I just got spammed on RecruitingBlogs.com

Wow - I was thinking that of all the places I was safe, it was here... on RecruitingBlogs.com

I love the networking. I love the ability to quickly reach to peers in the industry. I love the quick "touch" resources and ability to 'touch' those close to me with this somewhat new tool...

But I just got spammed on the RecruitingBlogs.com site.... again.

I'll spare the spammer and won't name him - but the unsolicited assistance in the form of a 450 word (yes, I used MS Word to quickly count it) personal message telling me how much he would be was pretty uncalled for.

Hmmm... maybe I did ask for it... Maybe in posting that I had an opening on my team, amongst my industry peers, I opened the gate for some to circle me and tell me that for a service charge they'd refer someone.
CLARITY: It was an attempt to employ a brother or sister in the industry that was tech savvy enough to fit the bill. I wasn't asking for headhunter assistance.
I posted on a recruiting site, for a recruiter. The attempt was to interest anyone wanting to do what I really feel is 'next gen' recruiting.

Simple point to this blogging rant - Loving.. nay, LOVING RecruitingBlogs.com. I'm hoping that it doesn't get enveloped by the darker side of recruiting... and that our peers that have joined truly will draw the line and realize that they are among friends - not necessarily potential clients. I'd hate to see the site consumed by 3rd party headhunters... hunting amongst the friendlies.

Comment by Jim Canto on May 21, 2008 at 10:40pm: Ahhhhh.. well.... as the old saying goes; You can take the Salesman out of the sale, but you can't take the sale out of the Salesman. OK.. maybe that's not an old saying... or a saying at all. Maybe now it is. Huh!

RecruiterGuy, I appreciate your frustration. It is something we are all going to have to deal with. You, as your group grows.... me, as mine grows and here on RecruitingBlogs.

I'm not sure how I feel about a recruiter looking for a placement fee when someone says they have an open job. Tough to blame an opportunist for being an opportunist. However, I do find it kind of funny that they threw you a 450 word "pitch" at you. What could they be saying that you've not already heard or said? Wouldn't it have been easier just to ask if you were willing to pay a fee?

I've always got something to "sell". But, you have my word that I will maintain a "Do unto others as I would have them do unto me" attitude.

See you around.
- Jim

Comment by Jim Canto on May 22, 2008 at 11:52am: I'm hoping others will comment on this as well.

Comment by Amitai Givertz on May 24, 2008 at 12:59pm: Hey, RecruiterGuy, thanks for posting this.

I guess if the offender was doing a halfway decent job of spamming RecruitingBlogs.com I would have gotten a message like the one you describe. I didn't.

Two options:

1. Shoot an email to either Jason or me and we can see if someone is really systematically spamming the group or if they are, as I suspect, just a poor conversationalist with an under developed sense of good manners.

2. Better still, let the community police itself. As long as you are prepared to make a stand and/or to stand corrected don't "spare the spammer." Call him or her out. It may turn out the person not only gets the message about playing nice but something positive might come from it, for you, them and everyone else.

Take care.

Ami G.

Comment by Slouch on May 24, 2008 at 4:17pm: One of the things I have been forced to do is to remove certain members from my friends list. This means when they send out emails that I am not crazy about over and over again, I no longer get them because they are no longer in my friends group. may be a good way to start.

Comment by Amitai Givertz on May 24, 2008 at 6:00pm: Hmmm...good point, JD. I might start culling a few myself.

Comment by RecruiterGuy on June 12, 2008 at 6:37pm: Unfortunately I just got hit again by a massive comments effort. Unsolicited. :-(
It's something that would have been a much better forum post or blog entry in my humble opinion. (not to mention easily archived for future members although I suspect the effort was part of trying to get it picked up and archived on pages from an SEM perspective.)
Sadly the person isn't on my friends list - and I'd hate for any network to move to only allowing comments to be made by members.

It's a problem I predict will grow exponentially as our clubhouse becomes more popular - I'm researching a way to keep this from occurring on some of my own networks - so if anyone stumbles on a 'block user' feature on Ning... would love to see it in place - even if it is only a reactive solution as opposed to proactive.

Comment by RecruiterGuy on June 12, 2008 at 6:42pm: LOL - case in point (and no offense intended to the offender) I just responded to a forum post and when the page refreshed from my post I was the last activity under the comment barrage that continues. That's ~12 in less than the time it took the site to refresh.

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