eddyfate

Why do people take social networking sites so seriously?

I'm not being glib or hyperbolic here. I have heard of people falling to pieces over being unfollowed from Twitter. I have seen individuals get really upset that they didn't get friended back on Facebook. I have had folks email me asking why I hate them because I stopped reading their LiveJournal. And it has recently come to my attention that certain choices I've made on such sites have made people upset, assuming that I somehow hate them or wish them ill because of my choices.

Perhaps I have a really strange way of handling social networking. I look at it as a source of information and entertainment. If that source no longer has useful information for me, I stop reading it. If it's no longer entertaining, I cut it. And certainly, if reading it frustrates me or makes me upset, I sure as hell turn it off.

Am I missing something? Are we so wrapped up in our need to be connected, networked, plugged in, up to date and making our utter personal trivia constantly available to the known universe that any quiet departure from our onslaught of hastily hammered out insights means that it's some personal attack that either must be challenged as an affront or requires a vitriolic screed decrying the silent dissenter as a petty, obnoxious bastard equivalent to a village idiot? Or can I possibly make my own decisions about personal relationships with people without checking in with some website's idiosyncratic etiquette?

If the little number on your website showing how many people are reading your inane crap is more important to you than actually talking to a human being, then please do me a favor and stop reading this journal now. Seriously. I won't even be offended or upset. I've had people ask me if they can stop reading my journal, and you know what? Not only was I not mad about it, but I was pretty confused as to why I was being asked. Why are you asking me? It's your life. Read what you want, connect with who you want, and do what the hell you want.

I appreciate that you respect my feelings, but you know what really earns my respect? Talking to me and giving a shit about me as a person instead of caring more about my hotlinks. If you don't respect me that much, that's cool. Just because a website says we're friends doesn't mean we have to be. I'm okay with that -- are you?

Am I way off base here?

Edit: It seems I talked about this a year ago, too.

Edit 2: Within half an hour of posting this, I got a bunch of new Twitter followers. Huh.

All players in "Flame War Bingo," please mark off the following squares:

* I Am Not A Lawyer (But I Play One On the Internet)

* Massive Backpeddling

and

* Psychotic Douchebag.

Also, a correction to the previous turn. It was correctly pointed out that Godwin's Law is, in fact, a free square in Flame War Bingo. Our apologies for the mistake!

All players in "Flame War Bingo," please mark off the following squares:

* Physical Threats over Minutia

* Logic Drowned Out by Gibbering Stupidity

and, of course

* Godwin's Law

Anyone have a full card yet?

You've Got The Touch Craig is trying to kill me.

Optimus Prime Obamize! Pointed out to me by oakthorne

Berkeley offers a class in Starcraft.

What's next, a class in porn appreciation? OH WAIT.

Person A: "Hey, I bought a copy of one of your books on PDF, and I want to print up a few copies at Kinko's to sell. Is that cool?"

Me: "No. You can print one copy for personal use."

Person A: "What if it's given away instead?"

---

Person B: "Hey, if you want free PDFs of old White Wolf books, just let me know."

Me: "Actually, those books are still being sold through DriveThruRPG and other affiliated stores, like FlamesRising. You can't just give copies of those away."

Person B: "Well, I wasn't going to give it to them. Just upload it to a website for them to download. I'm not responsible for who downloads it."

---

There's got to be a line between genuine cluelessness about PDF intellectual property rights and not taking five seconds to think about what you're saying.

This picture, taken at ICC 2008, is a beautiful summary of my relationship with the fanbase. (Thanks to Derek Barrow for taking the pic!)

Interacting with the fans Picture taken at the Global Q&A at ICC 2008.

It's kind of amazing to get back onto an email list you unsubscribed from two years ago, only to discover that they're still arguing about the exact same shit.

Invictus-OOC, I salute your tenacity.

From banzaigrrl in IM just now:

WHO BOOKED THAT CRAP?!

Edit: For those who want a reference and don't mind spoilers, here's the writeup for the PPV.

So much weird and fucked-up shit has crossed me and Merry's desk today that I actually taped up a sheet of paper, wrote "WHAT?!" across the top and started keeping track of it. From 2pm until now, the count's already at six, and I'm sure if I had started this morning it would have been double that.

Optimus Lantern Optimus Prime as Green Lantern.

Thanks to xambrius for pointing this out to me.

Today I go to my (new and correct) skull base specialist. Even though I haven't had my ears looked at in about nine months, they're still clear, healthy and intact. I'm going back in six months for a checkup. Also, my hearing is a little better in my left ear and a little worse in my right, so it's evening out.

Then, I got back to my office, and as I tried to migrate my Mac mini away from my BlackBerry so I can ditch it for the new iPhone, I caused my calendar to be completely wiped out (which my iPhone dutifully copied). I had to drive back home and get my BlackBerry to get my calendar, and then the BlackBerry copied it over before it wiped itself. I managed to pull the plug before it wiped the calendar on the Exchange server, but it's caused a lingering problem with my Entourage calendar. At the end of the day I got it all mostly working, but I had to do some weird judo to get my 280 tasks out of the BlackBerry and into a form that could replicate to my iPhone, my Mac and on the internet (Toodledo.com plus the iPhone app Todo, if you're interested).

As I came home from work, Michelle was pretty freaked out. Turns out she found a spent bullet shell about six feet from our bedroom window when she was walking Puck. It was in the middle of the sidewalk, and she picked it up to look at it before she realized what it was.



We talked to the management, and got a "well, the manager isn't here, but she'll call you tomorrow." Seems that shootings aren't worth a call at 6pm. Wouldn't want to upset the manager after work hours, would we?

I went back to the apartment and started the lengthy process of transferring my tasks into my iPhone, when the power went out in the apartment complex. By that point, I had pretty much had it, so I went to have Mexican while carefully typing the tasks into my tiny iPhone keyboard.

That day sucked. I'm ready for the next one now.

Ken Hite told me while I was drunk at Origins that I'm a "B- talent." He amended that he grades fairly.

Note: I'm pretty sure this was a joke. Obviously I'm closer to B+. ;)

Greg Stafford gives his thumbs-up for the print-on-demand versions of Pendragon 5th and The Great Pendragon Campaign.

The Exalted forumites are creating legends around my comments regarding Dreams of the First Age on PDF.

More as I continue to dig my way out.

And now, you all have to suffer with me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-zFBj0QwQo

So, this will only be funny for people who know me and Michelle, but I still post it because I find it awesomely hysterical.

For those who don't know, my wife Michelle (greebotrill) was recently appointed the Master Storyteller of the Camarilla. Regardless of what you think of that decision, the point is that my wife now is the head Storyteller for the White Wolf official fan club. I, of course, work for White Wolf, although my job has very little to do with the Camarilla at all (and has nothing to do with overt oversight or authority in the organization -- in essence, I'm just another member that can't draw the line between where my work ends and my hobby begins).

Anyhow, apparently there's a rumor circulating around now that if I say "no" to anything in the Camarilla, Michelle has to listen. To this I respond thus:

[ahem]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

I want to live in that fantasy world where Michelle does whatever I say without questioning me. Seriously.