classmates.com's business model seems pretty fried

classmates.com just sent me one of their usual spam^H^H^H^Hupdate messages. I’m struck today by the silliness of their current business model which is to hold data for ransom and require a subscription to get to it.

Supposedly I have a guestbook signing. However, they are requiring me to pay them to get to it. That’s dumb.

Here in 2008, data like that is free. I don’t pay to use facebook, linkedin, or any other of the myriad of social networks. Why should I pay classmates.com? I won’t and their data can rot — data I can’t see might as well not exist.

Maybe it’s time for classmates.com to rethink.