This evening on Boing Boing, Xeni Jardin ruminates about her failed attempt to remove her account from Orkut:

Orkut = Roach Motel?
Meaning, you can check in, but you can't check out.

After exploring Orkut for about a week, sniffing around, and learning more about the turn-ons and sexual habits of various remote professional acquaintances than I ever in a million years wanted to know, I decided I'd like to delete my account. But unlike other popular FOAFs like Friendster, the app UI does not allow you to delete your account. I noodled through the help contents for a bit, and learned that the only way to resign from the realm of orkut is to email a request to admin@orkut.com with your first and last name. I did so eight hours ago and haven't seen a reply; not holding my breath for one, given the fact that Orkut is likely a small, overwhelmed operation with zero admin resources.

I realize the site is still in a very early state. But come ON. I've worked on large-scale public web projects before, and no matter what label you use to excuse the incomplete nature of a service — alpha, beta, whateva— not allowing users to opt out of participation as easily as they initiated it in the first place just seems irresponsible. If it's not ready for the public, don't release it to the public. Orkut's Roach Motel syndrome, combined with the onerous TOS terms danah and others have pointed out, leave me feeling kind of icky where this particular FOAF is concerned.