Comments on: Internet Marketers are Stupid on Facebook

By: Rodney Rumford

Rodney Rumford — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:47:33 +0000

Michael and I spoke on the phone today and discovered an unintended consequence of privacy settings and how it makes you friend request look different than 99% of the invites on facebook.

All is good now between us.

http://facereviews.com/2007/12/13/facebook-privacy-settings-negative-friending-consequences/

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:01:00 +0000

I guess part of the issue is what is a “friend” on Facebook. After reading all this hopefully something good will come out of it.

Michael - will you be my friend?

By: Joe Suh

Joe Suh — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:25:52 +0000

Rodney,
I think you owe it to Michael and yourself to clear his name with an investigation. And update your post with an apology if it turns out you jumped the gun with a false accusation (which to me, it sounds like you did).

You say “Somehow this has become a huge deal” - calling him stupid, mocking/laughing at him, and publically calling him a liar - and all based on a quick judgement. Surely, you can see that this is a big deal to him. I don’t know Michael, but he obviously takes his integrity seriously.

You and Michael should work together to get to the bottom of this, and give him a chance to clear his name.

Just my 2 cents
Joe

By: Stanislav Shalunov

Stanislav Shalunov — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:36:14 +0000

I don’t know the specifics and don’t know if you have common friends with Mike Roach.

I do know that it’s trivial to set up privacy so that friend request recipients don’t see your friends. Since the setting is shared with outgoing messages/pokes, I had it this way for a long time. A side effect is that any recipient of a friend request will see no mutual friends.

Facebook often conceals personal information for privacy reasons. When you *don’t* see something, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.

There now is a person who claims to be your mutual friend, commenting here.

By: Richard Evans

Richard Evans — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:38:11 +0000

“Post updated. I don’t pull blog posts… they are out there forever. There is no erase button on the internet.”

You’re going to have to look harder for that “erase button” as Mike’s got a clear case of defamation against you…

By: Rodney Rumford

Rodney Rumford — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:42:59 +0000

OK Michael. Somehow this has become a huge deal. You say you were not lying; I take you at your word for that. Sorry for insuating that you were dishonest. That was merely my perception based on the way the data was presented to me on facebook.

By: Michael Roach

Michael Roach — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:27:21 +0000

Rodney, I’m not sure how increased exposure to my business is supposed to make me feel any better about being falsely accused as a liar, or dishonest “marketer”.

You choose to continue believing that there was no error made by Facebook — that we really had no mutual friends and that I just made that up.

How is it possible then, that we could both have Mari Smith as a friend, for one?

I understand how you might be frustrated with the original friend request, and the perception that I was lying at the time. I am equally frustrated by dishonest marketing ploys.

But now that you know I was not lying about having mutual friends — and it was exactly 16 at the time I sent you a friend request (I’m sure that’s verifiable somehow) — why can’t you admit that you were wrong in singling me out as a liar?

I admit that I could have been more clear in my friend request, but it still doesn’t change the fact that I did not lie to you in the one that I sent, as you clearly insinuate.

- Michael

By: Rodney Rumford

Rodney Rumford — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:32:47 +0000

Darly. Thanks for the feedback and sentiments. There is most likely nothing wrong with facebook in this area. Everytime I get messages that have a personalized greeting where they say they know mutual friends and such; we have no mutual friends. These types of messages come from marketers.

Post updated. I don’t pull blog posts… they are out there forever. There is no erase button on the internet.

Michael. Sorry if you felt personally called out; it was not meant to focus on you specifically. I wanted to show a window into a facebook experience and trend that I was seeing.

The good news is more people now know about your business.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:43:11 +0000

Michael Roach,

Actually, I think you mean ‘libel’ - slander concerns the spoken word.

Just thought you’d want your lawyers to start out on the right track… Only joking!

Dan

By: Michael Pratt

Michael Pratt — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:28:50 +0000

Good points all (mostly) While I sympathize with Rodney’s point about the annoyance of spammy marketers, he took a great risk (backfired big time) in including Michael’s name on the post. No need to do that. Cover it up and you can be as harsh as you want…unless you goal was to actually OUT this particular marketer? Maybe the risk wasn’t obvious to Rodney at first but I’m sure it is now. On the flip side, michael should know better in sending such a vague friend request. While there are great friendships and professional relationships to be made on FB, Michael sorta put himself in this position by keeping his friend request as impersonal and spammy sounding as he did. I am not against friending people I don’t know but i expect a bit of effort in the request. Perhaps “Got your name off Mari Smith’s Top friends. here’s why I’d like to be FB friends” for example. Otherwise, why are you doing it? To have a really big friend list? None of this would have happened if you personalized the message. I have done that to CEO’s on their blogs and I almost always get responses. Give some, get some. Hopefully, you both kiss and make up.