"...Such etiquette inevitably touches on the topics of friendship and flirting, two things that I'm still learning lessons about, and as a self-acknowledged late blooming introvert, will undoubtedly continue to do so."

I started following, participating in the adoption of Microformats a while ago for my job. You being such a driving force behind it, I started following you on Twitter for Microformat news, but ended up reading your personal Tweets too. I appreciate you making yourself available to meet in person at SXSW, it adds a friendly, human interface on something as esoteric as Microformats!

( Your blog posts no longer allow comments on the page, routes me to Pownce? Why? )

I dig that you write with obvious honesty about the human element of all this. It's not about technology. None of it is. All the neat tech tricks in the world don't amount to a hill of beans if they're not meaningfully in service of relationships.

Reading Flow next week. Have been looking forward to it for a while now. Your post prompted me to move it up in the queue. Thanks. :)

"...add nice people that you meet in person, drop people if they're mean or noisy" Well put, friend.

Flow is one of my favorite (and most worn out) books. :-) After reading it in 2003, I went out and found an audio version with him narrating. It's poor quality, but I like to hear an author's words in their own voice.

...and thank you for sharing, T.

Nice path of inquiry-flow... if u're in the Bay area you might have a go at this other source of "flow" like inspiration: "The Situation is Hopeless, but not Serious" by the late Paul Watzlawick. Memes that keep informing-enabling alternative intel-emotions dealing with human communications, and quite some therapeutic laughs.

Admittedly I'm a bit confused by what you mean by "late-blooming introvert," but overall it's kind of inspiring.

I might keep an eye out for Flow, it sounds like a book that would interest me. also, I really need to take a break from all the zombie and books I've been reading. "...add nice people that you meet in person, drop people if they're mean or noisy." I recently blocked some unsavoury types on Twitter and was questioned and abused for doing so. Do you explain the block and/or drop, or let them fester to their own conclusion?

@Nikita Let them pound sand if they're so inclined. Don't start a fire, or add fuel to one in progress.

Inscribed on the barracks of the King's Guard in ancient Greece, as quoted in Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People:

"All men have fear, but the brave put down their fear and go forward, sometimes to death, but always to victory."

Very timely post for me, Tantek. I just started following you on Pownce a few days ago and the first thing I see is this reference to a very interesting blog post. (No offense, but I had never heard of you until I saw you at Web Apps in Miami).

I agree with Geoffrey about how well you wrote about these human issues - which is what technology is *supposed* to be helping all of us with, but many times seems to fail. Meanwhile, I see Dvorak has a column out declaring the doom n' gloom to all social networks, which I can't help but agree with either.

I recently "swore off" email in many respects, at least as far as initiating new emails to my beleaguered friends/family, instead choosing the social route (Facebook,Pownce,Twitter, et.al.) which is the subject of my latest blog post - to which I would link to but not sure how Pownce handles links in replies yet, so I'll trust you can hunt it down if interested ("Email is Dead for Me"). Anyway, point is, I'll be following your blog in Reader now to keep up on this and I'm curious as to not only what you discover in this journey, but the reactions of less-geeky types in your world.

(Talking about Twitter; generally I don't read blogs due to lack of time.) I definitely agree with 'drop people who are rude or noisy'. I suggest one does not need to be limited to following only people one knows. I follow a few people I know of but don't know personally (e.g., you); and an assortment of people I don't know at all, but find their tweets interesting. I find them by looking at who others follow, then look at their most recent tweets. Or I search on some topic of interest.) I value the diversity, as one often learns more from people they *don't* know. I appreciate your particular knack at blending personal with geek talk. And look forward to more user-friendly definition of microformats! Really sorry I was out-of-town during BarCampSeattle.