Classmates.com Sucks!!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

These guys are slime. My high school reunion is coming up and the organizer decided to utilize Classmates.com to make it a little easier. Yeah, easier, but also a nightmare!

They continually spam me to try to get me to become a "Gold Member", just so I can talk to the people in the class. This is a PIA but not the worst thing.

This morning, I get an E-mail telling me I got an "E-mail" from a former classmate. I click the link and it brings me to the Classmates.com website, where I find a nice message from an old girlfriend. I see a link that says "Reply" (like any E-mail) and type up a reply. I hit "Send" and up pops a window asking me for my credit card before they can send my "E-mail"!!

These scumbags want me to pay to E-mail someone who "E-mailed" me expecting an answer. Now if I don't reply, the sender's going to think I'm a jerk who doesn't reply to E-mails. The thing is, this ain't E-Mail!

I'm steamed.

I sent a message via their "Contact Us" link but I don't expect to hear back. Now, I have to hope that I see this person at the reunion so I can tell her what happened.

Later,

Kevin

[maren]

Kevin -- is it possible for you to directly email the "organizer" of the reunion? And send a copy of the story you posted here? Can he or she provide a list of all email addresses of the class? Or at least those who've answered so far? Seems to me the organizer could've set up a list-serve on Yahoo for much cheaper (at least it would've allowed free emailing between list members).

[jazzbo]

Classmates.com is in the employ of all our spouses, making sure we CANNOT so EASILY contact old girlfriend/boyfriends.

They make a lot of money in volume!

[Use3D]

It's also spyware yay!

[wesbed]

I skipped my high school reunion due to the Classmates site. Not that I was going to my reunion anyhow (it's too far and I'm too cheap). Still, I chose not to pay Classmates for their service of letting me contact the reunion organizer.

I believe I would have found some success in contacting my high school directly. The high school might have been helpful because one of the the guys in my graduating class is now a teacher at the same high school. However, high school was 20 years ago and I've made it this far without going back.

I've always believed I would, some day, re-visit with my high school friends. Now, I believe I will never see them again, which rests okay with me.

Edited May 18, 2005 by wesbed

[Free For All]

I've always believed I would, some day, re-visit with my high school friends. Now, I believe I will never see them again, which rests okay with me.

I don't know, wes.......they usually have cold Old Milwaukee at those reunions........

[WD45]

I've always believed I would, some day, re-visit with my high school friends. Now, I believe I will never see them again, which rests okay with me.

I don't know, wes.......they usually have cold Old Milwaukee at those reunions........

You must have gone to some high-class high school, man...

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Surprise, surprise! They actually responded. They say that I should have been able to respond. They say you can respond once to each member of your class. And guess what? When I go back to try and send a response now, the "Enter your credit card" screen has mysteriously disappeared! A glitch? I doubt it. I bet this "mistake" gets them about 20 sign-ups per month from people who feel the need to get their response through.

Classmates ain't getting my money!

BTW, I sent a response with my E-mail address in it. I wonder if Classmates runs it through a filter to strip it out? I guess I'll find out.

Later,

Kevin

[Free For All]

I've always believed I would, some day, re-visit with my high school friends. Now, I believe I will never see them again, which rests okay with me.

I don't know, wes.......they usually have cold Old Milwaukee at those reunions........

You must have gone to some high-class high school, man...

Oh yeah, it was redneck city.

I think they'd consider Rolling Rock an import.

Have you ever been to a reunion? Are there people drinking Guinness and single malts at these things? Not in the midwest.

Not that Old Mill is for those types only, wes........... :rsmile:

Edited May 18, 2005 by Free For All

[wesbed]

I don't know, wes.......they usually have cold Old Milwaukee at those reunions........

Yes. I would expect so where I went to high school (in a small town in Idaho). They'd have the Old Milwaukee, the Schlitz, and the Pabst Blue Ribbon flowing freely.

But, what the hell? I have the same items sitting right in my refrigerator at home.

[7/4]

I think they'd consider Rolling Rock an import.

I've never been to a reunion, but...

Just out of high school in NJ, we would drink Rolling Rock because it was cheap. Imagine our surprise when we would go to NYC and find RR expensive.

It was almost an import in NY!

[Soul Stream]

...why would you want to see someone from high school?

[jazzypaul]

I think they'd consider Rolling Rock an import.

Dude! I was just at a show the other night in DOWNTOWN FREAKIN' CHICAGO, and we went to the bar/pizza joint around the corner for a pie and a couple of beers, and sure as shit, they charged me $4.50 each for my Rolling Rocks. When the check came, you betcha, clear as day:

3 IMPORT BEERS: $13.50

I asked the bartender and he was like, "I know, I know...the owner, he calls Rolling Rock an import..."

To which my response was, "dude, I know Pennsylvania is different but they're not foreign!!!

Poor guy just shrugged his shoulders and gave me a free High Life.

[Johnny E]

...why would you want to see someone from high school?

You read my mind.

[jazzbo]

I'd love to have a reunion with my old mates at Waterford-Kamhlaba School in M'Babane, Swaziland!

But I haven't gone to any of the reunions that were held by my class of Berkshire High School, Burton, Ohio since our 1973 graduation. . . .

[wesbed]

Not that Old Mill is for those types only, wes...........

I had some Old Milwaukee last night. I'll have some more while enjoying some jazz this evening. That Old Milwaukee is a darned tasty brew, ya ask me.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

...why would you want to see someone from high school?

If you went to boarding school w/them it's a different ball-o-wax and you enjoy getting together with the folks you dormed with. It tends to be a very tight, extended network.

[7/4]

I think they'd consider Rolling Rock an import.

