The Way of Things

I thought I was going to make it all the way through Festivus and Christmas, maybe even so far as into the next year, without a serious grievance.  Silly me.  Looks like I have a grievance to air after all.  Have you heard of Twitter?  Oh, good.

Out in the virtual world of social media, I've made a habit of mentioning users with whom I've enjoyed conversing or whom I've felt were otherwise worth recommending that people follow.  From what I have observed, it's a routine practice.  It seems as though it's part of being social: passing information about interesting content between users.  The people behind the curtain running Twitter say that's not what Twitter is for and that for me to continue such abuse of their system will result in the permanent suspension of my account.  I've been engaged in the practice for quite a while and really had no idea it was a bother.  I still don't see a problem with it, having received a multitude of grateful responses from other users who seemed to enjoy being a part of the whole networking aspect of the process.

Well, what do we know?

Apparently, that's not what Twitter is for.

I suppose it's still OK to retweet things.  "Retweet" made it into the dictionary, so I'd guess they don't want to torpedo that one.  "Mentioning" was in the dictionary long before even Twitter, so they'd have a hard time claiming that one.  That may be why they don't have the same feeling of attachment to it.

So...if you're a fellow twit, retweeting content is OK, just don't tell anyone who you've been talking with about it.  If you're with the NSA or any other part of the government's alphabet soup, you already know who we've all been talking with and don't care how we feel about you knowing so long as we don't tell anyone else what we all already know about what you've been doing because you want us to pretend it's a secret that we don't know so you can follow what we're up to without us knowing you're there.  It's OK, really.  We're posting in a public media forum.  We're sharing freely.  Hell, they used to be called "bulletin boards".  Sometimes we still call them "community forums".

They're about sharing.  I'm pretty sure that's what we're there to do.

Shows what I know.

One other thing I do know is that bitching about a problem is easy.  It doesn't accomplish as much as doing something about the problem.  So, since I prefer lighting candles to cursing darkness, below are the Twitter handles I'll no longer be sharing on Twitter, but still encourage people to follow if they're so inclined.  Some are writers, others are artists, and some are just people who like to chat or share things you might like to read.  None have been arranged in any particular order, nor have they done anything else special to be added to the list.

@amberrisme @Princess_Nadian @RahimaWarren @DARREN_POOLE @badredheadmedia @sue_whitehouse

@MichelleHughes_ @RachelintheOC @Toonopolis @Pseudohumanist

@ApiarySociety @YogaChikk @Sexxiimanda @KathleenHagburg @KatherynLane @dkkauwe

@Georg_Grey @Literarygrrrl @torque10 @TGLong @RayneHall @Murphyverse @WriterCath

@Frecklesmiley @Kendallgrey1 @TheNeedsofMany @BlakeBooks @Hyphend @juttaheitland @SapphicPixie

@deann_native @littlecinnamon @KnightTrilogy @smreine @AuthorGuy @daezarkian @ToxZak

@K_Einsel @TameTheDrew @SJtheWordsmith @MrsDenAsaan @JulieALindsey @writerredux @aniaahlborn

@LukeRomyn @Lesism @seams16 @kaitnolan @TheNerdyBird @Superherologist @pat_preston @Lillith_Black

@borderfox116 @linesbylyons @LettersbyLisa @AndyHolloman @AllanDouglasDgn @KimberlyKinrade

@AmberWest @louise3anne @EvilVulcanChick @Buck_Fachmann @CMCCreations @Macdougall4

@CassidyJonesAdv @CorinneOFlynn @2r3al2real @brackenonline @CeiCeiH @Killpandakill @MichWritesBooks

@KarenCousineau @almahoffmann @DaddyBookins @leo_g18 @KeeraMcKinney @Ambertarian @Jarrett

@Janice_Hardy @KravensQueen @JROrtiz59 @paultlowe @SandraBunino @mpax1

@djkazoosa @TX_Lisa @DashaBabenko @wilkravitz @SherAHart @sharleenj @Rob__Shepherd

@THESEXXIIMANDA @MonicaInGearMag @lkblackburne @seedpearls @markaleshin @TiredFairy

@MeMyselfandI444 @Asperger_Mom @Kelsye @CuttingRoomMRB @HarveyBurgess

@wanderingstarz1 @DetFrankFrank @DESIRE3795 @dontkillkenny19 @kcrhoads1 @LZMarieAuthor

@gingergander @markfromkent @omaraburtot @chanelle1977 @cheryl_777 @chessmaster34

@natolifreelance @djkazoosa @tattooeddeadgrl @nittni3 @bonusmum @troisfeuilles 

@Clive_SJohnson @NathanTarantla @rpdahlke @MaxChina3 @MondayBlogs @Lilo_Abernathy

16355-- Look, I've only got two feet!

