/dev/null/kevin

If you don't care about Twitter then stop reading.

A while back I posted that Twitter needs to delete the follow-spammers.  There were three kinds of responses:

• Agree!
  
• Disagree!
• Then follow me on Twitter out of spite.
• "Why should I care?  It doesn't bother or affect me."

BTW, one of the comments from that post left a great link to Stop Twitter Spam!  Check it out for lots of details.

For the "It doesn't affect me, why should I care?" crowd, here is your answer: It does affect you.

Let me first acknowledge that, yes, this is all Twitter's problem, and they need to fix it.  But it is also our problem and we should assist where we can.  Twitter, after all, is a social service so we must behave like social creatures.  A community is always stronger as a whole.

If you saw an arsonist lighting a fire would you try and stop them and/or put out the fire?  Or would you just say that this is the fire department's problem and ignore it?  Would you at least report the fire?  Would it make a difference if the fire was near your house or favorite winery?

If Twitter matters to you -- has value to you -- then you should care that your service could go away if Twitter can't fix the problems.  Are you just willing to jump to the next service, like plurk, FriendFeed or identi.ca?  If you are then you are forgetting that the value of Twitter is not the technology, but the social network itself that you've created.  Just because you are willing to switch to a different network doesn't mean that your other friends all will.  You won't be able to rebuild what you had.  It will be different, even if the underlying technology is better.  Remember that Twitter itself had no value until it reached a critical mass.  Twitter also has many useful tools built on top of its API.  Those tools also go away.

Thus, if you think that the follow-spammers don't affect you then you are wrong.  Even if they don't send you messages they are breaking the service that you use.  They are also making it more difficult for the Twitter staff to fix the problem if they are dealing with outages all of the time.

Finally, there is a new wrinkle to this story.  Since the whole point of follow-spammers is to ultimately get followed themselves (so you see their spam), the spammers have added retweeting to their arsenal of tricks.  What they are doing is taking normal tweets from the public timeline, or from people they are follow-spamming, and retweeting the text, plus their spam link.  This gives them the illusion of being a legitimate user and of having "meaningful" content, and that increases their hit chances.  How does this affect you?  They could be retweeting your posts.

Do you want the picture you sent of your child linked to porno-spammers site?  If anyone does a google (or summize) search they would be linked together, forever, along with you since you never blocked them as a spammer.

So, bottom line: everything affects you in a social network, so you should care.

As social networking sites increase in popularity, so do the number of avatars that people use to represent themselves.  Y'know, the little picture that appears next to someone's post or message.  I've noticed that there are only a finite set of avatar styles.  Using my imaginary Ph.D in Internet Psychology I have analyzed what the various avatar styles mean.

Update [02/22/2008]: Thanks to @monkchips, I must add one more: The Chin Hold (a.k.a. Chin Posin').  Coming soon, the group photo, aka, "Which one are you?" 

What Your Avatar Says About You

Avatar Style	Examples	Description	Meaning
The Portrait		Close up of the whole face, focused and nicely centered.	You are confident in your appearance and don't mind stalkers knowing what you look like.  I originally called this the "Normal" but you really don't see it as much as you would think.
The Off-Center		Similar to the the Portrait, but with the subject to the left or right.	You find the Portrait to be a little too square for your tastes (no pun intended).  You may be a geek, but you're not a nerd!
The Half-Face		Only show the left or right side of your face.  Sometimes just the top.	You consider the Portrait to be boring and you want to be edgy and cool.  You might be a little insecure, but you still want people to know it's you.
The Too-Close		Taking the Half-Face to the next level, you go for the extreme close up!  It's almost always on the eye.	Like the Half-Face, only edgier.  Only people who already know you can tell that it's you.  Why the eye?  Because it's still personal.  Also, there are less zits on your eyes.
The Distorted		Could be blurry, over-exposed or processed.	You are not only edgy and cool, but also a little disturbed or tormented!  You also know how to use photo editing software.  Or you might just be a really bad photographer.
The Obscured		You face is hidden behind some object.   Bonus for creating the Half-Face.	You are introverted, or perhaps in an Austin Powers movie.  You like to be behind the scenes and don't crave the lime light, mainly because you fear limes.
The Reflection		a.k.a. The Camera.  Taking a picture of yourself in a mirror, complete with the camera.  Sometimes a special subclass of the Obscured.	You are a photographer and want people to know it.  Apparently, you also don't know how to use a tripod or ask a friend to take your picture.  Maybe you don't have any friends.
The Far-Away		Hello!  I'm the pixel just left of center.  Bonus points if it's also blurry.	You are shy and this maintains your anonymity.  You like to keep things at a distance until you feel more comfortable.  Much like a feral cat.
The Pose		A picture taken just for your avatar.  Sometimes taken with a web cam.	You are a control freak and want everything "just so."  You probably change your avatar three times a day.
The Look-Away		Direct eye contact?  Not here.	You are aloof and care free and perhaps subservient.  Don't pick me...Please, don't pick me!!
The Mac-Book		A subclass of the Pose.  Using the Mac's built-in camera and image filters.	You just bought a Mac Book Pro.  Congratulations!
The Action Shot		A picture of yourself doing something exciting.	You want to show everyone that you're not as boring as your tweets, blogs and Facebook updates would indicate.
The Perspective		Taking a picture of yourself from a weird angle.  Usually taken with a cell phone.	You're just lazy.  You can't even be bothered to lift your hands to take the picture.
The Chin Hold (new!)		Similar to The Look-Away, but you are holding your chin.  See @chinposin	You are authoritative, smart, thoughtful, or a copycat.  Perhaps you just have a big zit on your chin.
The Companion		Yourself with your child(ren), pet, toy or perhaps security blanket.  Almost never includes the spouse.	It's your way of saying, "I'm ugly, so look at my beautiful cat."
The Kid		Just your child, or yourself as a child.	You used to be cute, but no more.  So look at me from the past, or look at my progeny.
The Cartoon		A cartoon version of yourself as the Simpsons, South Park, Second Life, Mii, WoW or the caricature artist from the mall.	You let others be creative for you and then take the credit.
The Celebrity		A picture of someone else, basically.	There is nothing interesting about me so I'll just take someone else's persona, even if they are fictional.
The Abstract		A non-human image: either a graphic or some trinket.	You don't want anyone to know anything about you.  Not that there is anything worth knowing.
The Logo		Part, or all, of a tech site's logo.	You are a high level blogger.  Please read my site and feed my ego and drive up my ad revenue.
The Default		The default avatar.	Welcome to the Internets, n00b.

Note: All of these images are real avatars from Twitter that I took from either the public feed or from people that I follow.  You guys know that this is a joke and that I love you all.  Right?  Guys?  Uh, put down that cactus!