DISQUS

JC · 1 year ago

Wow, I've known about your effect on women, and it seems to go beyond proximity (i.e., when you date them or spend more than 20 minutes with one). You can reach them through their computer screens! This convo sounds like a drawn-out break-up.

I suggest a disclaimer on your Twitter profile, Web site, etc...

"My online presences are for males only. This is not sexism, but for the protection of general female mental health. Exposure to me by females, in direct or electronic form, leads to disorientation, confusion, hormone imbalance, fits of rage, cognitive dissonance, dementia, memory loss, loss of coherent speech, mild and situational psychosis, and Tourette's Syndrome."

I just based the symptoms on what you've told me about your ex-girlfriends and dating experiences ;-)

F. · 1 year ago

Hey, thanks for the well-researched, well-argued post! You've given me a lot to think about.

I am in the middle of washing my cat right now (I plan to video it!), but in the meantime, let me think on your points and craft my own response. However, would you please remove this photo? You didn't ask to use it beforehand, and it's not Creative Commons licensed.

To be continued...!

F. · 1 year ago

Oy! I'm not really sure what's up with the lengthy photo removal diatribe. Call me crazy, but I think I only asked that you take down my photo because you didn't ask to use it. It's not Creative Commons. You gotta ask. You know how to get at me. End of story. Why you mockin', yo?

Anyway, I wasn't mounting a case against you in my post; I didn't think there was a "side" to be taken. We're not at odds (are we?), so I'm confused. I think my post is pretty factual; I don't believe I'd done you wrong. But to me, this post, it walks the line. I appreciate the lovely compliments you've paid to me (xoxo!), but then it sort of...devolves. At any rate, I think it's best to address your points in order.

(1) Over the ensuing 7 months, you’ll see the ten @replies I made towards Fayza. Oh, and I had followed her right after the Scooby reference, so I’ll have to presume that she was definitely getting my @replies. Plus given the volume of tweets that come from her, I thought it safe to assume that the ten times I did reply, she likely did actually see more than one of them.

You're right; I saw them. Most of 'em, anyway. Now let's take a look at the context of your tweets. They were comments to my tweets. They didn't ask questions (if they did, you posited the questions and then answered the questions yourself), and they didn't require a response. I read them. I ingested them. I chewed 'em up and swallowed 'em. Whaddya want me to say to them? You made great points. Excellent ones. I enjoyed your points. Especially the one about the boric acid - I actually took that advice! But they weren't engaging me in a conversation; they were mere reactions to what I'd said. Good points, but points only, nonetheless.

(2) I did not unfollow her right away, as she even indicated in her original post, “The Politics & Practice of ‘Following’ on Twitter“. It was another five (5) days of receiving her twitter stream and a final @reply on my part, that was not responded to which pushed me to push the “unFollow” button.

The one I mentioned in my post that I never responded to was the final @reply from you, that I recall. And there, you most certainly asked me a question, and believe you me, I mulled over my response to you for the five days that I said nothin', and during those days after you stopped following me, too. You spurred an entire blog post! So, sorry I didn't answer you in 140 characters or less. Sometimes, Twitter's not the right medium.

(3) By this I mean, I had never observed a tweet from Fayza indicating that she had a new blog post just published

Maybe you just weren't that into me then, because I did, many times: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=fayza+new+post. I have Twitterfeed set up for that purpose, actually!

(4) or anything from any of the other 19 (yes, that’s NINETEEN) other social networks she has listed on her blog.

Errr, is there a problem with that? After all, knowing social media is kinda what I do.

(5) I like to keep the number of folks I follow on Twitter to right at 100.

Wait a second, YOU don't follow everyone that follows you? Really?! Huh. Interesting. I don't either! You're sneaky.

(6) why should Fayza be “lamenting” about losing a follower (especially one that she never followed after almost 8 months, and ten direct responses)?

My post "laments" those that stopped following me, those that never followed me, and those that I had a mutually following relationship with which the other person ended. Why should I be lamenting? Well, why should you be lamenting my lamenting? ;)

(7) My question is how much more must it take for you to hit the “follow” button?

Probably not blog posts about me! I keed, I keed.

This was fun!

Geakz · 1 year ago

Thanks for the link + words. I've since deep sixed my Twitter account - cold turkey - due to some vibe-y-ness I was getting. I was having flashbacks to both High School and AOL 4.0 chat rooms. Haven't missed it since.
Blog on.

James D Kirk · 1 year ago

Hey Geakz. Totally hear ya. I'm a hot and cold Twitter user. It only took me a couple of sessions of having a small number of tweets coming to my cell phone for that to get turned off! Since I started using it, I've tried various desktop (and when it was available, IM) applications for notifications. Lately, I've been using TwitterFox and that seems to give me about the right amount of distractions, though not uncommon for me to just turn it off in the browser's status bar.

As to the vibes, I honestly don't really get a whole lot of incoming so, I'll just take your word on that front. I can totally imagine, however!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you round about these parts again (you did subscribe to my feed, right? ;) )

Geakz · 1 year ago

Hey James - no doubt that Twitter has the attention of the social networking world - as there is no shortage of add-on functionality for the browser. This is a good thing. And because of this interaction factor, Twitter mileage will vary from user to user. I'm finding for myself that face-to-face communication can't be beat and there is no hiding behind a creative Avatar when it comes to interpersonal communication. Secondly, if I have to 'get my social fix' via the Web, I find that there is more satisfaction shaking hands via a Blogger's comment section, than anything else.
BG has been added to my feed. Blog on!