I believe in real relationships with real people. Naturally you can’t have too many deep and meaningful relationships with people online, but with a little effort you can easily interact beyond “Hi, love your site!”

No worries. I’ve been a bit under the radar lately and have been heads down at work. Just coming up for air really.

Agreed on the fact that Followers or Listed won’t convey influence. I think it is a fairly good metric for reach – which fits nicely with Twitter since I believe it’s really power is as a marketing tool. It’s the worlds biggest megaphone.

See conversation thread: http://www.damondnollan.com/20.....about.html

You’re right about it being easy to subscribe to a few lists and quickly get the hose of data. I’m just not sure people really want that hose of data or know what to do with it.

I’m on a respected list in my industry and I’m flattered to be on it. Yet, when you look at the content from that list … it’s chaotic. So, if I were a newbie and subscribed to such a list, would it be a good thing or a bad thing.

I just don’t know.

Not sure how I missed your post, and I agree on your “people are multifaceted” idea. Regarding the followers game, it will continue to be played just by different people. Followers and lists do give an idea of how many people have “found” you but it is a fairly simplistic metric, not an “influence” metric.

Lists can really help new users in quickly following a bunch of people instead of the traditional organic growth. This is a big thing for Twitter now that it is mainstream. Just think how easy it now is for someone to add 1000 subscriptions using 5 to 10 lists instead of find each person and subscribing.

http://www.blindfiveyearold.co.....ompetitive

However, you’ve gone a (smart) step further in theorizing that the competitive nature of lists and inability to refine lists is something Twitter actively sought to aid in viral growth and to foster the developer community.

I think you’re right (particularly on the latter) but I wonder how long this type of burn and churn strategy is going to pay off.

I think the Followers game jumped the shark and users were beginning to tire of it. So, perhaps Lists re-energizes it? But … it seems so similar to the Followers dilemma that the lifespan of attention could be a lot less this time around.