Ryan King's dashboard

You may STOP all SMS messages from Loopt by replying to any SMS with STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, or QUIT. If you receive SMS invites from people you do not know or otherwise do not like, then replying to any invitation with these words will cease all future Loopt messages.

Loopt does not store users' address book information or use it to initiate messages itself. Messages relayed by Loopt are initiated by Loopt users who already have the recipients' contact information and never initiated by Loopt.

Please don't hesitate to contact us with further questions at support@loopt.com

For the love of God, can you give Loopt a chance to fix the issues before slamming the crap out of them again? If I have you right, then Loopt are a bunch of idiots if they have a problem, idiots if they state the problem and idiots if they fix the problem. I get your frustration, but don't get beating the crap out of them while they fix it.

Until our first iPhone application update comes out that's exactly what we've done, just more efficiently: if(true) { return; } See blog.loopt.com. – Nick Sivo, on July 17, 2008 05:12

Loopt - can you just add a regex that if a contact's mobile number matches ((\(\d{3}\)?)|(\d{3}))([\s-./]?)(\d{3})([\s-./]?)(\d{4}) your service won't contact them ?

Hi All. It’s Loopt. Kathryn, thank you for such a thorough response – really appreciated. The following should cover the items you mentioned. If it does not, then just let us know and we’ll keep working at it. Thanks again. 1. Yes, Loopt does convey SMS Loopt friend invitations from User A to User B. 2. Yes, friend invitations and broadcasts are sent from Loopt subscribers to their contacts. These messages are never initiated by Loopt. These same people of course could send you SMSs from their phone, without using Loopt. 3. Yes, people may STOP all SMS messages from Loopt by replying to any SMS with STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, or QUIT. If folks receive SMS invites from people they do not know, or otherwise do not like, then replying to any invitation with these words will cease all future Loopt messages. 4. If someone you don’t know has your mobile phone number, then this situation is unfortunate, but not related to our service. 5. Loopt does not store users' address book information or use it to initiate messages itself. Again, messages relayed by Loopt are initiated by Loopt users who already have the recipients' contact information and never initiated by Loopt. 6. Great suggestions re: user education copy for our Website. Point taken, and we’ve emailed new text copy to our Web development team to post as soon as possible. – LooptChris, on July 17, 2008 01:28

Seconded. – cwb, on July 16, 2008 22:36

What I'd *like* to see, and haven't seen so far from Loopt's postings on their UI changes, is a very large "Are you sure you wish to send an invitation via SMS to the following people?" with a list of the addressees *and the number that will be used* confirmation dialog.

FWIW: I'm not sure where you guys picked it up, but in my circle, "my/our bad" is usually associated with someone not actually caring that they've done wrong (IE - Lindsay Lohan rear-ending you then continuing on to get her double venti latte). Might I suggest future missives use a more undeniably sincere phrasing? – chrisweiss, on July 16, 2008 20:56

Has anyone had this kind of experience with any other mobile social networks? For example I signed up with Loopt, Whrrl, and a few others with my blackberry but I haven't added any friends yet due to this kind of horror.

Wow, Kathryn. That's some awesome due diligence on your part! Thanks so much for testing this stuff out and reporting the results. I appreciate that Loopt is finally making an effort to address concerns; I hope they will respond to your latest update. – Groovymarlin, on July 16, 2008 17:44

Stunning. Good detective work, K. – Merlin Mann, on July 16, 2008 16:57

Thanks for the quick updates to the iPhone Loopt application, as well as the invitation SMS itself (which now tells recipients how to opt out of Loopt).

Basically, what I am hearing from Loopt is that Loopt is complying with the standard "double opt-in" or "confirmation opt-in" requirement because Loopt is not sending text messages out, it is rather other users who are triggering these messages.

The double opt-in for Loopt is working in this fashion:

1. User A registers for Loopt and gets instructions to wait for an SMS from Loopt to complete registration.
2. User A receives opt-in invitation message via SMS (part one of the double opt-in).
3. User A confirms participation in Loopt, thus completing the double opt-in.
4. User A then invites user B to join Loopt via SMS.
5. User B gets the Loop opt-in invitation message via SMS (part one of the double opt-in).
6. User B can then stop all Loopt messages by replying STOP, thus opting out of Loopt. User B will then only ever receive one message from Loopt.

However user B may be unhappy because a) they're paying for each SMS b) they've never even heard of Loopt c) they may not want to join Loopt and d) they may not like/know the person who invited them to Loopt but somehow that person has their phone number.

What's to prevent a malicious user from inviting a user like user B over and over? What if 50 different people try to invite user B to Loopt at once? What if I'm on Loopt, I deny someone's friend request, can they keep inviting me over and over again (triggering lots of text messages)? What safeguards are in place so that someone doesn't abuse the SMS invitation functionality?

I just signed into Loopt.com and was presented with the Invite Friends screen. I don't currently see:
- any explanation of what typing in a friend's mobile number will do (trigger an SMS invitation)
- any message preview of the SMS invitation my friend will receive (though there's a preview of the email invitation)
- any disclaimer that standard text messaging rates will apply (and my friend will be charged)
- any disclaimer that someone who opted out of Loopt will not receive the SMS
- any limits to how many times/how often I can invite someone to Loopt

For example, I just logged into Loopt using another account, and from the home screen, invited my myself. Then I went to the Invite Friends page and invited myself again. Then I went back home and invited myself to Loop. Then I went to the Invite Friends page and invited myself again.

On my phone I soon received 4 invitation text messages to Loopt within the space of two minutes.

Just to be clear, you can only receive invites from people who have your phone number, period. Loopt is a closed network. If you received an invitation, it was from someone who had your phone number in their address book or entered it manually. – Nick Sivo, on July 16, 2008 10:35

This is now fixed. http://loopt.typepad.com/loopt/2008/07/sorry-everyone.html – Nick Sivo, on July 16, 2008 10:34

Just to be clear, you can only receive invites from people who have your phone number, period. Loopt is a closed network. If you received an invitation, it was from someone who had your phone number in their address book or entered it manually. – Nick Sivo, on July 16, 2008 10:33

Just to be clear, you can only receive invites from people who have your phone number, period. Loopt is a closed network. If you received an invitation, it was from someone who had your phone number in their address book or entered it manually. – Nick Sivo, on July 16, 2008 10:31

It does not. – Nick Sivo, on July 16, 2008 10:26

Just to be clear, you can only receive invites from people who have your phone number, period. Loopt is a closed network. If you received an invitation, it was from someone who had your phone number in their address book or entered it manually. – Nick Sivo, on July 16, 2008 10:25

The 'unfollow' link in emails coming from getsatisfaction.com should now be working. Sorry for screwing things up everyone. – Scott Fleckenstein, on July 16, 2008 06:30

Conceded, 20 cents is way too much to keep getting charged. Hell, it's too much for a text message, especially considering the minuscule data that's being transmitted. – Nick, on July 16, 2008 03:33