Dude! I was just at a show the other night in DOWNTOWN FREAKIN' CHICAGO, and we went to the bar/pizza joint around the corner for a pie and a couple of beers, and sure as shit, they charged me $4.50 each for my Rolling Rocks. When the check came, you betcha, clear as day:

3 IMPORT BEERS: $13.50

I asked the bartender and he was like, "I know, I know...the owner, he calls Rolling Rock an import..."

To which my response was, "dude, I know Pennsylvania is different but they're not foreign!!!

Poor guy just shrugged his shoulders and gave me a free High Life.

Cue jokes about Pennsylvania instead of New Jersey.

[bertrand]

My school is having a 50-year anniversary of the school celebration in June. Some people are trying to get me to go, but I have no desire to do so. It's a big formal party at the World Bank, for god's sake. Just the thought of Wolfowitz being in the vicinity gives me the willies.

Fortunately, I found out there's a good gig that night. I'll take Jazz over a crummy reunion any time.

Bertrand.

Edited May 19, 2005 by bertrand

[Kalo]

Last year, Classmates.com drummed up a 25th reunion of my high school class.

Early in the year I started getting these very generic postcards that said "You're due for a reunion." It was clear that they were not from anyone in my class. In fact they bore no names at all.

As the months passed, the notices became a bit more personal, as Classmates had gotten the usual-suspect, class-officer-types to sign on. Still, it seemed weird that we needed middle-men to get the thing off the ground, when we'd had a very successful 20th reunion on the class's own steam.

By the time the reunion date was set, on a date in October rather than our accustomed Thanksgiving weekend, I began to get calls and e-mails from the friends I am still in touch with. We all agreed that it seemed cheesy to have this outside organization run the reunion, no doubt for a hefty portion of the proceeds. Several of them were upset that they couldn't make it, either because they were travelling a long distance for Thanksgiving and couldn't afford or justify two trips in such close succession, or because they were already booked for that apparently randomly-chosen October weekend.

Long story short: The turnout was less than half that of the 20th, and neither I nor any of my friends went.

Since then we've all received a questionairre from our class officers asking what they can do to make the reunion attendance better for the next time around.

to Classmates.com

Edited May 19, 2005 by Kalo

[chris olivarez]

...why would you want to see someone from high school?

I don't know if I would really see any of them but from time to time I am curious about what the hell happened to them. I've always been leery of sites like classmates.com and Kevin's posts reinforced those feelings. I don't visit any of those sites and I won't change that policy any time soon. If all those people from my past are lost to the ages then so be it.

[GregK]

high school was not a very fun time. they will have to reunite without me. now, COLLEGE, that was a fun time!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Man, you guys gotta lighten up! Haven't you ever attended a high school reunion? Sure the 5th year reunion is stupid. "What do you do" and "What are you driving" is all you hear. But starting with the 10th, it's a blast to see people you knew as kids morph into these old people.

Personally, I love to go talk with people I wouldn't have considered talking with when I was in high school (and that was a lot of people). Face it, we're mostly immature jerks in high school. Once we mature, we can actually talk to these people. We do have a lot in common. A lot of stuff goes down in high school.

So I'm looking forward to my 25th. At the last one, I got talking with one of my friends from the marching band and I found out that her brother, who was always riffing on Coltrane when the bandleader walked in, is a big Jazz nut. I would've never known that he kept at it otherwise. Stuff like that makes going fun.

There's also the bummer news when you hear of classmates dying. We're too young.

Later,

Kevin

Edited May 19, 2005 by Kevin Bresnahan

[Jazzmoose]

High school graduation was thirty years ago, and I haven't made a reunion yet. I don't know, but it seems to me that (at least in my class) the people who would be most likely to go to a reunion would be exactly the ones I'd have no interest in seeing. Besides, it would probably involve hearing the Carpenter's We've Only Just Begun (our class song) again, and I'm pretty sure my immunizations are outdated...

[Kalo]

GregK Posted on May 18 2005, 08:38 PM

high school was not a very fun time. they will have to reunite without me. now, COLLEGE, that was a fun time!

I had a much better time in college than in high school, too. But the cool thing about my high school reunions is that the people there had been in my same class in the same town from the 4th to the 12th grades. So even if I had barely talked to a kid for all of high school, I might have hung out with them for a summer, or from 4th through 6th grade, or whatever. And after all these years, and all the water under the various bridges, it was interesting to catch up with them.

On the other hand, most, if not all, of my closest friends in college were from classes below or above me, thus they wouldn't be at my reunion. Though this was also true to a lesser extent of high school, the high school reunion encompassed nine years of my life and associations, rather than the four years of college.

Kevin Bresnahan Posted on May 18 2005, 09:02 PM

  Man, you guys gotta lighten up! Haven't you ever attended a high school reunion? Sure the 5th year reunion is stupid. "What do you do" and "What are you driving" is all you hear. But starting with the 10th, it's a blast to see people you knew as kids morph into these old people.

Personally, I love to go talk with people I wouldn't have considered talking with when I was in high school (and that was a lot of people). Face it, we're mostly immature jerks in high school. Once we mature, we can actually talk to these people. We do have a lot in common. A lot of stuff goes down in high school.

So I'm looking forward to my 25th. At the last one, I got talking with one of my friends from the marching band and I found out that her brother, who was always riffing on Coltrane when the bandleader walked in, is a big Jazz nut. I would've never known that he kept at it otherwise. Stuff like that makes going fun.

There's also the bummer news when you hear of classmates dying. We're too young.

I agree with everything Kevin says. Especially his last sentence. At my 20th there was a little shrine in one corner, candles burning, with photos of dead classmates. Sobering, to say the least. Several women there had already been widowed, as well.

One classmate pointed out that the number of people from our class who had died was statistically exactly what you would expect. I'm not sure how comforting that is.