Yes, I won’t.

So I get this email from MoveOn.org. I’d registered a name during their video contest months ago but never got around to entering. Big mistake. Since then, I’ve been on every DNC/John Kerry/You Name It email/snailmail list they have. (The GOP got me too.) I let it ride though because A) It sometimes provides blog material—like now and B) It's harmless spam that gets deleted like all the other crap I get—when I get around to deleting it.

Their most recent one yesterday was a little creepy though. It wasn’t the usual email from John Kerry saying how the GOP just voted to increase blah, blah, blahdee blah. This one was for a rally coming up this week at someone’s house a few towns over from me. (+ The personal info they included right down to the names and addresses of people has been blocked out in the image.)

I’m all for grassroots support; it’s what’s been so successful for Obama’s campaign. In this case though, it got too close for comfort. I hate the assumption that if you loved that, well then you’ll love this.

Not quite.

I like things the way they were, and if I want to get more involved, then I’ll reach out and ask where can I meet other ‘like-minded’ people thank you very much. People want a say over how and when they do things—they don’t want someone else dictating terms.

I’m okay becoming part of a national movement, but politics for the most part is a personal thing. Even though it’s a topic I rant a lot about, for the most part, nobody knows how I really feel on the issues, nor do I know how MTLB Nation* really feels. I like it that way. Being asked to join a party at someone’s house who I don’t even know? Hmmmm. Yeah.

Creepy.

So I unsubscribed, not really digging the free ‘neighbor upgrade.’ Yes, I know, just don’t sign up for this stuff in the first place, right? Thing is, I signed up for it before I didn’t sign up for it. MoveOn required me to create a username as a condition for entering their contest. No shirt, no shoes—no dice.

At that point, they likely buried something in their legalese allowing them to do just what they did with all their email blasts. That’s when many brands fail online. Long registration pages and privacy statements and third-party offers that confuse the shit out of you—and which you have no control over. By the time you try and figure it all out, you’re already on 50 other lists.

Maybe Obama will address this once he gets elected? Or maybe McCain has an answer.


*Yes, it’s a movement. Emails describing local MTLB parties going out soon.