I must say, although I’ve been very vocal about my dislike of social networking sites like hi5, Gazzag etc, I still love orkut. I find it really addictive, and do get a kick out of seeing the number of friends, fans and scraps I’ve got. Well, not scraps really because I don’t think I’m that socially challenged that I’d require to speak to my friends via orkut scraps, but it’s a really nice way to stay in touch with friends you don’t get to meet so often.
One of the most alluring things about orkut was it’s relatively spam-free environment, which I really liked. The major factor contributing to this was orkut’s closed system – someone could join it only on the invite of an existing member, which vouched for the fact that at least someone inside knew the person. There were ways this was bypassed, by sites giving out invites, but it mostly ensured that spam bots did not get in. I found this closed-system a swell idea for once, because I generally support open models.
Recently however, orkut decided to open up it’s registration to everyone. Now this may be good for increasing the number of members, and potentially increasing ad revenue exponentially, but it’s a bad move as far as spam is concerned, since there is an increasing amount of spam on the system. Why, I for one keep getting at least 3 spam scraps a day! Amusing, it doesn’t happen with many people, but somehow, spammers always single me out for a flooding.
It’s not very late either. The system could still be closed, and the integrity maintained, and I’m sure the users would want that move too.