Being that I’ve got a profile on Classmates, I occasionally get e-mail alerts for any kind of activity relating to my registered schools. In fact, I got one the other day telling me that So-and-so signed up:

“David,

Remember So-And-So? They just signed up at Classmates.com! Click here to re-connect with them!”

Yes, I do remember so-and-so. He was a wrestler and a real dick. Probably hasn’t changed.

More often than not, I get alerts telling me that somebody signed my guestbook. I was surprised to find out I even had such a thing on that site. The thing is that if you are not a Gold Member, you can’t see the names or pictures of those that left their mark, and that’s been happening quite frequently with me. I must be one popular dude. 

That’s when curiosity got the best of me. As for why, I couldn’t tell you. After all, I had few friends in high school and even less that I’d even bother to make the effort to track down. That’s just how I roll.

I learned that if you click the link to sign up for Gold Membership and then back out, a pop-up window opens that offers you a free 7-day trial. There was no way in hell I’d want to spend the money for a year’s subscription to this site, so I was happy to see the 7-day trial.

I clicked. I signed up. I observed.

I canceled a few minutes later.

Why? I went over to my guestbook, the only reason for signing up in the first place, and had no flippin’ idea who these people were! Some I never heard of, most were from another graduating class, and all of them had nothing important to say. Some of them even signed it multiple times–why in the hell would you do that?

At any rate, it’s a lesson learned at the very least. And should my curiosity start to rise in the future, I must remind myself that it’s simply not worth the effort to sign up again–even if it is free.

—
Share this post:

: : : : : : : : : :