Andre

I finally took the time to sort through what I believe are all social and business networks I ever joined. There might be more but if so, then I just can’t remember them.

I personally am no fan of such networks but agree that they can be useful. The downside is a lot of time investment and efforts to keep things updated. Now I am only using Twitter, which gives me on any day more value than any other network I joined. The last time I made real friends and business connections is half a decade ago.

11 networks where I closed my account, sorted alphabetically:

• Doostang
  I can’t remember when nor why I joined but I know I never used it.
• Ecademy
  I joined it early on and engaged a bit but it was not much of a value to me an I didn’t use it for the past year or longer. Note: account only disabled, not deleted.
• FriendFinder
  I joined when this service started and it was a good time. I made some connections that still exist today, in real. Last time used: many years ago.
• Friendster
  I joined when this service started and it was a good time. I made  quite a number of connections that still exist today, in real. Last time used: many years ago actively, recently only for browsing updates of existing connections.
• LinkedIn
  I joined it early on and engaged a bit but it was not much of a value to me and I didn’t use it for the past year or longer.
• Orkut
  I just joined it when I saw it one day as an option in my Google account but I never used it.
• Ryze
  Not sure why I joined but it was early on. It soon switched to very limited features for free accounts so I didn’t use it for many years.
• Soflow
  I don’t even remember what that service was about but I found its name on a list I once had about services I joined. The service doesn’t even exist anymore.
• Xanga
  I joined it when profile pages of friends requested a login but I never actively engaged. Now all those friends have moved to Facebook.
• Xing
  Formerly known as OpenBC, I joined it early on and engaged a bit but it was not much of a value to me and I didn’t use it for a couple of years.
• Yahoo 360
  Never used it and they already closed the service.

If tweets, those 140 character messages sent on the Twitter service, are in fact nothing more than status updates and we personify objects, events and actions, then anything measurable can tweet.

The question everyone answers with their tweets is “What are you doing?”
The answer to that should be another counter-question: “Do we care to read?”

Even a simple tree could tweet about what it sees all day, how it interacts with insects, animals and the wind, how it grows, sheds leaves.. A private tweet to me by my laundry machine might still be useful to me at least but does the world need to know? Isn’t it enough already when I tell it to all in my own tweet stream?

Fictional accounts like @DarthVader are fun to read, and so are real, human accounts like @_Syma_. Both can’t tweet on their own and thus rely on real people who write their stories. However, this is only so long fun as it stays within the account’s personality.

Using Twitter as a micro-blog, the daily life of a tree indeed could turn into a beautiful story when carefully written – with a professional level of children books or poetry in mind. Otherwise it would turn into a dead branch of the twitterverse. Why not let an atom whine about its breakup? continue reading…

A thought about “followers” on Twitter versus “friends” on about most other social (network) services.

There is something seriously wrong with the usage of “friend” when people clean up their social lists by removing 100s of “unknown friends”. If those you follow on Twitter become real friends, it’s because you have learned something about them or have communicated with them first.

You “follow” people/services because you are interested in their updates. I personally don’t believe in the blind following out of courtesy. What I like about Twitter is that it is about “followers” and not like other sites where the whole world is your – often unknown – “friend”.

“Thx for follow” tweets can be annoying but when they are links to “thx for follow” pages with video and plenty of ads, it becomes terrible.

You can follow me on Twitter – and just maybe we might become friends.