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Some of you have probably gotten e-mails from me about joining Shelfari. These messages were sent in error (I thought I told it not to send out invitations to my contact lists but it did anyway). And, it seems that they are now sending them out weekly. Huzzah. Anyway, I apologize for the spam and any inconvenience that it has caused.
Please don't sign up for Shelfari since they try to gain members through spam!
Again, I apologize.
Krystal
Please don't sign up for Shelfari since they try to gain members through spam!
Again, I apologize.
Krystal
bitchy
Shelfari Invite
Please don't hate Shelfari because of one bad experience. Give us a second chance!
All the best,
Danny
Re: Shelfari Invite
However, I hope you understand that the "invite your friends" feature should probably be revised. I can think of few circumstances in which one would wish to share a product or service with every single person in his or her contact list. For example, my contacts include many people with whom I no longer communicate, including previous employers, doctors, college professors, and mailing lists. If a "join Shelfari!" email was sent to every one of those addresses, I would receive quite a few puzzled and/or irate responses, as I'm sure you can imagine.
As I understand it, Krystal experienced either a bug or a UI flaw which caused her to believe she would be exiting the signup process without any of her contacts receiving an email. There are a number of steps Shelfari could take to make sure that this sort of error is avoided.
The most direct solution would be to add a warning/confirmation before the sharing process is completed and the emails are sent, particularly if there's a large number of them. This screen should be as minimalistic as possible and offer clear and distinct "Send invitations" and "Cancel" options.
Similarly, a "Cancel" button in earlier stages would give users a feeling of security. As I've been told, Krystal could not see any other means of progressing besides the "Send invitation" button, which obviously offers a conflicting message if you're not actually inviting any of your contacts.
Beyond that, an interface that defaults to selecting every entry, and which is one click away from irreversibly acting on them, is significantly vulnerable to error. Here's an analogy: you open up a directory on your computer to find it's preselected every file inside. What's more, it's offering you a single button: "Delete files." The dangers of such an interface are apparent, but (mirroring Krystal's experience) apparently deselecting every file and then clicking the button causes them to be deleted anyway. Extremely hazardous, I hope you'd agree.
Now, I have no clue what position you hold within Shelfari, but if you have any means of addressing these issues with the development team then I hope you will do so. This type of incident tarnishes the perception and reputation of your service among people who might have otherwise been interested in it.