Comments on: Shelfari is LIKE a Virus

By: Velveteen Mind Megan

Velveteen Mind Megan — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 21:34:30 +0000

Found you via PlainJaneMom.com and was intrigued because I finally joined Shelfari after receiving a few invitations. I’m so naive, it never occurred to me to deny access to my email account. I just thought it was convenient. Live and learn, huh.

Thanks for a great post. Adore your banner, by the way.

By: Tiana

Tiana — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:37:35 +0000

Can I have an invite Kathryn? I am interested to see what books you have read. Ps. your post made me laugh SO HARD> Thanks for the laugh and dont stress its not that bad.

By: Emily

Emily — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:07:30 +0000

I thought I’d let you know that I just got a Shelfari invite from my Bio100 TA. A class that I took over three years ago. I don’t think I ever even spoke to him.

Made me think lovingly of you, Kathryn. I went to the site and sent a note telling them I highly doubted he opted in to have an e-mail sent to me. And they should get a clue. Nicely, of course.

By: Dianne

Dianne — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:47:50 +0000

I got a bunch of these from someone one time – she was embarrassed because i wasn’t even one of her invitees. She finally just cancelled the account.

The Shelfari guy makes it sound like a small mistake, but I think this happens quite often. Nice idea, bad implementation.

By: Deena @ Wholly Devoted

Deena @ Wholly Devoted — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:30:36 +0000

I use Shelfari and love it. But I did my own inviting:-)

By: Scott Sorochak

Scott Sorochak — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:05:56 +0000

Great post. Let me start by saying I have nothing directly against Shelfari but I’ll share my personal view on this. Unfortunately in today’s race for new members in the Web 2.0/social networking world, there are far too many companies that will use any means necessary to tap into consumers email address books, repeatedly send them “reminder” emails about the service so they join. People at the end of the day then feel compelled to join, even for services they don’t ever intend to use. Its looks good statistically for those companies on the surface but when you look at the loyalty/use of the service from its members, it typically doesn’t add up. BookCrossing tried this for a couple months and I shut it down because our members were simply against it. We’ve enjoyed 6 years of organic and profitable growth because we have a “loyal and dedicated” community of bibliophiles and book lovers….we’re perfectly happy and content growing our business worldwide for book lovers that are engaged and excited about our service…If I don’t listen to them, they’ll vote me off the island:)
much love,
Scott
CEO BookCrossing

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:11:51 +0000

I was also incredibly wary of the Shelfari… after just being beaten over the head by the Quechep fiasco.
I’ve not sent out any invites (again, see: Quechep), but I’ve accept a few from friends whom I know. And being a total book nerd (I own it!), I’m loving seeing other’s bookshelves.

By: MollyCoddled

MollyCoddled — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:54:28 +0000

I came over from Boomama’s and it’s like a dejavu all over again. Don’t let the shelfari employee fool you. It’s just a ploy to make people think they care. They don’t and they do this all the time. If you ask them not to send the follow up they will kindly tell you not to worry, it’s handled. Then they send the follow up anyway. I’ve been through this with two other friends. If they wanted to fix the way their site works they would have done it long ago. Sorry it happened to you too.

By: Monique

Monique — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:54:43 +0000

I hadn’t even heard of this site… Wow, someone’s out of the loop!! :S Now I have to go look it up, haha!!

By: Isabel

Isabel — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:29:02 +0000

No wonder I keep getting these invites. Thank goodness I haven’t signed up.