I'm not troubled or disturbed by social media as a concept.  I think the whole thing provides us wonderful tools for reaching out to others.  If you just want to connect with other people, great.  If you're marketing, even better.

The thing that bothers me is that I think we (collectively) might end up with more platforms than we can handle standing on.

Let's be real, there hasn't been a social networking site yet that has given us the ultimate product that answers all of our needs.  They rise, look pretty, draw a crowd and then fade into obscurity when the next one comes along.  All these users must be moving around for something.  We're looking for the next better thing, I figure.

After the great MySpace migration to Facebook, MySpace (who?) was left a virtual ghost town, suffering the effect it had inflicted on its more primitive predecessor.  After Facebook got settled in, though, something different happened.  When Twitter came on the scene, it was different from Facebook.  It was so different, it was slow to catch on with people.  Once it did catch on, users realized the two were different enough that they could coexist.

OK, so Facebook and Twitter have been complementing each other and both are used for social networking and marketing.  Great.  Many contacts have been made and many friends have been contacted and contacts made on each platform have been duplicated on the other.

Now, Google+ has entered the picture.  The most common type of message I've read regarding Google+ thus far has been asking what the purpose of Google+ is.  Admittedly, I have yet to look at it myself.  I've been busy.  I have noticed a few people on Twitter indicating that they were exploring it and then reporting back some of their findings.  Some of those people have extended invitations amongst Twitter followers.

I have to wonder, though, how useful it would be for me to spend time connecting with a smaller number of people on yet another network whose population has been culled from a network I'm already active on.  Fifty of us go off to another place to chat amongst ourselves and then go back to the first place to repeat ourselves to our original, larger network?  There must be a better use of our time.

And leave it to Microsoft to think they have the answer to that.  Microsoft folk have announced their intent to also leap into the social network arena.  This is insane.  How many platforms can one person stand on? 

How long before individuals collapse under an overload from the self-induced media onslaught.  Unless these different platforms are going to talk with each other on some common ground while offering different features and interfaces for their users, like cell phone companies or ISPs, then I may have to look into hiring a staff to keep up with the social networks and then I can just talk with them.

16265--Setting the World on Fire

Let's start with the obvious: I'm a writer.  Yes, I'm writing a blog, so here's the proof I can string a few coherent sentences together.  I've also written for newspapers and magazines and produced a bunch of short stories years ago that I'm contemplating re-exposing to the light of day.  My true passion is for longer work, though.  I'm a novelist at heart.  It takes more time, but it's the storytelling form that seems to work for me.  If you haven't already, check out "The Official Private Eye Handbook", the first book in my City of Magick series.


Oh, my, blatant self-promotion!  How crass.  Well, it stems from the reason behind my even writing this blog at all.  Let's face facts: if I'm a novelist, why isn't this a novel?  Does Harlan Ellison have to tear himself away from his Olympia to resort to this?  How about Grant Morrison?  You bet they do.  Why is Neil Gaiman unleashing Tweets to tell me what he's up to from day-to-day?  Like any religion, if  it wants to build up an audience, it's all about the marketing.  That's why human sacrifice stopped figuring in at all the temple services: it's just not popular and you're dissolving your base of loyal followers.


Welcome to the 21st Century!  Just as anyone who wants to make a video or produce music can make it available to the world via the internet, writers can do the same with any chain of words we choose to string together.  Self-publishing is on the rise, but with that comes even more self-marketing.  To put it another way: you can write whatever you like, but if you want anyone to know it exists for reading, you're going to have to find a way to tell a lot of people about it.  Spreading the word and standing out in the crowd today means public speaking, promotional appearances, article writing, blogging, using the social networks and giving stuff away.  The prize, should all go well of course, is creating sufficient commercial success to not have to engage in most of the marketing grind personally any longer.  We do surround ourselves with delightful ironies to get us through, don't we?


So, along with the writing, an endeavor the aforementioned Mr. Ellison has described as one of the most difficult of human undertakings, this new age of independence has also saddled writers with the task of stimulating interest among potential readers.  Unfortunately, that stimulation doesn't come by simply producing more writings.  In order to sell the work and himself, essentially, the writer must engage in myriad supplementary tasks that have little if anything really to do with the work they want the world to take interest in consuming.  I, for example, am writing you this blog about...this blog instead of working on "Murder at Wardenclyffe" (coming soon, be patient) and then "Fire and Blood".  It's sad, but if I didn't, how would you ever know how much you desperately want to read it.


And here we are, taking part in an experiment to find out what it'll take to get the readers of the world to salute once I've run my flag up the pole.  As always, whether I actually say it or not, thanks for your time and attention.


Phoenix