I love it when simplicity runs headlong into handy and Jubbly does just that.
That’s why I wanted to let you know about this free service because it’s one of those “desert island” sort of tools in the “if you could only have one tool to remind you of things” category.

From the Jubb.ly site itself:

Jubbly is a reminder service that will perform a function a few minutes before the time you specify. Just like Twitter, Jubbly accepts 140 characters. On the date you need reminding, Jubbly will Direct Message your Twitter account or send you an email.

Well, it’s true. It’s clean, it’s simple, it requires no sign up, no request to add all your private contacts to some spammy mail service, no log in – nuthin. It just does what it does and does it well and all it asks in return is if you want those private, direct messages from Twitter sent to you you need to follow @jubb_ly – which is a requirement of Twitter itself (that’s how private messages are sent).

Seriously, just visit the site, set up a reminder to pick up milk, roll the garbage and totes out to the curb on recycling day, whatever. You’ll appreciate this little gem.

Or worse… I’ve blocked you?

Let me ’splain about how I use Twitter and what my personal definition is of it.

First, I leave it open that Twitter is whatever you want it to be. So, if your views don’t jibe with mine that’s fine. Personally, I think Twitter is like the water cooler in the office. It’s like the copier room (you guys remember what photo copies are, right?). Granted, there are times when it is one of the most dynamic and far-reaching water coolers one could imagine (like during earthquakes, protests, conflicts, life and death, etc.). Like a water cooler it, too, can be a source of misinformation.

However, for the most part, it’s a water cooler for me.

Sometimes I chit chat about unimportant thing. Sometimes I reach out to potential clients or get contacted myself. So, the personal and business uses are intermingled at any given time. There’s a lot of in-between content, too and that’s fine by me. I follow people because they provide something valuable in the same scope. I follow other Tweeps because they entertain me, they are my friends, they’re my peers, or maybe they’re an expert in a field I desire hearing more about.

However, I consistently have less and less time for certain types of Twitter users and, because of my first definition of Twitter (It is whatever you want it to be) I make no apologies for not following someone – or worse yet, blocking them.

Keep in mind, sometimes it takes me a while to check out a new follower and determine if I want to follow them in return. I’m getting better at making that decision sooner than later but sometimes I just don’t get around to it for a while. When I do make a choice to not follow it’s usually because:

1. You don’t give me enough to go on. Your bio is empty, you have only a few Tweets and I can’t discern if you’ve got anything of interest that I want to add to the endless stream of Tweets occupying my feed every day. That’s not a judgment against you – it’s a fact: I can’t see what you’re all about so, if I had to make a decision at the moment, I say “thanks for following me but sorry I won’t be following you at this time.” I can say that because I’ve got almost 5,000 Tweets under my belt at the time of this entry… I believe people can make a decision on following me just fine. No hard feelings, though, okay?

A little suggestion, though… if you intend to follow people and are surprised you’re getting so few in return… fill out your damn bio and post a few things of interest. Nobody wants to follow a non-existent account with “Hello Twitter world.” as the only thing to their name. You might be a wallflower in the offline world but the online world sometimes requires a little more to go on. A’ight?

2. You give me more than enough to go on and I don’t care for it. Sorry, fact of life. Sometimes there are just people I don’t want to listen to. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s me? No, it’s not you – it’s me… it’s just not right, I’m not ready for a new relationship right now but I’m sure you’re really sweet and someone will be very lucky to hook up with your Tweets. Maybe we can be non-Tweeting friends- the kind that never actually talk or share? Would that be okay?

