It’s an unwritten law of the Internet that once something gets popular, it gets exploited.
Popular news posting service Digg has, in the last few months, become a favored whipping boy–too many marketers posting their news, too many odd moderation rules. MySpace long ago fell prey to spammers. (Or should I say was founded by spammers?)
And now YouTube. I’m pretty sure spam has been floating throughout the YouTube multiverse for a while now, but recently I’ve started to get a flood of messages. Por esempio:
“That’s a sweet video collection you’ve got there. I tried to upload my video blog onto my youtube page but it looks like it didn’t work, lol..Anyways, you seem cool and I’d like to learn more. You should check out my page on this other site, I’m always on over there and I doubt if i’ll be logging in to youtube everyday: [ed: URL REMOVED]. My username’s foxyflirt.. but umm, don’t mind my pics, lol!So ya, message me on there and we’ll chat sometime!take care :)“
Now I’ll be the first to admit, my video collection is pretty sweet. That collection consists of a single video: Bill Clinton playing sax on the Arsenio Hall Show in 1992. Given Clinton’s reputation for being a skirt-chasing cad, there’s a certain ironic symmetry in foxyflirt’s e-mail. Nevertheless. It’s also highly annoying.
So please, Google, do Chad and Steve a favor and stop the spam. In the meantime, enjoy this segment from the Arsenio Hall show. Arsenio: “It’s good to see a Democrat blowing something other than the election.”