It's funny how circular the web can be.  This morning I was looking for people to add to my dailymile.com friends list.  I saw a user’s icon that I recognized and clicked to view his profile.  My click was prompted by lingering curiosity from last week.  I had followed this person on Twitter.  The individual is both a runner and someone in the tech field; it seemed like a relevant fit.  A few minutes later I received a direct message thanking me for the follow and referencing our common interest in running.  Interesting, I’d never been thanked for following before.  My first thought was, “Hmm, nice touch.”  My second thought was, “Has some sort of Twitter etiquette, no doubt labeled ‘Twetiquette’, evolved that encourages these social graces?”  I didn’t have time to reply at the time, but made a mental note to do so later.  That night I saw a tweet in the person’s feed, a blip.fm song reference about which I made an @reply comment.  Then I typed out a direct message and sent it off only to be told that I can’t send a direct message to someone who is not following me.  Strange.  I checked my small list of followers and, yep, I’d been quit.  Had the delay in my response to the afternoon’s direct message offended?  Now I felt like a lout, especially after making a presumably unwelcome @reply.  Better to just un-follow and move on.

Return to this morning where I’m reading through this person’s blog from the dailymile profile click through.  The second post catches my eye because it mentions Twitter and Qwitter.  Qwitter I learn is a service that will let you know when people stop following you.  And not only that but also the tweet you made immediately preceding when they stopped following.  That way you can parse your 140 or less characters to get a glimpse into the quitter's psyche.  Honestly, people, it’s just Twitter.  Is this kind of thing really necessary?  Before you say “Well of course not, Will” read on because at the end of his post there I was.  He was apologizing for having offended me to the point that I would quit him, complete with “Brokeback Mountain” reference.  Huh?

Well, as it turns out I hadn’t been quit.  I had mentally checked the box that said this person had followed me when I received the direct message when in fact he had not.  (I backtracked through my email trash and found no ‘This person is following you on Twitter’ message.)  I had not offended him by not responding, and he had not un-followed me.  I suppose I never would have made this mistake if I’d been using Qwitter because I would not have received a ‘This person is no longer following you on Twitter’ email.  Foolproof clarity for free.

My wife makes fun of me for using Twitter.  I can't say that I blame her, especially after wasting half an hour writing this post.  For me Twitter wanes while dailymile.com waxes.  I’m looking for camaraderie not an audience – not that having an audience is bad.  You’re reading this now.  Will I Qwit Twitter?  No, I’m going to stick with it for now.  I have some friends that are traveling overseas and they decided to use Twitter as a low bandwidth intensive way of sharing their experience.  After that, who knows?  It’s not every day that you get have this kind of convoluted misunderstanding with a person you’ve never met.

I like Craig’s List.  It facilitates a face-to-face, cash exchange that is inherently scam-free for free.  This is as opposed to EBay which has become a wasteland.  I’ve got a Craig’s List listing now for an Archos 605 that I’m trying to sell.  I previously sold a PSP and a Garmin Forerunner 50 (which is a great, no-frills heart rate monitor by the way).  Not too long after I  posted my PSP last year I got an email from someone who was going to pay more than the asking price and just needed my PayPal ID.  All I had to do was box it up an ship it off.  Of course it was a scam.  I got another one yesterday regarding the Archos from anitamorgan82@gmail.com. 

The text was in light gray and looked like an auto-generated signature line.  Still, I wrote back and said that I did.  Within seconds I got a reply.  Actually, I got two replies.  The first was from the original address with the same content as the first email.  The second was from Anita’s other email - anitamorgan85@yahoo.com.

Hey, $350 plus $180 when I’m only asking $225 is not bad.  Spelling and grammar aside, Anita must be a real sweetheart.  At this point I’m curious just how this scam works.  I do a little searching and find this poor guy’s experience.  Being a computer guy, I’m also wondering if Anita, sweetheart though she may be, is a human or an auto-responder.  I write back before going to bed.

This morning I learned that Anita is a human because I found two responses from the previous night.

That one arrived just eight minutes after I sent my $1093.37 fee list (including the anti-dolphin coating charge).  Anita is willing.  And not just willing, but eager (probably due to the long delivery time) as evidence by her second email which arrived less than an hour later.

By this morning my curiosity had run its course.  I had my fun, and as Anita might say, it was a “hamless deal”.  The sad thing is that there are people out there who are in for plenty of ham.  They’re well intentioned or naive or inexperienced or lured into getting more than their asking price.  Whatever they are, ultimately, Anita is going to take their money and waste their time.  So watch out, folks, because I’m here to tell you that Anita is a non-sweetheart human eager to do you ham harm.  And she’s probably not the only one.