Hey, what can I say? I try to surround myself with people that fit the descriptions I gave earlier. I try to avoid people that mess with my Chi. They’re lucky I let them post on this blog but I don’t want to hear from them regularly on Twitter. In general, though, I prefer to surround myself with people that bring positive, constructive and forward momentum to my day. That’s good juju. It’s not that I don’t care about your illness, problems at work, crappy Monday, pain in the ass client, or whatever. I do. Those things alone won’t make me avoid you on Twitter. Life is life and life happens whether we like it or not. I’m talking about a trend of undesirable online communication. If I can spot a negative or undesirable trend in a series of 140 characters or less… chances are the rest of what you have to offer might be more than I wish to listen to. Since it’s up to each person to subjectively decide what bangs their rocks together and what kills their buzz I accept anyone could make the same call on me. It’s cool, we’re still groovy.

3. I blocked you? You’re sh*ttin me. Really? Well, maybe it’s because I don’t think you’re worthy of beholding the blipfish, huh?

Maybe you creep me out? It’s possible that, when I look at your bio and Tweets, there’s something that tells me that you don’t have good intentions in why you followed me and I’ll have no part in being on your list of minions for others to see nor for you to read the greatness which are my regular Tweets.

Maybe you’re just a spammer? Yah, that’ll get you not only not-followed but blocked because I won’t bolster your following-statistics, I won’t give you additional market research, I won’t associate myself with you or your product, service, cause, or scam. What’s worse is that, if I get the impression you’re a dud and the only reason you found me is you’re using some service like TwitterHawk to scour for keywords to score scam-bait… I’ll not only block you but I’ll also send a spam report to Twitter. You might be surprised at how many people I can check up on 48 hours later that had thousands of people they followed only to be a suspended account. So, don’t underestimate the power of Twitter’s simple and convenient spam reporting and my willingness to use it.

4. You annoyed the blipfish. Want to know one of the best ways to get unfollowed by me? Automatic or repetitive posts telling me what you’re listening to every five freaking seconds, nothing but a series of affiliate crap one after the other telling me about some great product complete with a TinyURL link, retweets of quotes from other people because you can’t get enough of a daily helping of “Inspirational Quotes” pumped to your own damn desktop every day, or generally self-serving “buy my sh*t” posts barely disguised as anything more than “buy my sh*t” posts. If I want to learn about SEO or some quote from Sun Tsu – I’ll Google for it. I honestly don’t require you to Tweet tips, tricks, quotes, and other balloon juice all day. Your attempts at “Social Marketing” are bad enough without buying into the theory that people want to hear you regurgitate what others have said a million times in a million other places. As I said – you can be replaced by a Google search.

The blipfish is glad to hear about stuff you genuinely like, music you sincerely love, a new gadget you just bought and want to tell others about, or a word of wisdom you felt so strongly about you just had to shout it out to the rest of us. I commend you for these things because you felt passionate enough about them to take a second and share.

However, if you are just gaming the system or too lazy to type 140 characters to tell me about it but instead have an automated script telling me you’re listening to “Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus” …I’d be grateful if you’d shut your gob. Since I know it’s not my place to tell you to shut your gob I’ll just unfollow you. Maybe I’ll let you know you have a booger on your nose to give you a chance to reconsider but hey, Twitter is for you to use the way you see fit so who am I to force my views upon you, right? So, I unfollow. Enjoy the electronica.

I’d be following more people if I followed all who keep track of me. My statistics show this. I don’t believe in the nonsense as to a magic ratio, that Twitter is about following more than being followed or more about being followed than who you follow. I think Twitter is whatever you want it to be and I don’t pay attention to my statistics (I had to go look them up just to write this blog entry).

I’d have way more followers if I didn’t block so many. I’m sure I’d be more impressive to others if they saw my follower-count higher but I can’t worry about that. I’m in it not for the numbers but for the quality… the human quality.

So, if you’re on my list of people I follow then I think it’s fair to say I really value you and what you offer in such a tiny format such as Twitter. As you can tell… I’m kinda’ particular. You must be special.

http://www.Twitter.com/blipfish

Okay, it must be synchronicity that makes me blog this little topic but I had three people this week express similar reservations (or questions) to one another about what Twitter seemed appropriate, or inappropriate for. I guess that’s as good of a reason to bring it up here as any?

