Why Are You Still Following Me?

1 Jun 2009

It boggles the mind.

I use social networks to share what I like. Sometimes people like what they see or hear and they decide to keep up with me. I post news links, blog posts, video posts, podcast posts, general thoughts, rambles, LOL cats, tech deals, and even the newest shiny social network tool. By doing all this, people follow me. They follow me on Twitter, they follow me on FriendFeed, they follow my blogs, and they follow my shows.

Periodically, I’ll increase my output on a topic I like such as sports, video games, and that newest shiny social network tool. This is what I get in return:

“Bwana, why are you posting so much?”
“Bwana, do you realize, you’ve posted 6 links in the last hour?”
“Bwana, are you going to go on and on about the nfl/nba/ncaa again?”
“Bwana, please stop tweeting so much”
“Bwana, would you stop talking about football so much”
“Bwana, please stop flooding my stream”
“Bwana, enough with the ________ links, we get it already!”

If I post something that annoys, bothers, or irks you, then why in the world are you still following me? Why do you put up with it? Think about it. If I were walking down the street with you following me and I decide to fart continuously for 3 hours, wouldn’t you get out of the way? Farts stink man! Move! If you don’t leave, you’re choosing to inhale the wondrous foul fumes of my farts. I say farts because apparently it’s something you don’t want to be around.

There’s the door ——–>

This is my thinking with the uproar about the Spymaster craze on Twitter. The almighty Leo Laporte decided to call me out on This Week In Tech, basically fingering me as “one of those Spymaster spammers”. I replied on the on the TWiT FriendFeed thread “Don’t worry Leo, I toned down my tweet settings quite a bit” But then, I got to thinking: I’m not tweeting that much and even if I was, why won’t he just unfollow me?

Spymaster is a game.
It’s fun.
People like it.

It utilizes the social reach of Twitter to encourage game play amongst friends and strangers. I did a review on EatWillGrow for iPhone which allows you to Tweet your high score, and it’s an effective mechanism to challenge someone. It’s the same principle here. Gamers like to talk trash. Gamers like to share their experiences with friends and strangers. Gamers are not afraid to tell you about a game they love.

I’m a gamer. I game. I play games. I play games with other people. I want to share some spymaster experiences with people on Twitter. If that annoys you, please, by all means, UNFOLLOW ME! Get from behind me! Stop reading what I do! Please! You can choose to unfollow the Bwana Spymaster spammer and be free from the “spam”.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Leo for calling me out in front of his listeners. I respect his opinion on the matter. I actually hope he unfollowed me on Twitter (and hid me on FriendFeed) as a result of my “spam”. If he didn’t, then I got to wonder why he puts up with it.

In case you’re wondering,I’ve posted a total of 11 spymaster tweets over the span of 2 days. Twitter search: “from:Bwana #spymaster”

I know, it’s brutal. I also post my video game activity using Raptr and GamerDNA. Spymaster shouldn’t be a huge change. Don’t blame me because Twitter’s filtering sucks. You got two choices: 1. Put up with it 2. Unfollow.

If you want the short version of this blog post: I don’t care what you think. It does annoy me when you complain [loudly] about what you don’t want to hear. It makes me want to unfollow you so I don’t have to put up with the complaining. Why won’t you just leave?

It’s your opinion for a reason, not mine. I’m not going to change what I do because you don’t like it. Get over it. Get over yourselves and take action. Unfollow, block, do whatever you feel is needed and you won’t hurt my feelings one bit. Yes, I said it.

Now, it’s time to assassinate some of these wanna-be spies.

*** Update: You can opt-out of Spymaster invites if your “friends” are blasting you with them. (Again, why are you following them again?)

Tags: followers, hashtag, leo laporte, social networking, spymaster, this week in tech, twit, twitter, viral, Web 2.0

12 Responses to Why Are You Still Following Me?

@AlanCayce

June 1st, 2009 at 3:40 am

You follow me on Friend Feed and I’m just now coming to terms on why I should use the service. Most of the post’s that come to my feed account are through twitter. Why do you still follow me? I think we follow, simply to know. You hold similar interest as I do, why wouldn’t I want to know the news you come by before I do? Why wouldn’t I want to know the games? There is a person I follow on twitter that annoys the hell out of me most the time, but every now and then tweets something I like. My “person to person” friends can annoy me to death, but thats only some of the time. Why would I kill a good relationship because I’m not happy with a few comments? I wouldn’t. Its like asking the question, why would someone post something they don’t wont everyone to see? It takes time to get to know peoples tendencies. The web reflects peoples REAL lives, whether people want to believe that or not. The web is not an exclusive club. The web is YOU viewed by the masses.

@kirkrarner

June 1st, 2009 at 6:10 am

I agree 100%, Bwana. If you’re watching something on TV and it starts to bother you, you change the channel. I’m not sure why people can’t understand this concept when it comes to social networking. If you’re following someone and they start to annoy you, just “change the channel” and unfollow him/her. It’s quite that simple.

@googa_mooga

June 1st, 2009 at 6:41 pm

Good for you, and you’re right, don’t worry about what anyone else thinks. . Keep your head up and do your thing.

Douceswild

June 23rd, 2009 at 12:33 pm

Here’s the problem with a lot of people these days: They expect everything to be to their liking and they want everyone else to conform to their liking. You’re absolutely right about just unfollowing someone if the info is not to your liking, but that’s not how the majority thinks, especially when it comes to the internet.

I tailor my internet habits around what I like, but I don’t expect everyone else to like what I like. People get annoyed when they allow you into their zone and start seeing things they don’t like about you. At that point, two things should happen.

1. Move on. Don’t stay.
2. Boot the other person from YOUR radar.

It’s that simple. Bwana, all you do is tweet about what you like. That’s what Twitter is about or used to be about. Let others know your interests. If you continuously about something you like, then it’s because you REALLY like it. If someone following you doesn’t like it as much as you, then MOVE THE FRACK ON! Quit being lazy and selfish and expect that person to conform to how YOU like your portion of the internet to be fed to you.

Don’t sweat Leo, dude. Sometimes people forget where they came from.