Hi everyone, First or all, I want to let you know how much I appreciate you! Your support and friendship has made this community my favourite! But... There was a time when I simply and automatically accepted friends requests without questioning or judging based on the content of any message sent to me. However... Things are changing, and not in a direction I approve of! I just had TWO friends requests today from two people who OBVIOUSLY have not taken ANY time to find out ANYTHING about me! These people are actually PRETENDING to be business people who know what they're doing!! What I think they're actually doing is starting at "A" and working their way to "Z" in the community, indiscriminately inviting everyone with the same horse pucky letter! One of them sent me a long note in the invitation welcoming me to the community, raving about how good the community is (OK - it IS a good community... but I already know that!), and offering to teach me how to do business and make TONS of money in the online world (oh, yes... it's FREE, too...) The other one pitched another online community I've been a member of for a long time and that most people in this community know I'm a member of. These people don't know me, haven't made any attempt to find out anything about me, but they want me to be their friend and join their business! Good grief!! What kind of business are they running where they'll just accept ANYBODY in their business? I could be a raving madman and a serial axe-murderer with a predilection to eating mud pies on Sundays when it rains!! I'll tell you, EXACTLY what a friends request like these ones says to me. "Amateur! Novice! Newbie! DESPERATE!!" Anyway, they have been declined, as I don't want "friends" who don't and won't care a hoot about me as long as I am fool enough to follow them into a business they neither appreciate, are serious about, or are willing to honestly work at. I WILL accept their requests if they ask again in a polite and proper manner. What should they say? Something like: "Hi Dave. It would be nice to get to know you. Please join my ALP friends list." Hey, is that simple, or what! That's a REALLY good start. Someone has seen my profile and is interested in getting to know me. Perhaps when we get to know each other, we will find that our mutual interests make it a reasonable idea to do some business together. These people who slam me with an ad in their "friends" request are trying to take a shortcut that I don't appreciate. Becoming a friend requires getting to know someone, sharing interests and caring about another human being. Slamming me, or anyone else, with an ad in a "friends" request says, "I don't care one tiny little bit who you are as long as you will make me money." No thanks. Not this guy. I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday. It's all Horse Pucky! God bless, Dave

Dave,

I received the same two this weekend.  I'm with you.  All along I have always responded back to them with a little note to remind them that the invitations and replies are not for ad blasting.  And of course I like to add a little statement about SPAM and how someone is probably going to report them to Adland authorities.  :)
I usually never hear from them again. 

Since there really isn't a good way to inform people prior to signing up that this is not acceptable, it is going to happen.  Some of the other communities, when you go to send a message it has a little blurb next to the send button stating not for advertisements, etc.  It would be nice to have in the invitation box such a statement.  Maybe, just maybe they would think twice.

I didn't fall of the turnip truck yesterday either, but it must have been in the morning.  Thanks for getting the word out. 

Hi Dave,

Thanks for speaking out.  I agree with you totally.

Of course, we've all seen these people before, it's not a new thing.  Generally speaking, if there's an ad in the Friends offer, I usually decline.  You see, I was brought up on Relationship Marketing.  Anyone who has read my Bio, knows that I give full credit for any Sales Skills I may have acquired, to my Dad.

Dad built his business, one relationship at a time, quite successfully, I might add.  When he passed away in 1994, we had to hold two separate Visitations, just to accommodate all of his Friends from his 35+ years in the Business.  I have tried to build both my Life & and my Business in the same manner.  I am proud to say that I am now selling to the Grand Children of Folks to whom I first sold coverage back in the early 70's. 

These same people who Bombard you with an Ad in their Invitation, will Bombard you with Ads in Thread after Thread in the Forums and even worse, PM after PM which are also Blatant Ads.  They may be Temporarily Successful with these tactics. However, I would love to compare records with them in 30 years, if, and that's a huge if, they are still even in the business.

Anyway, thanks again for the Post and thanks for listening.

Your Friend,

Phil 

Hi Joe, I have responded back to this kind of spam invitation in the past, but have seen so many and have found, like you, that it doesn't seem to have any effect, so have decided to just delete them from now on. What is so sad about this is first of all that the people who do this have no chance at all of success in what they are trying to attempt, and secondly, that some people will actually be sucked into following their bad example. God bless, Dave

Hi Phil, This community definitely needs more members with experience like you have to offer. The sad thing is that so many people will ignore those who speak from successful experience, thinking they can reinvent the wheel and do a better job. (Pssst... anyone want to buy a square wheel??) God bless, Dave