Bookmark spamming is not the way to go...

I just withdrew from a social bookmarking group that I've participated in for several months... and I must urge others involved in these schemes to rethink their positions.

I've dropped out of the group with regret because I like the people running it, it was well-managed and I'm sure that it provides a real benefit... up to a point.

The problem is that while most people doing this type of bookmarking see it as innocent the social sites don't agree - they see it as spamming. In the time I was involved I've been banned/blocked from several sites. No big deal... you can open a new account with new details/email address in minutes.

The bans gave me misgivings but the final blow came when trying to "dig" a member's site today. My dig was blocked and I got a warning that the subject site was associated with spamming. I suddenly thought: "I don't want this happening to my site!"

Come to think of it, it's not just organized groups that spam social sites. Many of us do it every day with "quickie and serial" bookmarking that shows no interest or participation in the site being used/abused.

Is this a big offense in the greater scheme of spamming? No, but the social sites definitely call it spamming and you're not doing yourself or your site any favors with this in the long run.

My sites are my future and the more I've learned about the way things work the more I've backed away from questionable promotion. There's no future and nothing positive to be had by abusing anyone's site or network.