I really enjoy it when a social network updates or adds new features to the site. It makes it cool and exciting to have a new feature or a way to update.
However, when they add or change stuff, they change your preferences. Not in a real bad way – more in the level of sending me email. For example, a couple years ago I checked a box on MySpace that said “Don’t let people send me Event Invites”. Up until today I never received an event invite.
When I started getting them again, I went into the options to see if this box was checked. I couldn’t find the box – it must’ve been removed.
There was a box that said “Send email of event invites” and that was checked. I instantly unchecked it. So while I won’t get Event invites by email, I will see them on my MySpace page. That’s too bad, but not completely bothersome – I’ll just ignore the Event invites.
I did go through my settings and I was surprised to see how many boxes were checked for me to receive an email. I guess I never noticed it because it was things like “Email me when someone comments on a Blog”, which I rarely do. Still, I unchecked all those boxes years ago. I don’t want Email notification.
Funny thing is that MySpace doesn’t have a catch all “Don’t email me at all for any reason”. I really don’t want the email unless I ask for it, like in a contact. I get enough email as it is and really don’t want to get annoyed by a MySpace email, which will make me stop what I’m doing, go into settings I adjusted a long time ago and re-adjust.
I really think that if they add an option they shouldn’t “Assume” I want an email notification on this. And MySpace is not the only site that has done this to me. I have been in a few sites that I had to re-adjust my settings because they add or revamp areas. That is where it gets annoying. The more sites I join, the more I don’t want to be annoyed simply because they “Forgot”. There was one Social Network that changed my preferences because of updates a few times: So I removed my profile.
Bottom line: Please don’t assume I want email. I know you only want me back at your site. This is not the way to bring me back.
