Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Monday, February 25, 2008
This is for the folks following me on Twitter, Pownce, or Facebook that I'm not following back.
I friended some of you back early on, and you know who you are. The rest of you, don't take it as an affront. I got overwhelmed, and I would like to not ignore you. So here's the plan:
If you started following me on one of those sites and I didn't reciprocate, drop me a line here with the name of the site, your username, and your real name (first name is fine.). (Use the web-based feedback form if you'd rather.)
Here's what happened: Early on I reciprocated a lot of friend requests and many of them turned out to be spammers. In addition, I've been so overwhelmed with other things lately that some friend requests have simply slipped off my radar. Honestly, I'm not being rude. I try to vet each friend request by looking at their postings. Is the person someone I know or someone just trying to rack up a load of random friends?
Sorry, but the latter is not why I'm into social networking. About the only person I follow who has thousands of friends is Robert Scoble, and it's because he's interesting and he does engage in good conversation. I follow some "news feed" type things on Twitter, but I'm about to move most of those to my RSS reader as I think it'll be easier for me to digest the information.
And yes, I've actually made friends via Twitter and Pownce. I'll follow someone I don't know if their posts look interesting, or if they happen to live in my area or be involved in some of the same work that I do. That, IMO, is a smart way of expanding my social network. But I refuse to follow the spammers or the people who just want to display a massive list of friends like so many trophies. Sorry, but I don't care about watching some teenager I don't know discuss cute boys with her friends. I do like to see when people I know have updated their blogs, and that often shows up on Twitter before it hits my RSS reader.
Okay, I'm nattering. I need to go rest the cold. More in the Monday Mumblings post, if I feel like writing later.
And yes, Karen, I'm going to try to do the Monday Photo Shoot if I have the energy.
Tags: Social Networks