DISQUS

I'm reading it now, and I generally agree with your points. But I do think, while suggesting the more "expensive" options for community building, such as Communispace, they focus adequately on the fact that it really should be as organic as possible - money not required. More or less, they focus on the fact that you have to find some way to listen to your community - how you do it is only limited by you! I suppose I'll have to follow up with my final thoughts once I've finished!

So, that was pretty adorable, but even if you don't have any sexy motivations, one can still take your advice ;) I've made many a platonic, lifelong connection with people (@magsmac is one of them; we went from mere acquaintances to BFFs and coworkers) via Twitter, and your points are sound - it's all about finding that common ground and building from there.

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!

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...!

I own a red 1GB Sansa myself, and its only downfall is its owner - because I have a Mac! It's not really designed to work seamlessly with Macs, but I make it work, and I default it to far more than I ever do my Shuffle. I love, love, LOVE the radio function - I can plug in some external speakers and listen to NPR while I'm putzing about the house. That was critical when I first moved into my new apartment and had no TV and no stereo! I've got lotsa love for it, I just wish my Mac felt the same :)

As a former Californian living in Texas, I support you.

A co-worker brought this to my attention when I sent this information out to our company:

Hahah you know what’s even funnier than that? They ripped that entire site directly from a tutorial on the Web site NETTUTS.

Tutorial: http://nettuts.com/site-builds/from-psd-to-html...
Working demo of the tutorial site: http://nettuts.s3.amazonaws.com/017_Creatif/Sit...
Cherp site: http://www.cherp.us/twitter_branding.html

They didn’t even bother to mix it up on the interior pages, either!
Cherp’s template pages: http://www.cherp.us/twitter_branding.html
Tutorial’s template pages: http://psdtuts.s3.amazonaws.com/99_Creatif/4_la...

Interesting.

Wishing I could live vicariously through my friends on Mashable's comments, just like Twitter.