Since the whole Moli.com thing, I’ve been thinking about what they could have done better. Specifically, I’ve been wondering about what someone in PR might think of the whole thing, and how the real PR experts punching way above Moli’s weight class might have managed a similar issue.

Recently I found at least one version of the answer in B.L. Ochtman’s blog. While I was busy chastising Moli.com, social media strategy consultant BL was busy being emailed to death by Adacio and – wait for it – PR Week, which bills itself as “the online resource for up to the minute Public Relations and PR Jobs”:

The irony of the fact that my trip to email hell for the past two days was caused by a PR company is not lost.

But that’s pretty much the only funny thing about the “mistake” Adicio.com made when they sent out 3200+ emails to an OPEN list of PR Week newsletter subscribers and then re-sent that message and the passwords of everyone on the list to each person as many as 1000 times over the next 24 hours.

PR Week set up a portal page relating to “the incident.” Editor-in-Chief Julia Hood issued an apology on the PR Week US website, as did contractor Adicio. They even appear to have covered their own story. All of that, on paper, is at first glance excellent and transparent management of a PR crisis. However, according to their own version of events:

PRWeek first posted an apology letter from Adicio on Tuesday evening. Editor- in-chief Julia Hood followed up with a personal e-mail and apology to all affected parties on Wednesday night.

Wednesday? Wednesday night? This amazes me. These are PR people, talking to other PR people, and yet they seem unable to manage their own bloody PR in the aftermath of a major cock up. I mean, what exactly was Julia doing for 48 hours? Was there some other, more pressing issue she needed to be dealing with in her capacity as the editor of an online-only resource for “up the minute” PR? Was she drinking mojitos at DEMO with Judy?

The PR Week story on their own crisis is, ironically, tagged crisis communications. When browsing through some of those articles, I was astounded to find lots of holding forth about how the old rules don’t apply any more, but virtually nothing about how to actually respond to crisis in a 24/7 digital world. No wonder poor Julia didn’t seem to know how to move any faster.

The only thing they seem to have done right is responded to B.L. Ochman’s posted blog demand for a $161 refund for the Microsoft Office 2008 she had to buy after the “incident” rendered Word and Entourage unusable, and one of the iPods they talked about in every one of the thousands of emails they sent her over and over again.

PR Week’s response? Julia Hood called B.L. to tell her PR Week was FedExing a cheque and one of the iPods that was the prize in the errant emails. That, at least, is doing something.

Judy Balint at Moli.com please take note: I’d quite like an iPod Touch.

Please join me in a BINGO adventure as we score MOLI.com on their PR ability, commitment to transparency, crisis management rating, and customer service skills.

Believe me, even I am getting a bit bored with how shit they are at all of this, and I regret that this post will only be of interest to venture capitalists, DEMO attendees, TechCrunch readers, Valleywag whores, users of Wikipedia, members of social networks, people in PR, people in marketing, people in communications, and those who want to see how MOLI.com finally responded to being caught astroturfing. A small audience, in other words.

Due to the fact that MOLI has racked up quite a few chits on their Bingo card, it’s a bit long. So in honor of Valleywag, who covered this story last night, “more after the jump.”

From an uncomplimentary but hardly scathing review of a social network to discovering an employee astroturfing to Valleywag in 24 hours isn’t bad. Unless, of course, you’re MOLI.com.

The sad thing is that this could all have been avoided if someone from Moli – say, their Director of Customer Services, for example – had left me a comment or sent me an email and simply said:

Hey Sabrina, sorry that happened to you. Drop me a line or give me a call and I’ll be happy to give you a MOLI tour and show you around your privacy setting options. We want your MOLI.com experience to be a good one!

Instead, the person who’s job it is to take care of my issues, who is paid to provide customer service, opted to lie. He pretended to be an average user who wanted me to know he thought MOLI was awesome.

That is not customer care. That is deceit. Points awarded: -1

When busted, Dan still did not come clean. He vaguely acknowledged working there, but did not make anything approaching a full disclosure. We had to track down his identity, name him, drop his trousers and spank him in another post. -1

Dan then fesses up, suddenly discovers the ability to spell, punctuate and capitalize, and posts a comment in his official capacity, apologising and giving his official email address. +1. He also states that his Hawk5721 posts were just an “informal” attempt to correct my “mis-information.” -2.

At this point, MOLI.com has a big problem. A key employee has been caught red-handed, named and shamed for repeatedly doing something the internet does not like on the day of MOLI.com’s public launch and DEMO pitch. What’s a start-up to do?

What they did was nothing. I busted Dan DiFiore at 1:15 AM my time. By the next morning his time, traffic was pouring in from nat0.hq.moli.com. I saw quite a lot of Moli.com, I just didn’t hear anything from them. -1.

I found this quite annoying. I decided to pass the time by sharing my astroturfing experience in the comments section of a few of their top Google results, at a rate of about one per hour.

