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Don't give them any idea. That's essentially what killed http://sixdegrees.com

SixDegrees used to be a great social networking site until they got the idea that they should reward people having the most connections with free CD players/walkmans and free cheap trinkets (the type that credit cards give you when you sign up with them). As soon as they started doing that, I was really embarrassed that I had invited my former bosses, my college professors, and many of my friends, to it. I used to be really gung ho about that site.

And it's not that a few idiots didn't take the new incentives to heart, some did, and accumulated thousands of worthless connections from people they didn't even know. And eventually, the site just imploded on itself. The social networking diagrams, which used to be somewhat informative, became totally meaningless. The people that actually added value to the community all left. And the only ones that remained were the needy idiots that cross-spammed each other so that they could get the highest number of connections with the other idiots (that they didn't even know of course).

Now I realize that Microsoft isn't trying to replicate what SixDegrees did, but I am quite insulted that they would be so out of touch by the common folks that they would try to patent and freely publish such a manipulative and insulting study/process of an idea. Don't they have a PR Department or something? PR Departments shouldn't just vet the Press Releases and announcements, they should also vet and have veto powers against all potentially damaging patent applications, which can be just quite as public and damaging to the reputation of a company as company announcements can be (not only that, but it adds another fresh set of eyes to the process that's not under the direct line of command from where the patent idea originally came from).

And also, Microsoft should also take look at its own incentive structure for creating patents, just like with social-networking if the incentive system is too out of whack for its own employees, any idiot-researcher within the company will try to produce patent applications -- no matter how damaging those patents can be in PR terms -- to the sponsoring organization itself.

I sure do... I was on it a few times over. SixDegrees made two fatal mistakes: (1) assuming that a person has exactly one e-mail address (so I'd have several different friends with the same name) and (2) having absolutely no business plan for turning relationship knowledge into cash. Most social networking sites also fail at (2) as well.

Oddly, the Sixdegrees name and logo are still in use by some new site.

Actually they just want to advertise them selves. Can this be considered a form of spam? I get mail every week from sixdegrees that I can't get rid of because some one else put my email in as a freind of hers... It's no fun,

Another thing that is a problem with Scientologists retaliating is that once they've made up their minds, they won't change them... For example, I use Sixdegrees a lot (don't laugh!), and there is a Scientology Discussion Group there. At first I thought they were skeptics, but then I found out they were all bona fide Scienos... OK, so I put my foot in it with a few of my remarks, but eventually they were nice to me... Then this really annoying woman shows up, somehow reads my webpages, and decides I am publishing "bad-PR", and this other guy thinks they should report me to their high hegions...

It's so annoying!

Another thing that is a problem with Scientologists retaliating is that once they've made up their minds, they won't change them... For example, I use Sixdegrees a lot (don't laugh!), and there is a Scientology Discussion Group there. At first I thought they were skeptics, but then I found out they were all bona fide Scienos... OK, so I put my foot in it with a few of my remarks, but eventually they were nice to me... Then this really annoying woman shows up, somehow reads my webpages, and decides I am publishing "bad-PR", and this other guy thinks they should report me to their high hegions...

It's so annoying!

To track people-links, try Six Degrees.

... check out http://www.sixdegrees.com, they're actually trying to link people through their relationships to see if everyone really is related to everyone else by 6 degrees or less. I've actually run into people I know personally just by looking through my different 'degrees'... that's quite a weird experience.

If it can be disabled I am all for it.

A 'download vCard for this user' button on User Info would be tres nifty also (again only if optional). Finding your long-lost brother-in-law's contact info would never be a primary function of the Slashdot directory, but if it saves a trip to the Hell that is Sixdegrees it's worth doing.