Flickr spam?

When someone adds you as a contact in Flickr, you get a notice that includes the URI to their photostream.

I’ve noticed Flickr members with an exorbitant amount of contacts (in the range of thousands), adding members that just don’t make sense. It helps that my Flickr account is rather dormant, and the only contacts that make sense are from people I already know. When I’m added as a contact from people who have thousands of ones, I’m starting to get suspicious.

Is it too harsh to call this spam? It’s not that annoying, and it’s rather ineffective, I guess. Plus, hey, the spammer only wants you to take a look at their pictures; it’s not like they’re trying to sell you something. It reminds me of those commenters that hop from blog to blog, having nothing to add to the conversation but add the URI to their own blog (e.g. “YOU’RE SO RIGHT MAN BTW CHECK OUT MY BLOG AT …”). √ Oct 14th, 2005