DISQUS

JC · 1 year ago

The problem is it auto-notifies random friends by declaring them as being "tagged' in the photo. I just made a video and I didn't tag any of my friends, yet the app sent out notifications to 10 random friends that they had been tagged by me.

If you look at the forum, you'll see user comments like:

"Exactly. I uncheck all but the required box and I was VERY confused when I saw that I has notified about 30 of my friends. VERY RUDE and I am NOT impressed."

So if they're beating Slide at any game, it's the SPAM game.

Nice to see a quality app made...not so nice to see it so spammy and auto-notifying all your friends that you don't even tag. If I wanted to sent notifications or invites I would.

Tom · 1 year ago

Hey JC,

This is Tom, one of the guys over at Animoto. Thanks for the candid feedback, and I totally hear ya: right now our protocol upon installing the app isn't ideal. In fact, it rather sucks. What it does when you install the app is to automatically make a video using your FB images (and also ones that you're tagged in) and then notifies the people that are in that vid that they've been tagged. At first we just thought this would be a good idea because a good portion of our users weren't even making videos, so we thought, "Hey, let's just make one automatically for them"--but since that then automatically tags that user's friends, we've run into some problems and received some pretty negative feedback (yours included).

We're working on a bunch of changes that will be live later today so that we hopefully don't run into this awkward situation again. Sorry about the inconvenience/embarrassment you experienced. We don't like to run the shady viral game, and would much rather been seen as protectors of the user experience.

Thanks,
TOM

Megan O'Neill · 1 year ago

hey, pretty cool! (p.s. it looks like it was a fun event... do one in israel! do one in israel!)

BD · 1 year ago

Tom, I hear you when you say, "We don’t like to run the shady viral game," but the fact is that you do. I did not intentionally create a video, but Animoto created one for me -- using photos that were marked PRIVATE and only viewable by a handful of people.

I found it not just embarrassing, but actually humiliating, to inadvertently spread the virus to 15 of my minor students (I'm an adult). It seemed like a gross violation of my privacy.

You've done significant damage by this viral mischief. You guys should be ashamed.

-BD