Unfortunately for MOLI, it wasn’t until 23 hours later that I heard anything from them. -1. This is a PR failure of the highest order. The internet does not close down while you sleep. The internet eats your kittens for breakfast while you sit around holding strategy meetings.

At about midnight my time, right around the time Valleywag was emailing to ask if I had the now-removed photo of Dan doing Jello shots, I finally got an email from Judy Balint, President and COO at Moli.com. +1! Printing Judy’s email to me would be a violation of her privacy, but I can tell you that it is almost identical to her comment at TechCrunch UK.

Almost.

Shockingly, in her email to me, Judy leaves out the part about how I’m “an Irish blog that unintentionally mis-represented how privacy works on MOLI.” Right, Judy, like I wasn’t going to see that. -1.

Given that this whole thing kicked off because of the misrepresentation of one of her employees, her choice of words here is pure comedy gold.

My blog post was a factual account of my brief but spammy user experience at MOLI.com, complete with a screenshot. Judy’s TechCrunch post, however, is a little less fulsome:

I want to extend my personal apology to all your readers for our associate not identifying themselves appropriately as being from our company

Danl DeFiore is not a distant “associate” but Moli.com’s Director of Customer Service. He didn’t fail to identify himself appropriately; he intentionally concealed his identity by setting up an internet alias used almost exclusively for astroturfing.

when they responded to a post on an Irish blog

How about when he “responded” to posts as Hawk5721 on other sites, including a post on TechCrunch in which he shilled for Moli.com? Where is the acknowledgment and apology for that? -1.

As a result, we have issued a policy to all of our associates worldwide to ensure that they include their name and title in all posts about company information going forward to ensure absolute transparency.

Great! Well done, Judy; +1 for that. I’d like to see that policy. In the interests of “absolute transparency” please publish it online so I can evaluate it. Let me know when you do that so I can update your scorecard accordingly.

And for the record, Judy, while there is mis-representation going on here, it isn’t mine and it isn’t unintentional.

Daniel DiFiore’s actions were calculated and long term; his comments began appearing as early as July. The fact that Dan is still employed at MOLI.com (at least according to his Moli profile) makes me wonder what exactly one has to do there to meet the standard for gross misconduct. If for nothing else, Dan should be canned for providing the worst example of Customer Service I’ve ever encountered. And while I’m not a conspriacy theorist, I have to say that I’m beginning to wonder if the reason Dan is still in position is because they can’t fire him. Because they…

Nah.

Still, in light of MOLI’s renewed dedication to absolute transparency and full disclosure, I’d like to know what MOLI.com is doing about Dan. As a MOLI.com member who was targeted for his deceit, I have a vested interest. In fact, I have a very valid customer complaint, and I’d like Customer Service to let me know what actions they are taking to sanction the employee who engaged in deceptive practices while answering a customer experience complaint. I think that’s an entirely reasonable request.

The bigger problem for Moli.com is that the internet is not a 24 hours newscycle. Buzz around their funding and launch will fade very quickly, sure. But Valleywag will live forever. Google searches for Daniel DiFiore are not getting any more flattering. The Wikipedia article on Astroturfing is not getting less popular. Technorati isn’t getting smaller. The Chancer isn’t getting any kinder.

And, from where I’m sitting, MOLI.com’s credibility isn’t getting any better.

Final score: Moli.com fails at internet.

It seems our Moli.com friend Hawk5721 is a true Moli enthusiast. He’s been running all over the internet telling people about it:

• Hawk5721 astroturfs on Digg, telling us all about Ron Paul’s new social networking site on… Moli.com
• Hawk5721 astroturfs on Techcrunch, telling us “If you are frustrated with Facebook yuo should try this site ww.moli.com. It rocks.”
• Hawk5721 astroturfs on GetSatisfaction, telling us that “they actually have customer service and help.”

They certainly do have customer service and help. Moli.com was very helpful indeed in tracking down the fact that Hawk5721 is actually Daniel DiFiore, Moli.com’s Director of Customer Service. This was ridiculously easy to Google up, given that he’s blogging at danieldifiore.blogspot.com with the username Hawk5721.

On his Moli profile, Dan is generous enough to offer his services as a consultant. It seems he’s worked with fairly notable clients like, err, the Rhode Island Film Collaborative.

On whose website he’s also astroturfed for Moli.com. Natch.

The guy’s got stamina, I’ll give him that. Unfortunately, since he hasn’t quite come to grips with that Moli.com “split channels between personal and business personae” Unique $30m Selling Point, we get to see just how much stamina he has, especially when it comes to doing Jello shots.*

Still, it was great to be able to track him down so easily on Moli.com. This whole social networking thing is awesome!

*Update: That image seems to have been removed from Dan’s photo album. No worries; I have a copy.

Previously | Moli.com Not Only Lies But Whores
Next Up | MOLI  fails at Internet Bingo

Shortly after posting my previous, less than flattering report on DEMO star and newly funded social network start-up Moli.com, a visitor named Hawk5721 made the following, contrary comment:

MOLI is awesome. Exactly what grown ups and business have been waiting for. No kids spamming. The only thing i got when i signed up was a few friend request which is a good thing.

