A couple of weeks ago I was tooling around on LinkedIn for work and on a whim I decided to import some “friends” via my e-mail address. I don’t know why, I normally stay far far away from these things, as they are a general mess. However this time I decided to stop being so damn conservative online. I took a look through the list of auto-generated contacts, unclicked a couple of people I really didn’t want to connect with, and then sent it on its way.
Fast forward two weeks- I’m getting complaints from exboyfriends and people I don’t know about LinkedIn contacting them on multiple emails, texting their phone, endlessly (even though they don’t have a LI account).
My face is beet red. I know, I should know better. It’s my job to know better! I am terribly embarrassed. Honestly I thought that the worst that could happen is that people would get one email once, not ONE A WEEK to their multiple emails and phone! To remedy the problem, I had to go back to LinkedIn and INDIVIDUALLY withdraw 170+ invitations. What a fucking nightmare! Turns out that LinkedIn sent out more invites than I thought when I scanned the list. It’s really silly, because the LinkedIn email monkeys emailed every single address I’d ever come in contact with on this email- including “Word of the Day”from the Oxford English Dictionary, old friends/boyfriends, jobs and houses I’d applied to, etc…
Well, I’m sorry friends! Sorry for the 3+ emails- I think I have it fixed by now, but do let me know if they keep coming. Sometimes you’re gonna make mistakes on the internet. When that time comes, remember:
- Other people have done this before. You are not the first.
- Even if you didn’t want to talk to that ex, is it so bad that they’re reminded of you?
- Everybody’s contact settings are different. Some of my friends never told me about receiving multiple emails.
- Assume all social networks are obnoxious in their tactics to spread.
- If people keep receiving annoying emails, they can just mark it as spam.
Yep, I’m gonna keep telling myself it’s no big deal. >_< Gah!
The Find Your Friends feature on various social networking sites inspired me to spend a week going through my GMail Contacts and delete everyone I didn’t know.
Uh yeah that would be the methodical way to tackle the problem! I am just going to NEVER USE IT AGAIN. Still traumatized.