Another friend of mine and I took a bit of a vacation last week to visit another friend. We’re all very like-minded in that we hate all of those sites that claim to have “cures” for Migraines. Whenever we get together, one of the things we do is surf the net. Another thing we’d done in the past and did again was visit Squidoo. We all have our own accounts, but since we were together, we took turns using the same computer. One of my friends has created “lenses” on Squidoo to share good Migraine info and tell people that there’s no cure yet. My other friend and I don’t really have the knowledge or talents to create lenses, so we sign on, read, and “rate” the lenses.
A couple of days later, all three of us received an email from Squidoo. It started out:
Yikes! We’ve noticed that you have done something that violates our Squidoo Terms of Service. http://www.squidoo.com/pages/tos.
Your entire account has been terminated and its lenses deleted.
The top 5+ reasons an account could get shut down can all be viewed here: http://www.squidoo.com/squidgone
Specifically, your account was flagged for deletion because you employed malicious means or intent to fake people out on your lenses. Our records show that your account has engaged in a significant effort to manipulate star ratings, and therein the LensRank of various lenses. This usually means creating multiple accounts to cross rate and boost your own lenses and/or lower the rank of others.
What the hell? Then it hit me. Because we’d all used the same computer, they ASSUMED that it was one person violating their rules about multiple accounts and manipulating the ratings.
Now, two of us — the two who haven’t created lenses — wouldn’t like having our accounts deleted, but we would HATE it if our using her computer caused our other friend to lose her account. The lenses she has created (over a period of a few years) are good ones, and they need to be there.
Here’s one reason they need to be there:
For all their bitching us out and deleting our accounts, Squidoo is an absolute mecca for spammers and scammers. Lenses touting things like The Migraine Relief Guide and The Migraine Solution abound! Now, come on! People don’t create lenses about those to help or enlighten anyone. They create them to SELL those products and MAKE MONEY!
So what are they thinking at Squidoo?
I haven’t a clue what they’re really thinking or if they’re really thinking at all. They “lock” lenses and ask questions later, yet their site is overrun with spammer and scammers who are allowed to make multiple lenses about worthless products just to make money. See for yourself. Go to www.squidoo.com and search for lenses about Migraine or Migraines. The majority of the lenses that come up (And I’m not exaggerating, it really is the majority.) are selling worthless products and services.
Squidoo COULD be a good site. It could be if the people who run it would just think. Instead of doing things the easy way and locking the lenses and accounts of people who make the simple mistake of logging on from the same computer, they need to be looking at the CONTENT of the lenses THEY HOST. They make money from the ads on lenses, so really, they’re just pimping the scammers and spammers, making $$ from the crap they put on lense after lense.
Best,
Arabella ♥
your post are always interesting……….:)
I’ve created a lens or two, and although I do see some spammy stuff there, most of it has been good quality content.
First I would like to congratulate you on your blog. It is good to see honest opinions on the treatment of migraines.
However I am very disappointed that you felt it necessary to bad mouth Squidoo just because you had a run in with them. Even if what you did was innocently done you can’t blame Squidoo for what it looked like.
Squidoo has many good , informative and quality lenses and yes many of them are selling something. That doesn’t mean they are bad.
I personally don’t see why you felt it necessary to Tar and feather everyone. Just sounds like sour grapes to me.
Sandy,
If the people at Squidoo were willing to listen, I’d feel far differently. I had no lenses, so I didn’t really lose much. They deleted my account. That’s fine.
However, one of my friends did have lenses. She followed their directions and asked for a review. In the reply to her request for a review, it seemed that the people at Squidoo no longer cared that we’d all posted from the same computer. In that email, they told her her lenses had been permanently deleted because she’d given other lenses low ratings. Yeah, she did — BUT only lenses that were promoting so=called “cures.” So, in the end, they deleted her lenses for simply being honest in her ratings.
Call it what you want. I call it exposing terms of service that are inequitably applied.
Arabella
Arabella –
Bravo to you. I’m as confused about Squidoo as the next lensmaster. What really irks me is the fact that I donated all my lens revenue to charity through their site. I opted out of the large ads in exchange for the donation. It was well over $200 a month. That’s gone now since they locked all my lenses. So who are they hurting anyway? I love how they are, in essence, depriving these “so called charities” they support in favor of cleaning up their site. Silly Squidooers.
There’s all this chatter about how you should save your lens content, open a new account and repost. I really don’t think anyone should bother. Squidoo’s glory days are gone. They think they are bigger than they’re britches. Their name is soiled and in my opinion – before long – no one will even bother with them.
Thanks again!
Gill