I was a beta tester for Squidoo early on, and honestly, I still have no clue about what it does. People can run their own weblogs, so why write on Squidoo? People want to determine their own content types, so why only stick to the “modules” Squidoo provides? I don’t get it, but maybe lots of other people do and I’m in the minority. Either way, I got this funny email from the Squidoo beta team just this morning and I thought I’d republish it to see if you guys got the same kick out of it:
Hello, Beta User
As Lensmaster for the Squidoo Lens “Things 9rules Does Better Than Squidoo“, you are receiving this notification that your Lens will be deleted in 4 days unless you improve it.
Improved lenses are defined as lenses that have been published with two or more modules; unimproved lenses are deleted automatically after 7 days.
Sincerely,
The Squidoo Team
Okay, so if my Lens doesn’t meet their “Module number guidelines” it automatically gets deleted? Ouch! What if I only have one Module but I update that one every single day? Does my account still get terminated? According to their Terms of Service, here’s how your account/Lens might get deleted:
Squidoo, in its sole discretion, may terminate your password, account or use of or access to the Service (including CO-OP Services), and remove and discard any Lens, for any reason. Some of the more likely reasons for termination are inaccurate information in the registration form, harassment of other Lensmasters, hacking Lenses or the Service, illegal transactions via Squidoo, and otherwise acting in violation of the terms or the spirit of these Terms of Service or other policies making a Lensmaster a fine, upstanding member of the Squidoo community.
I don’t think I was doing any of that stuff, so I’m still not totally sure where in their terms it says that my Lens needs to have a minimum number of modules or else they deem it crap and delete it. Anybody from Squidoo able to point me out to where it says that? I’m at a loss here.
(And yes, my Lens is named “Things 9rules Does Better Than Squidoo” so maybe that was the reason?)
Steve Rubel Is Confused About Squidoo Too
After doing a little bit of Googling and Technorati-ing(?) I came across Steve Rubel’s opinion of Squidoo and he comes to the same conclusion — people with existing blogs don’t really have a reason to start a new one. Squidoo head Seth Godin chimes in to say:
“I think it’s fascinating that those with the most success at blogging seem to see the least benefit at Squidoo.”
I think that sounds about right though, it’s similar to saying “bloggers with the most success fail to see the benefit in LiveJournal” because maybe Squidoo is made for a slightly less tech-savvy audience like LiveJournal? There’s definitely nothing wrong with creating a technology platform to help out the other 95% of the population, because that’s the segment that the most successful companies go after.
Update: I think this entry prompted Seth to write this entry on his company’s blog. Good stuff.