One person thought it odd to use Twitter at all, considering instant messaging was similar. Another comment suggested that the privacy of broadcasting to so many people was problematic. The most recent mention was about the understandably odd idea of using Twitter to organize groups of people (such as business travelers arriving for a conference) for things such as dinners, cab sharing, etc.

These are things I understand completely and can’t argue with because I had similar doubts or reservations before I began using Twitter.

Surprisingly, these are exactly the sort of things that catapulted Twitter to the level it’s currently at.

During the SxSW (South by Southwest) conferences Twitter users frequently (obsessively, actually) tweeted (publicly broadcasted) interesting or, in their opinion, uninteresting talks, seminars, and presentations and even the conference promoters cited huge, dynamic flows of attendees between events. I won’t go into the small but Tweetery group that caused a Twitter ruckus during one of the events.

Then, the craziness really began: the after-parties. It was awash with Tweets like “After party Bigelows @ 10th and Main with @soandso @soandso” – and people knew where to go and who was there all without a single phone call. Needless to say some of these things would require multiple phone calls (and perhaps long distance charges).

So, as bizarre as it might be, Twitter (especially in the SF Bay Area) has taken on a life of its own for these sorts of things.

I think some people also like to be a little geeky-voyeuristic and maybe participate vicariously through tweets.

It’s cool. Some people use Twitter as a mini-IM (not my favorite but I’m guilty of it too when my HD crashed and I lost my IM’s). Some use it as a random train-of-thought way of expressing short ideas. Others use it as a nonstop marketing machine (something I despise). However, I think that’s the first appeal of Twitter – the “use it as you like” element.

There’s also an element of instantaneous communication – but without the need to reply or have pre-existing relationships with the people involved. An instant messenger usually requires a person to send and have approved either an invite request or permission. This isn’t always reciprocated, either. Twitter allows anyone to follow the musings of another without permission – by default.

I follow people I have no prior relationship with and, realistically, probably never would have had it not been for Twitter. I could read their comments, respond back, and if they chose to ignore me… it was never a rejection. However, if they chose to respond… that opened a door in a controlled and measured way that private email or instant messaging makes difficult.

I wouldn’t ever broadcast something on Twitter I wouldn’t be willing to say in an office full of coworkers, of course. However, it’s not unusual to read things that are obviously intended for others (and therefor a little cryptic) but innocuous.

My general instinct is that Twitter will find its way but it works many ways for many people and it’s they who will determine its core usefulness – providing the company can either muster the tweeticles to deal with their internal issues (including scalability) or hire/sell off to a firm that can. This is a post for another day, though.

Thanks to Action Datsun for the wallpaper image.

In particular, I’d like to invite you to not only join Twitter (if you’re not already on it) but to follow me (and likely my following you in return).

Twitter is incredibly valuable – particularly to those of us who must network online for the majority of our connections.

Personally, I use Twitter a lot for casual questions, tapping peers on the shoulder, or just keeping up on things that aren’t worth an email but I want to explore with others.

So, if you haven’t already joined me – I invite you to do so! We might have a lot to learn from one-another and adding more, great communication tools is a good thing.

~ Follow Blipfish on Twitter!

I know, it wasn’t that long ago that I posted comments about my concerns for Twitter – but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it (quite the contrary)… I just have concerns about how Twitter might be perverted by those seeking the next-gen attention-getting-spam-effect.

However, by and large, I like Twitter. I’ve heard many reasons expressed, by others, as to why they like Twitter but for me – it’s all about the water cooler.

I think I give the “water cooler” factor such high marks because my life took a dramatic turn some years ago and I’m getting more and more entrenched in it – I became self-employed and work from a home office.

