Oh go twitter yourself
(Originally a comment to Venomous Kate’s post “Remember When The Web Was Anti-Social“, which you should go read first.)
It’s actually a pretty interesting point. I have zero internet/meatspace crossover.
Back when ryze.com existed (well I suppose technically it still exists. It’s just pointless now) I was a relatively hardcore member. People got pissed because I’d turn down their “friend” requests on the grounds of not having the faintest idea who the hell they were.
I think that “link everyone” behavior is what has diluted these things beyond any possible utility. When someone says “I’ll support you no matter what” it means “It doesn’t matter to me at all what you do.” and this is the same thing.
Likewise I’ve never linked someone or added them to the blogroll because they’ve asked. You’re on my links if I read you. I’ll link to you in a post if you’ve said something of substance and I start leaving a comment that’s too long to be a comment. THEN I’ll go create a post and backlink.
You want me to link to your site? stop blegging and post something I might want to link to and I might get around to it, I might not. (The fact that WordPress makes it singularly difficult to “quickly” link ANYthing doesn’t really help matters much. Bookmarklets FTW there people.)
Eh, when I decided to make a post out of this I thought naively I might have a point eventually.
Guess not.