This was suspicious for a few reasons:

• The comment was from a new commenter, and appeared very soon after posting.
• I’m not that widely read on RSS, and such a prompt reply screams “Google alert for MOLI.com” way louder than “dedicated Sabrina fan.”
• I don’t know, write for or cross paths with people with user names like Hawk5721. That is because this is not 1998 and I am not on AOL.

WordPress, my blog software, records the IP address of every poster. So I asked my other half to look up Hawk5721′s PI address of 65.207.161.149.

You’ll never guess who 65.207.161.149 is. Oh gwan. Guess.

Why, it’s our friends at nat0.hq.moli.com! Yes, our friend Hawk works for Moli.com. Apparently that “signing up” thing he referenced was, in fact, signing his employment contract.

You know what blows my mind about this? You get $30M in funding, you get to be a DEMO wunderkind, you’re a start-up with great buzz, awesome momentum and a huge PR rush…

And the energies of one of your 55 employees is directed at fucking astroturfing?

Shouldn’t these people be out doing blow and drinking champagne off the breasts of nubile young lapdancers?

This is corporate suicide. It’s a PR nightmare when you get caught with your hand in this cookie jar. Astroturfing kills companies. It kills funding. Most importantly, it kills trust with your userbase. (You know, those people giving you their names, email address, postal addresses, and in the case of Moli, credit card details.)

Consequences for companies that engage in this kind of deciet are so dire that there’s an internet phrase for it:

“This will not end well givewell.”

That’s because founder Holden Karnofsky was removed from his position as Executive Director of GiveWell for doing the same thing after he got caught red-handed astroturfing at MetaFilter.

I hereby predict that Moli.com will not givewell.

Enjoy the rest of DEMO, Moli.

Update | Hawk5721 is Moli.com’s Director of Customer Service

I was greatly cheered today by the news that Dublin based Irish start-up MOLI has received $30M in funding. I was also to no small degree baffled, as neither I nor several other Irelandias on Twitter had ever heard of them when the news came through via Walter.

I hopped over to check it out, and lo my joy was unbridled. Because this – this, my friends – this is the social networking model I have been talking about for months. This is social networking for grownups.

Moli pins its colours to the mast with the post-Facebook slogan “Control your privacy.” As previously mentioned, I’m all for that. But more than that, Moli convincingly delivers what nobody else does: controlled personal networks. Moli lets you build several network channels (for example, work, friends and family) so you can present several faces to the outside world. And then Moli lets you approve new contacts to one or many of your self-defined channels.

This is marvellous. While I may be happy for my friends to see photos of me from my Saturday night at a hen party, I may be less keen for my mum to see them, and I certainly do not want my business partners and clients to see them. Moli lets me push my self-published content – photos, music, audio and blog entries – to whichever channels I select on a per item basis.

As a concept, this is every bit as fantastic as my string of instant fangirl tweets implied. In practice, it doesn’t quite live up to its potential. For a start, I was a little disappointed that Moli couldn’t check my Gmail to tell me who I know that is already a member. Looking around and trying to find anyone I might know, I also realised that there is a heavy emphasis on art, music and creative types ala VIRB. There is an outstanding range of tools for music and visuals for this crowd, but that’s less than useful to me if my business face is not the arts.

Potentially very useful for businesses, however, is the fact that Moli enables online sales and transactions for the low monthly cost of $3.99. For microbusinesses, this could be a fantastic tool ala Etsy, allowing them to get online, setup shop, and conduct sales at a nominal cost in a visually controlled environment with Paypal or Google Checkout.

And then, while I was sitting there trying to decide if sinking time into MOLI was worth it, given that I’m not an artist or a small business crafter and I have no idea how to find the people I know there, MOLI broke my heart.

For all the positioning and talk of “protecting your privacy” MOLI fails at the most basic hurdle. Because it doesn’t cloak new joins; in fact, it has to be displaying them somewhere, because within 15 minutes of joining, the spam started.

MOLI’s most “active” member, DrTom, would like me to check out his environmental webTV station and products. Lynn would like to hook me into her self-proclained “EZmoney” scheme. (I can only guess how many multitudinous levels it has.) I’m waiting for the bank transfer solicitation from Nigeria, which will surely arrive any moment now.

I am, to put it mildly, devastated. I’m about to set up a channel called Spammers and admit these new “friends” of mine while we await the next flight from the African subcontinent, but really, I’m pissed. This is a great idea, a spanking design, a pretty good UI with a few small issues, and a bastion of everything that is wrong with the internet.

Moli, you wooed me, you hooked me, and then you broke my heart.

By email.

Bitch.

Update 1 | Commenter Hawk5721 comes from a Moli IP
Update 2 | Hawk5721 is Moli.com’s Director of Customer Service