Quechup Social Networking Site: Warning

There is a red flag waving in the blogosphere about Quechup, a new social networking site, and I just eliminated my account. The accusation is that Quechua is using an “underhanded” approach to request new members through mining the email accounts of subscribers, resulting in an email frenzy that is causing embarrassment and fear. That was enough to scare me out of the Quechup system, at least until things settle down and the ripples stop flowing everywhere.

I only joined yesterday at the request of friend. [Did he know he was asking me???] I noticed when i signed up that they wanted my email details and password which was a little unsettling but normal for some systems. I pretty much join all the social networking sites when i get an invite. I like to road test them and people ask me for my opinion so I need to be in the know. But this one freaked me out so I cancelled my subscription. Luckily, no invitations have issued from my account except for a friend request to the guy who invited me. WHEEEOOOWWWW!!!!

My advise is to JUMP SHIP if you are a member, until Quechua get their act together – assuming they turn this thing around. Two things you can do:

First is to make yourself “unsearchable” in your account profile.

Second is to go to “Account” and cancel your subscription.

I did both.

For the record, I have watched the progress of social networking sites, going back to The Well in 1996 when i lived in San Francisco,

which I found quite intriguing,

to Orkut in 2004

which I found too artificial,

to various Christian based sites like Xianz

which i found too insular

to sites for the very young like Bebo

which I found too juvenile,

And of course Facebook

which I find too invasive

BUT

I have to admit, Facebook has turned out to be the best and the only one worthy of my attention., I joined Facebook last year when it was a student based site because I was giving a talk to University students and wanted to be found by them. I have recently bumped up my commitment to FaceBook, am trying on a few games for size, and have gotten over my previous prejudices. It really is a great site and I might give thought to developing some apps. for it.

As for virtual relationships in general, I am a big fan of connecting on line but you still cant beat face to face. Nobody wants a virtual Christmas dinner.

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