Twitter Pruning

I thought when I first started my Twitter account that if someone followed me, I would automatically follow them. That sounds fair, doesn't it? It did to me as well. I wondered why I saw so many uneven accounts, or what I call uneven anyway, where an account has 500 following but only 250 followers. I understand that a bit clearer today. To begin with, we aren't all at Twitter for the same reason. If our reasons don't mesh at all, they may actually conflict, and in the end, keep us out of some streams.
Twitter is a direct reflection of society as a whole and reacts in very much the same ways that society acts in that it has cliques, groups, and little reactionary ebb and flows of emotions. People, on Twitter, the same as in a physical setting, automatically know that when greeted with a large group of people for the first time, the odds are high that some, if not most of them, will not become friends with either each other or you.
As I settle into Twitter, I am both looking for my comfort spot, my "place", my niche, and explaining my reason for being there. While I am a businessman, I have no wares to peddle. While I am a blogger, I don't overtly push this or any of my blogs upon anybody. I don't need to network for my business to survive, nor do I feel an overwhelming urge to collect Friends or "followers" as a competitive sport. I have no need to appear supremely important, nor do I have an intense desire to align myself with any politically obsessed group. I do, however, enjoy being active with anyone or groups of peoples who are willing to maintain the simplest of human social skills. I do not care what color you are, if you are female or male, single or married, gay or straight, what your IQ is, or even what you are selling, so long as its not the only thing that I hear about from you. Which leads me directly into today's topic; Pruning my Twitter list.
I pruned my Twitter list today extensively. I did not do this out of malice or anger for anyone or anything in particular, but rather as a reaction towards what my stream was either lacking or seeing. I set out to make a few rules that I intend to follow while on Twitter. Well, how about one rule.

1. If you follow me, I will follow you.

There are exceptions however;

A. If you ask me to nominate you for anything, anywhere, I will un-follow you. If you have to ask for an award, you don't deserve it in my opinion, and its my vote you are asking for, I will do with it what I choose, including refraining alltogether.
B. If you never reply to any tweets directed @YOU. I know people get busy and one or two may slide by for a day or maybe even two, but never bother replying when I see you Tweeting all day? Bye!
C. If ALL you ever Tweet is about your blog, your MLM scheme, Get Rich Quick Ideas, and never take a breath. Adios amigo!
D. If your Tweet is so full of #Hashtags that it no longer resembles the english language, I'm cutting you free. If you don't know what that means, you have nothing to worry about. UPDATE: I'm now one of those people, so if it bothers you, you may unfollow me.
E. If you RickRoll me with a tiny.url I will ditch you. If I wanted to play those games, I'd hang out at /b/ on 4Chan.
F. If you inundate my stream with Blip.fm (or any music stream app) links, I will drop you. I'm on Blip.fm as well, but I don't feed my Tweets from Blip, so I don't want your feeds either!
G. The least heinous thing you can do to get dropped is to drop me. I don't get mad, sad, hurt or upset. It just means things didn't work out between us. We have different goals, ideas, direction, that's all. No hard feelings friend, go in peace.
1. An exception to this subrule is; You are extremely funny, wise, give good ideas, Make me laugh, You are interesting, that kind of thing.

Another thing about me that you might find strange is that I can't stand bots. If you can't take the few seconds to click on my profile and give me a benefit of a doubt, then maybe I don't need to follow you. This hatred of bots probably comes from the IRC network where bots would actually run the channel. You could get kicked off chat simply for saying the days secret word. That was stupid.

I know this post makes me come across as some type of jerk, but I really am not. If you are following me I am very glad to have you do so. I don't think I am better than you, nor am am I less than you. I will respect you and respond to you as long as you do the same. I look forward to many happy Tweets with all of you.

Tim
These are subject to change without notice.

Why we shouldn't need a blogging code of conduct

Bloggers everywhere got a kick to the gut when a CNN iReporter falsely reported that Steve Jobs was rushed to the hospital with a severe heart attack.

CNN's iReport, Original Story

"Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable. I haven't seen anything about this anywhere else yet, and as of right now, I have no further information, so I thought this would be a good place to start. If anyone else has more information, please share it." - johntw

CNN was quick to withdraw, and right to do so. Could it be any more vague? How could anybody take something written this way seriously? It wreaks of ruse.
I was a student journalist in college, and this "piece" breaks nearly every rule they taught us. This isn't a story, its gossip fodder, and it belongs in "The national Enquirer", and poorly written even for their standards.
A statement quickly surfaced that said, in part,

“iReport is an entirely user-generated site where the content is determined by the community. Content that does not comply with Community Guidelines will be removed. After the content in question was uploaded to iReport, the community brought it to our attention. Based on our Terms of Use that govern user behavior on iReport, the fraudulent content was removed from the site and the user’s account was disabled.”

The key word here is user-generated, meaning John Doe public. We don't know who this person was that generated this false iReport, or why. Some have speculated that its sole purpose was to undermine The Apple Corporation, and shake an already unsteady stock market. The false news of Mr. Jobs untimely demise caused Apple stock to drop several points and cost its shareholders a great deal of money. While some were screaming for the iRorter's head, and calling for a SEC investigation, (There actually was one), let us not lose sight that it was an iReport. By their own definition an iReporter is a CNN end user. I don't think the problem is with the person that filed the fake Jobs story, but rather with people who use the iReport forum to get cutting edge, breaking news. Did the iReport give facts or names to back up the story? Did anybody follow up on them if they did? If this story caused so much strife that it affected Wall Street, am I to actually believe that not one single trader on the floor had the foresight to check the stories authenticity? Maybe I'm being naive, but I would have made at least one phone call before I sold Apple short, and I'm not even a fan boi.

Had I clicked on the guys/girls iReport and seen a video of Steve Jobs on a gurney clutching his chest, then maybe I would have thought, "Hey, I think Steve-O just had a coronary!" but I don't think that was the case. So how did this story gain so much momentum? Perhaps because of the stories roaming the net about Jobs having pancreatic cancer.

We don't need a code of conduct for bloggers. What we need is plain old common sense! Those old adages of, "If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't", "If you can't say anything good about somebody, don't say anything at all." or the like, hold true even when blogging.