Twittering Egotists, Spammers, Reciprocators

Despite only ever posting two tweets, I have nonetheless found myself with seven followers. Do these followers really care what I have to say? Of course not; I doubt there are seven people in the whole world who care what I have to say. Instead, as I have no 'friends'(whichever meaning of the word you take) on twitter, my followers (and probably the majority) fall into three categories: Reciprocators, Spammers, Egotists.

Reciprocator: Those who follow you because you are following them.
Spammers: Those who follow you in the hope that you not only follow them, but buy whatever it is they are selling.
Egotists: That special sort of individual who is trying to sell themselves.

As with any classification system the boundaries are not particularly clear. A Reciprocator (mine is the infamous Scoble) may actually be an Egotist where you have got in there first. On the other hand I am not sure whether my latest follower (Jason Calacanis) would be best described as a Spammer or an Egotist. Is he selling himself or his company? Whilst I must admit I admired the ingenuity of the first Spammer I came across, it is a ploy that only worked the once, and now I don't always look to see who my new followers are.

Digging, Reddit-ing, Stumbling, and Tweeting this particular post, should satisfy my own egotism without following 16,000 others on Twitter.

Classifying the web: Herding ADHD cats

When it comes to boring jobs I like to think I have had some of the worst: taking the shells off of hard boiled eggs, taking the green bits off of tomatoes, and, most recently, classifying web links. Yes, I can classify the links at home with a constant supply of coffee and the music of my choice, but it is still one of the most boring jobs. The reason: web pages come in ever imaginable form, mostly with no discernible purpose, with links placed just because the web owner can. Classifying the web is like herding ADHD cats.

The good and interesting sites that we visit every day are surrounded by a web of crap that we only usually trip across if we are unlucky. These are not necessarily offensive sites, just sites that are absolute rubbish: spam, half-formed, badly written, orphaned. Classifying the web means that we have to wallow in this web of crap. Its not like classifying a library of books, but rather like classifying a whole world of which 90% is the council rubbish tip.