in fact that new "member" is something other than that -- and I have a feeling he is. Do they really think we believe it's just someone new to SI who golly-gee-whiz just happens to be promoting this event with free tickets? It's also curious how little information I can find about his organization, Musical Medicine. If such an organization doesn't exist, and was used to create some kind of legitimacy, then this ploy is even more cynical than I thought.

This is like old-school phishing, like SPAM in the early days. The organizers need to know that not only will networked people like me not attend, but will go out of my way to encourage others to stay away.