Destroying the Social Web!

Experts have long complained about the ‘advancements’ in web 2.0 that leave the web wide open for spam.  While there have been really fabulous ideas like StumbleUpon, Digg and so many other things, the kind of sites that would bring LOADS of traffic, they were easily gamed into near uselessness and continue to be.  A great post about how ‘we’ killed the social web by ourselves discusses all the loopholes ‘we’ve’ exploited that have done these things in.

This has been the effect of the internet-marketing-gurus that came in during that ‘golden window’ where they were able to make piles of money, then once they ruined it for others, began ‘selling’ their ‘expertise’ and earning more piles of money that way.

Squidoo has nearly fallen down that rat-hole several times.  It has taken a great deal of effort by headquarters, and the community, to protect it where the scammers refuse.  Algorithms, both here and at Digg and other social media sites have had to be re-written, the community enlisted to help put down these ‘dead’ page contributions; a huge investment of time and money that will never be retrieved, just to keep the greedy and shiftless from TOTALLY ruining a good thing.  But, in spite of it all, they just don’t stop.

Even Google is re-writing itself for a ‘semantic web’ to keep these people at bay.

Even with extraordinary measures, like Squid Angels, these new initiatives can be, and are, infiltrated even by those who have left documentation that they misuse the ‘power’ they’ve been given to help with this situation.

Dead weight is a legendary description- why?  Because for some reason, ‘living weight’ is lighter and easier to carry.  The same thing, same weight, when dead, is much ‘heavier.’

The dead weight is getting so great that it will take lots of wonderful things down with it.  Dead pages with no content (spam) are a heavy burden for content pages to bear up under.  Dishonesty and misuse of power only tips things in the WRONG direction for everyone.

The ONLY hope is CONTENT.  Content will be found by all the right people.  Without it, you’ll dive and hopefully not take others down with you.  With it, perhaps it will create a rising tide that ‘lifts all boats.’