So here is the thing that has been puzzling me (for the last five minutes, to be honest) – a portal called Sulekha has been sending emails to a lot of bloggers – whom they have decided are popular – asking if they would like their blog posts to be parallelly posted on Sulekha. Sure, no altruism here, the blogger gets more readership (which is what bloggers want anyways?) and the portal more whatever…
I got the email too and I ignored it. And what has been puzzling me is the strong negative reaction from bloggers that this email has provoked. I first came across it on sambhar mafia and went on to read a few other blogs he had linked too. Chandru, for instance, has a very strongly worded post on this.
Sure, this is unsolicited. Spam, if that is what you want to call it. But why Sulekha alone? I did not see these reactions when desicritics wrote to bloggers asking for their presence on the new site. Or with the spate of metroblogging blogs that have sprung up in the last few months. Then what is Sulekha doing that is different? Take, for instance the questions about Sulekha’s intentions – what are the bloggers making out of say, desicritics? Other than wider readership?
I am, as I said, genuinely puzzled (that is the third time I am using this word, I know) – but I am… What am I missing here?
I feel so embarassed that I was not on their mailing list
Charu,
I don’t know whether Desicritics really spammed people. They did send emails to lot of people and those who were interested were asked to sign up. The matter ends there. The similarity could lie with the fact that the emails were unsolicited.
Sulekha on the other hand has blindly left multiple comments on various blog posts and also sent personal emails to lot of bloggers. I could see this in 70 – 80% of the blogs that I read. Their selection might have been skewed, but I don’t think they restricted themselves to the popular blogs. Their intentions might have been honest, but their execution was really flawed. I think leaving a comment is fine as long as the blogger has not mentioned his/her email in the blog profile. Although I have displayed my email ID, they still left 2/3 spam comments.
Shivaji, clearly you were not on their list of popular bloggers :)))
Kaps, I know what you mean… I am just surprised at the vehemence of the tone of some of the posts on this… why not write to sulekha directly instead of attacking this guy whoever?
Charu,
The difference is that this guy is a blogger, and so are some of the people in the company and they ought to know better. All of us have at one point of time or other had loads of trouble with spam. Having known that, and knowing how intrusive spam is, they chose to go down that road.
I intentionally made the post I made (strongly worded, as you call it) for I wanted the people to realise what they were doing. perhaps I did get on too strong. But that was only because I saw this comment on 15+ blogs in two days. And heard from other bloggers that they have also been mailed more than once.
Rest of my points, I have mailed to you.
C
I got a comment from someone at sulekha, replied back to their blogs at sulekha.com email and signed up to have a parallel domain created.
Nothing to it.
Didn’t think of it as comment spam or anything. Noticed the brouhaha on Kaps’ blog after I had sent them a mail.
Moral of the story: Anything that feeds your ego, is not spam 😉 (OK, that was a joke) Seriously, I did not get the feeling that the mail was “canned”…
@Gautam: The same mail/comment on 10 blogs – no variation whatsoever – I do think you can’t get more canned than that
I don’t understand what people are upset about. A popular site, known for blogging, is inviting people who are good at writing to blog on Sulekha. What’s wrong with that? Where an email was not present, they posted their invitation as a comment on their blog. So what’s the big deal? Looks like we have a bunch of bloggers who are looking for anything to create some ruckus and attract attention. Geeezz…when someone recognizes you for your writing skills, isn’t that something to feel good about? If you don’t want to blog there, just politely turn down their invitation.
This was another of bad marketing strategy adopted by Indian company executives. They had a target to get so many bloggers and the best way was to leave a mail or comment on the blog…
It is quite painful, but we daily get so many calls from Citibank, ICICI, Country Club, Airtel, Hutch we never complain much..
So why so much fuss when it is Sulekha.com
I think what they did wasn’t bad. Badly done yes, but not bad. I wouldn’t call it spam (though i guess you could go either way)……..
@ravages – I only said I did not get the feeling of it being a “canned” message. That’s probably because I haven’t come across the comments on the blogs I read.
personally, I dont think this was spamming… I think this Karthik guy just got carried away in his enthusiasm to do whatever… as did some bloggers… as sunil says, badly done but not bad.
‘chronicles of semi geek living’ has linked to my post and asked a very pertinent question – why do bloggers bay for blood too often? yes, I wondder about it too…
Hey, why are u great bloggers at (b)loggerheads over probably an innocent E-mail. I’m no expert at reading between the lines. Enlighten me further and keep the debate going. I’m having fun.
Th difference is Sulekha.com is a dotcom out to make a fastbuck riding piggyback on blogger’s writing skills whereas desicritics is just a wannabe Sulekha.
another reason why bloggers always bay for blood is that being a conscientious objector always gives you something to rant about…that’s why broad-minded and empathetic guys are always boring…
superanon
I just got a *marketing call* from Sulekha! I posted an event to their site a while back. I guess my cell phone was in their database. They just called me to find out if I have any events coming up that needed to be posted.
THIS WAS A PURE MARKETING CALL. I asked her why they thought I needed help posting events, when I was already successful doing it before. She said she wanted to offer a premium service including banners blah blah. She was *persistent* though polite. She was initally somewhat evasive about the purpose of the call, which was to promote their paid-for service.
I am very disappointed that Sulekha is resorting to making marketing calls. This is reflects very badly on their service which I have had no problems with before.
And on top of it all, this was at work, and I sit next to my boss. I am open with him so I told him why was chatting with this person.
Are Sulekha Spamming?
Um yes they are.
Some woman writes an emotional post on the blank noise project and she is given a mail saying your post is good, so join us is spam.
Forget the post, she is given a comment on her post saying her post is good, leaving the emotion aside. I don’t see it as any thing except spam.
Where an email was not present, they posted their invitation as a comment on their blog.
What about posting 2-3 comments some one mentions?