I have a pretty high tolerance for reclusiveness. The internet is a great way to enjoy reclusive socialization (is there such a thing?). Twitter, however, is beyond email and news aggregators (the latter being something I think is a thing of the past). Twitter isn’t as formal or demanding of a response as an email. It’s also not as “official” as a blog post. Instead, for me, Twitter fills a void in my work-from-home-life I’ve missed for a long, long time – congregating around the water cooler (or photocopier or whatever) and just sharing tidbits of information for a minute or two, or until the boss comes down the hall.

Twitter can be as spontaneous or well-thought-out as you want it to be. It can be trivial (“hey, I just ate cheese!”) or it can be important (“I was laid off of my job today.”). With the 140 character limit it’s sometimes just intrinsically funny because of brevity (“Burritos shouldn’t require salt. Yet, here we are.). Heck, the obtuseness of Twitter posts (called “tweets”) is often worth the price of admission (“Damn right it’s OCD, dog-pimp!”).

It all brings back the valuable water cooler experience. Sometimes you read things that you won’t read elsewhere. Sometimes you read things you wish hadn’t just taken second out of your life to read. Other times you read things that entertain or simply let you know you’re not stuck in your own echo chamber.

So, for me, after all its other good qualities, I value Twitter because I can loiter around and hear the gurgling sound and watch the bubbles every time I press the button.

Twitter: the online, 140-characters-or-less way to broadcast or listen to comments from other users around the world. It’s social, business, personal, and everything in-between. It’s a real-time connection between real humans and the things they are willing to share in short, quick blurbs. If you “follow” a person on Twitter you’ll be able to read what they type into their Twitter account and others can do the same for you. Think of it like a lot of people around a virtual water-cooler chatting, talking, or picking up bits and pieces of other conversations. It’s a big deal. I find it interesting. I’m fascinated by it all.

…I’m a little concerned.

Perhaps what kicked it off was a good article from Robert Scoble entitled “The secret to Twitter.”

Essentially, I interpreted his post to be about the value of exchange… of listening – not just of being listened to. What I took away from his post was that the true value of Twitter is that so many people can share and learn from one another – that he (as he would remind any of us) grow more because expanding our circle of who we listen to is more important than who we try to gain the attention of. I also took away that there’s value in not just listening to those we might normally hear… the value is in variety and different points of view.

There’s no way I’ll argue with him.

I’m concerned, though, something got taken the “wrong” way – and it might be unfortunate because, if I’m correct, his lesson was intended to be the opposite.

…”follow more people and they’ll follow you then everyone will eventually be focused on you!”

I fear that’s the message some people walked away with – or they ignored the message and went with a tactic they could use.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because the day Robert made that post was also the day I noticed other people’s “followers” count skyrocketed. It’s just something I paid attention to. I’m noticing the increase as well – along with some Twitter spam and seemingly unrelated people following me.

It’s not really quantifiable, yet, so I’m not saying this is something definitely happening. However, I’ve read other blog and Twitter comments to the effect of “How I gained 100 subscribers in 24 hours!” or “Gain Twitter Fame Overnight” …or similar.

No, no… I’m not saying Robert Scoble is to blame. There may not be anything to blame at all. I just think his wise words timed out to something I’ve observed and, the nature of people being what it is, makes me suspect a certain segment of the Twitter universe took those words and ran with them. I could be totally wrong, too… his post may have no bearing on what I think I’m observing but he does have a large following and makes good points which, by some, could be appealing to pervert.

So, are we going to see a rash of people using the tactic of following thousands of others in hopes of expanding their circle for the sheer purpose of being listened-to when they talk? Is the hope to create a built-in marketing machine where gaining listeners (followers) is the next big thing since email spam?

…or, since Twitter is all about voluntarily listening and following it’s all good and we get out of it what we put into it? No harm done?

I had a very quick exchange with Robert Scoble yesterday on Twitter regarding the inevitability of Twitter introducing ads to monetize the service (I told him I will blissfully live in ad-free denial as long as possible, by the way). This was yesterday.

…that exchange is already searchable on Google!