Pixelrage.net

Way back, many years ago, I had signed up with a social bookmarking site called Blogmarks.net. This was well before the “nofollow” days, and it was relatively simple to figure out a way to give yourself a 100% valid PR5 dofollow backlink. I used it the same way I use Delicious.com and all others – simply as a way to bookmark my sites, and other interesting things I’ve found. Things got bad, though.

One day when logging in, I noticed it wasn’t accepting my user name or password. I knew I was right about the password, but it was refusing to let me in. There’s absolutely no “forgot password” feature, so if you’ve forgotten it, you’re entirely screwed. Blogmarks.net doesn’t even send any confirmation emails whatsoever, so there’s nothing you can even reference. It’s as if usability wasn’t even an afterthought when they’ve created this site.

Anyway, I searched the site for some of the things I’ve bookmarked, and noticed that my entire account was gone. Either it was banned, got killed in a server error, or sucked into a black hole – I have no idea. There was no notification whatsoever, my user profile was just completely gone. Blogmarks.net doesn’t check their support account whatsoever, so don’t even bother emailing them, as it will remain an effortless approach.

Blogmarks: The Room Without A Door

This was back in 2005 or so. It’s now late 2009, and the site hasn’t changed a bit. I can actually see my account…albeit, it’s just a blank page, and all of the stuff I’ve bookmarked to it is missing. There’s still no “forgot password?” function. It’s also impossible to create an account, they’ve gone the way of the “secret members-only club,” like many popular torrent and warez sites – how very Web 1.0 of them.

What cracks me up the most is how there are so many social bookmarking plugins for CMS’s and other such references that include Blogmarks.net in their icon pile (even biggies like ShareThis.com include Blogmarks as an option). Why??? Why bother, when it’s not even friendly to the internet community, let alone possible to register on? Unless you have a 5+ year old account, you can’t be a member.

There’s a “sign up” form on the front page of Blogmarks.net which is completely worthless. First of all, the email field is “optionnal” if you want to “retrieve your login infos” (yes, it really is spelled that way) which defies logic. Creating an account for anything without inputting your email address is just the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of. They ask you to input an “invitation code” or “send us a kind email explaining why” without even hyperlinking the word “email.” Send you an email why I want to be a member? Who made them elite? There’s a term for people who run businesses this way: dickheads.

Blogmarks, you've got to be kidding me.

Back when I first lost my account, I signed up for another one a couple years later (this is on an entirely different IP address, different email account, and all). My submission simply was never even looked at or responded to. A friend of mine, located states away, created an account as well – and never got accepted, or got any reply whatsoever. It’s safe to assume that these requests go into some kind of email box that is either never tended to, or are simply deleted upon arrival. What a wonderful way to run a website.

Blogmarks as a Case Study in Awfulness

Blogmarks.net is one of those baffling services that has remained untouched for years, almost like a time capsule of the internet that should have a “Last updated: 8/1/2004″ notice at the bottom of the page. The sad part is that it was actually a decent service that brought about some great link juice (arguably this has diminished down to nothing now that the site is behind a maximum security mentality, coupled with the inception of nofollow).

Will they evolve? Probably not. Their site continually has a front page filled with internet marketing spam, affiliate garbage and foreign language sites with porn, curses and everything else you can imagine. At least if Blogmarks.net took the Yahoo Directory mentality and only allowed qualified submissions in to strengthen their credibiltiy with search engines, it would be understandable, but that is obviously not the case.

In ending my Blogmarks.net rant – don’t shut out the internet community from your social site, it makes you look like a jackass. For the love of everything holy, please make sure that every account option you offer has a “forgot password” and auto-email feature. Many people, including myself, keep emails for years and use them to find old username accounts and other important notices. It’s common courtesy, and your community will that you for it – that is, if you care about them at all (unlike Blogmarks).