I’m announcing my resignation as a member of the Instagram community. Note: My resignation has nothing to do with the shocking departure of Instagram Co-Founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom. But it’s effective immediately and, to paraphrase what corporations everywhere say when they’ve just dumped a top executive, I’m leaving to pursue other channels.

I’m stepping down because I am appalled at the vast spam wasteland that Instagram has become. I doubt I’m alone in making this observation, but I now spend more time deleting unsolicited ads on the platform than I do liking or commenting on member’s posts.

I realize Instagram needs to turn a profit, but the sudden tsunami of unsolicited ads is a complete turnoff. I realize the entire advertising universe is going through a very tough time (witness the huge turmoil at the major holding companies), but Instagram is making a huge mistake in terms of customer experience.

I loved Instagram because I saw it as the crossover star between Facebook (purely personally content) and LinkedIn (of, by and for professionals). But now it’s turned into a 24×7 deluge of product, service and company ads that I am neither interested in, and slow me down in searching what’s new with my connections – my ultimate attraction to the platform.

Job one for the new Instagram management team should be a deep dive into UX to ultimately figure out a better path to profitability. I can guarantee that if they don’t find a fix soon, many other loyalists will be leaving InstaSpam to pursue other channels.