eMedia Daily

The Problem with Beta “Service” Sites

Of a more personal note…

I often register for new and innovative websites that I feel like are filling a void or could become a useful part of my day to day life. I’m a frequent reader of LifeHacker and love the GTD ideas. (I’m no good at implementing them, thus the number of registrations for sites that I think could help.) I’ve thought about creating a free email account to use only for those types of sites, so that if they don’t fill my needs their friendly reminder emails don’t clutter my day-to-day inbox. Of course, I haven’t done that on the off chance that I will find a site that I want to continue using, and my email notifications go to an email account I don’t use.

So, now I get these weekly reminders from an online calendar service that I thought would be of great value. The reminders are there to remind me that I have no events in the calendar for the week. I’ve gone back to the site, managed to remember my logon information, and… found no way to either change my email address, or to stop notifications. I’ve searched, to no avail, for a way to delete my membership. I did find a support section of the site which had been filled to the brim with similar questions and complaints as to those that I’m expressing here.

So my question is this: at what point is the risk that a site will suit your needs greater than the risk that it won’t, and you’ll be incessantly plagued by email messages from a site that you’ve not only abandoned, but that the developers have abandoned too.

Thanks for listening to my rant. Now, back to our regularly scheduled eMedia programming….