The Death of Martindale Connected

When Lexis backed a social networking platform for lawyers, I paid attention. I didn’t think a platform for lawyers would be interesting, but if it connected to some of Lexis’s massive collection of legal content it could at least be informative. That never came to the Martindale Connected platform. The platform has remained boring and uninformative.

One part of Connected’s approach was to create an authenticated community. So that the person is who they say they are. At first, that limited membership to practicing lawyers. That meant law firm marketers were excluded. Eventually, Martindale changed its mind and opened the doors to a broader membership. The additional membership did very little to energize the platform.

Now the spammers have arrived. I found this sitting in my inbox from Martindale Connected:

Dear new friend,
How are you hope fine my dear my name is Benita you can call me isatu I really like your profile in this site I would to get to know you, i want us to be friends well i will be waiting for your reply to my email (Benitaisatu@yahoo.com) not in the site i will tell you more about my self and will attached my picture in my next mail thanks wait your reply
Benita or you can call me Isatu.
( Benitaisatu@yahoo.com )

I checked my Martindale inbox and found a half dozen of spam messages like this that must have had their notifications trapped in my corporate spam filter.

I’m skeptical that Benita is a student (Judge) in Florida.

Or that Mrs Lisa Lechuga wants to give me $2,400,000 “for the good work of humanity, and also to help the motherless and less privilege and also for the assistance of the widows”.

Or that Lillian Mokan was “moved and become interested in you, I will like you to send me an email to my address (lillianmokan7@yahoo.in) so that i can give you my pictures for you to know whom i am.”

I guess Martindale’s standards for validating users has either failed or they have dramatically lowered their standards. It’s one thing to be boring, it’s another to be annoying.

I was replicating my posts in Connected, but now I have decided to stop. No reason to pile more dirt in the graveyard.

Related: