Yeah, facebook applications are crap and cause spam. I don’t like them.

Ok…now we have some issues of straight out SLANDER here. You’re are wrongfully accusing Yuwie of being a “scam” You can join yuwie and make money on it. You might not make 10,000 a month like Yuwie claims is possible, but it’s not too difficult to reach the minimum payout of 25 dollars every month. I have currently made over 58 dollars on yuwie, so I know it’s not a scam! Plus..even if yuwie didn’t pay…it’s still a kick ass social site, bro, and by the way…ALL of your attacks against the Yuwie TOS is off the mark. Have you read Facebook’s TOS? Or how about Myspace’s? You need to do your home work before you slander a decent site.

Notice that Myspace also has the right to charge it’s members, but Myspace has been around for YEARS! and they still aren’t charging! What makes you think Yuwie will charge? How dumb would that be? Once you have to pay for an income opportunity that really gets the scam talk going! If yuwie started charging it’s members…here is what would happen. First of all all the members on yuwie that don’t make a significant income from the site, about 99 percent actually, will delete their accounts and go back to facebook or myspace! Also…all future would be joiners of yuwie will take 1 look at the site and say “that’s a scam” and they’ll be right! Then…members that are making money…will have to pay money to continue making it??? that certainly doesn’t make sense!

Yuwie will always be free, it is a great social site, and it isn’t a scam and anyone can make money on yuwie if they put their mind to it.

take care,
-Dr. Wesley
[peacefulliver8@yahoo.com contact me here if you wish, it’s my secondary e-mail]

Facebook may use information in your profile without identifying you as an individual to third parties. We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people in a network like a band or movie and personalizing advertisements and promotions so that we can provide you Facebook. We believe this benefits you. You can know more about the world around you and, where there are advertisements, they’re more likely to be interesting to you. For example, if you put a favorite movie in your profile, we might serve you an advertisement highlighting a screening of a similar one in your town. But we don’t tell the movie company who you are.

We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Facebook Platform developers and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile. Where such information is used, we generally allow you to specify in your privacy settings that you do not want this to be done or to take other actions that limit the connection of this information to your profile (e.g., removing photo tag links).

Also Facebook PROMOTES SPAM by adding applications that REQUIRE to invite 20 friends.

So please the WHOLE FACEBOOK INTERFACE has turned into a marketing frenzy.
Unfortunately ALL facebook members are not aware that Microsoft now bought 15% of facebook and they will use those e-mails to tarket advertising.

# If you, your friends, or members of your network use any third-party applications developed using the Facebook Platform (”Platform Applications”), those Platform Applications may access and share certain information about you with others in accordance with your privacy settings. You may opt-out of any sharing of certain or all information through Platform Applications on the Privacy Settings page. In addition, third party developers who have created and operate Platform Applications (”Platform Developers”), may also have access to your personal information (excluding your contact information) if you permit Platform Applications to access your data. Before allowing any Platform Developer to make any Platform Application available to you, Facebook requires the Platform Developer to enter into an agreement which, among other things, requires them to respect your privacy settings and strictly limits their collection, use, and storage of your information. However, while we have undertaken contractual and technical steps to restrict possible misuse of such information by such Platform Developers, we of course cannot and do not guarantee that all Platform Developers will abide by such agreements. Please note that Facebook does not screen or approve Platform Developers and cannot control how such Platform Developers use any personal information that they may obtain in connection with Platform Applications. In addition, Platform Developers may require you to sign up to their own terms of service, privacy policies or other policies, which may give them additional rights or impose additional obligations on you, so please make sure to review these terms and policies carefully before using any Platform Application. You can report any suspected misuse of information through the Facebook Platform and we will investigate any such claim and take appropriate action against the Platform Developer up to and including terminating their participation in the Facebook Platform and/or other formal legal action.
# We occasionally provide demonstration accounts that allow non-users a glimpse into the Facebook world. Such accounts have only limited capabilities (e.g., messaging is disabled) and passwords are changed regularly to limit possible misuse.

LOL we need to opt out, I did how many people have done it?

Hope you enjoy facebook!

You can argue that this isn’t Yuwie’s fault, but it becomes Yuwie’s fault when I report such members for spamming to Yuwie and they continue to be allowed an account (not one account I have reported for spamming has been deleted). This fact indicates to me that spamming is precisely what Yuwie wants its members to do, after all it can deny responsibility and still get publicity.

In terms of spam prevention I have taken to reporting users to their ISP rather than just Yuwie. Like Yuwie though, I doubt this will lead to many connections being disconnected.

Ad for them being a scam, they are certainly not. I have been a member since its first month, and can validate everything they claim is true. That is not to say everything members post is true. There are scammers and spammers in any opportunity. Some members claim they make hundreds, even thousands their first month. NOT true. But that is not Yuwie doing the scamming. You can not fault the company for what a few unscrupulous members do.

Unfortunately I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. I wasn’t saying Yuwie are *currently* giving out personal info to third parties, just that their terms and conditions give them the right to at a later date should they wish to do so.

You will also note also that I didn’t say that other social networking sites don’t have such terms in their T&Cs, but because I was talking about Yuwie in the post I focused on their terms and conditions. Perhaps this was a mistake and if it was misleading, I apologise.

Your points do highlight something important about my article though; I think the most important part of my post, which actually was quite a small portion and with hindsight shouldn’t have been, is the spam that the site has generated.

For this reason I will write here, what with hindsight, I think I wanted to say in the first place.

A worryingly large proportion of spam blog comments, forum posts and other such items I have to deal with everyday are Yuwie users attempting to get their share of the money Yuwie are making.

If I got paid the same rate for time spent removing such spam from sites I run and own as I do developing software I’d be a rich man.

Instead I’m spending time removing Yuwie spam that I could be spending developing software and so am actually losing money.

Do you think if I sent Yuwie a bill for all the spam comments I have had to spend time deleting they would cough up and ensure the users responsible for posting said content were banned from the site? I very much doubt it.

Of course I’m sure that you are a responsible user of the site and don’t post spam. In fact I know you are because if you weren’t you would have posted a referral link in your comment or in the URL field, I would have reported the post as spam to Akismet and I thusly wouldn’t have written you a response

Still the fact remains that a huge number of Yuwie users are not that responsible and Yuwie is not taking action against these users. For that reason Yuwie is a pest on the web that causes misery to many in the name of profits for the few.

When a company behaves this way with regard to the way its users spam other sites, how much less would you trust that company to protect your details?

My view is that even if other social networking sites do have the same terms and conditions about your details as Yuwie, I’m going to place more trust in the company who’s actions don’t result in a deluge of spam on the web than one who’s actions do.

With respect to the need for advertising revenue, you are absolutely correct, then again I never criticised this in my post.

Finally, concerning your comment about charging, I see your point, but the other side of that coin asks the question; if they never intend to charge why should they give themselves the legally binding right to do so?

That same argument was the one I used for Yuwie concerning details disclosure. If they never intend to disclose your details to third parties except when required to under law, why not just say that instead of giving themselves rights they never intend to use?