Multiply? Subtract 1.

I'm getting a ton of invites from folks seeking me to join their social networks over at the social networking site du jour, namely Multiply.

I've not responded to any invites, primarily because Multiply.com's website doesn't mention who is in the company or even where they're located. As a rule I never fill out detailed registration forms revealing my own identity and the identities of all of my relatives and friends, when the company running the website refuses to offer anything about their own identity.

The only clue I could find about their location is on their Terms of Service page, which mentions jurisdiction is Palm Beach County, Florida.

You know what? A customer should not have to search high and low to find out simple things like this. Of all the kinds of web businesses, SOCIAL NETWORK businesses really owe it to their customers to share some of their information about themselves. I mean, be real -- how is a company going to start being trusted by customers without their knowing a thing about who's behind it?

When will these companies learn? Whatcha hiding, Multiply? Come on out where we can see you. Aren't you proud of your company? Why can't you say who's running the company and what your backgrounds are?

C'mon. Fess up, and then maybe I'll join up.

UPDATE: Here's the WHOIS info:

Registrant:
   Pezaris Design, Inc.
   964 Cypress Drive
   Delray Beach, Florida 33483
   United States

   Registered through: GoDaddy.com
   Domain Name: MULTIPLY.COM
      Created on: 20-Nov-00
      Expires on: 20-Nov-05
      Last Updated on: 08-Mar-04

My theory? It's Peter Pezaris, PerlMonger from DelRay Beach, FL, formerly an executive with SportsLine. Gee, looks like there's a Peter Pezaris who lives at the Pezaris Design, Inc. address mentioned in the Whois record above.

Perhaps he'll speak up and confirm or deny?

UPDATE II: Found more info on Multiply, including:

• This entry from April 21, 2004 from the social software weblog (mentions a "John Pezaris")

• A PR Newswire press release dated June 28, 2004

• This press release from April 20, 2004.

A Brief Update

It's a shame that much of the increasingly limited time I allocate to blogging is being consumed by blog maintenance rather than posting new material. And by "blog maintenance" I mean cleaning up the increasing amount of comment spam I'm seeing in this blog. What's especially galling is that the comment spammers will post some inane comment like "I read your blog very much, keep up with good!" and then the URL they supply will be for one of the usual spam subjects, and then they top it off by supplying an email address of "nospam@nospam.org". Riiiight.

Suffice to say, I am spending more and more time on two projects right now: the new startup, about which I can't say anything yet, and the PLATO project, about which I've said a lot. Those two things are eating up 110% of my time, and that's going to be the way it's going to be for the forseeable future.

I have a couple things in the queue for upcoming posts that I will put online here over the rest of this month, so stay tuned!