Work at Home Mom: MyBlogLog Members, Please Be Aware!

I do love MyBlogLog. I have discovered lots of wonderful blogs through this social network, and many other bloggers have found my blogs through it.

Recently, though, there has been widespread concern over the abuse of a new feature in the network: the community message. MyBlogLog has always had a message feature where you can leave a public or private message for a member in his/her page. With the new feature, however, a member can send one message to all members of his/her community at one go. Yes, it's a spammer's fantasy come true, indeed!

Not that I'm saying all those who have been using the feature are spammers. Nope! Not me! I've been burned that way before - called a spammer without any such intentions on my part.

I can imagine many enthusiastic MyBlogLog members seeing the new feature on their pages. Surely, since it was installed by MyBlogLog itself, then it must be there to be used. And it must be safe to use. So use it they did. Only to be met with declarations from other bloggers that they will leave the community of anyone who uses the new feature. It must have been a shock, especially to those who merely wanted to thank their community members for joining.

No, I never used the new feature. But I wouldn't leave the community of a blogger that used it - not unless he/she sends a totally rude and blatantly spammy community message.

I'm a member of a LOT of communities and I have it set so that I receive email notices of messages. This is so that I don't miss anything I may need to reply to immediately. Since the new feature has been installed, I have been flooded with community messages. I must admit it has become quite annoying and I have been deleting many messages. So far, I haven't received a message so irritating as to make me leave the community, though.

But fellow MyBlogLog members, please be aware of the annoyance factor of this new feature. I am giving everyone the benefit of the doubt - I'm assuming that all community messages are sent without any intention of spamming. After all, the communities I have joined are owned by bloggers whose blogs I read and, therefore, like on various levels. Please know that using the community message feature may backfire on your sincere intentions to get in touch with your community members.

There may be some situations that merit the use of the community message - like maybe if you're closing down your blog and would want to inform your members? Or if you're transferring domain. Be very careful in deciding whether your message really needs to be sent this way. Otherwise, just write what you have to say in your blog posts and trust that your community members will come by it sooner or later. After all, they did join your community, didn't they?

Related Post: The MyBlogLog Community Exchange Will Bring In More Traffic