Why I "block" on Twitter

I was having a deep philosophical discussion on the Zen of Twitter when I mentioned that I frequently “block” porno-teeth-whitening-10,000-followers-make-money-NOW spamaholics.My friend was amazed. “Why take the time?” she asked. I was amazed back. Doesn’t EVERYBODY block? Guess not, but they probably should.

Here’s why I “block and report” the unseemly ones from my tribe.

1) My Twitter Tribe matters. If I follow you, I choose to do so. No auto-follows, ever. Before I follow, I have read your bio, some of your tweets and probably clicked your link. I have a quality audience and it’s staying that way. I could have had 10,000 followers by now. I don’t care about that. I know the folks in my posse are primo.

2) I want an audience to be proud of. This probably sounds old-fashioned but I don’t want to do anything in my life that I wouldn’t be proud to disclose to my children. And if they examined my Twitter audience, I would not want them to see a bunch of nymphs peddling their videos. Anybody can see who you’re following. What does your audience say about you?

3) I want to protect you. If I block the spamaholics I keep them from my tweets and I keep them, in a small way, from you. I see so many of these folks who copy “Follow Friday” lists trying to lure followers. No. Stay away from my friends dammit.

4) Because I just do not want to play that game. I’m not going to be passive and imply that what they’re doing is OK.

Blocking sends a message. If we ALL blocked them, they would have to go away, right? No, they just would find another way to swarm over us. But I can dream, right?