Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Some of the most popular and beloved accounts on this site have been muted because those people did not win me over. Connections are not really your friends.

You can learn a lot from a wide array of people. Are they going to pick you up at the airport? Console you when things are not going well? Buy you an ice cream?

Rich Gassen might. It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Many of the high profile "Creators"- as if they do anything besides bore us with carousels- put me off.

There are people I want to meet. Most of the people at that Denver gathering interest me. I have not met any of them and most reply to comments. I would not want to meet the ones who don't respond or respond to the ones who worship them.

How many on this site break the First Commandment? No one should be worshiped. That was why I muted Justin Welsh. I don't mind what he has to say. His disciples acted like he rubbed two sticks together and created fire.

Normally I do not mention who has been muted. They were muted for good reason and that is the end of the story. It is unnecessary to block a complete stranger.

With muting; their comments are still visible on someone else's post. Let them use the site and comment. It's too bad they were nice to others and treated me like dirt.

Some only respond to someone with a large following. That is elitist and unnecessary. Some of my best connections have comparatively small networks. As long as conversations are one on one it would not matter if they had two connections and I was one.

Last night there was some glitch in the system causing posts to not be distributed. The number of impressions is not important. I would never post that I had thirty thousand impressions.

Because I never have? When I break one thousand impressions and twenty people actually open the article to read it- the most important number is twenty. It is easy to respond to comments.

That can be time consuming. If someone is inspired enough to comment- unless they are obviously trolling you should respond. Another benefit of muting second degree connections is the feed is cleaner.

It is possible one of these users inspired a first degree connection to like or comment. That's their business and if someone talks at you instead of to you- no relationship will come from that.

Don't think about the biggest accounts and the most popular people. Many of them come and go. There are people I miss every day who have stopped posting and/or hibernated their accounts.

Mike Johnson, Ted Bauer and Chandra Hardy are not going to end up in a popularity carousel. They made this site enjoyable and could return. Some of the ones muted have been banned or left the site.

Going through the list; I don't recall some of them. They might have set their posts to "Only Connections Can Comment". Don't waste my time. I am not "Friend zoning" them by liking or sharing what they posted, even if I wanted to make an encouraging comment.

I am not climbing a wall because they want to see who is willing to climb the wall they erected. That is a sign of someone who plays games. No one has time for that.

Anyone whose message is not to your liking, mute them. They won't know. I have been blocked by complete strangers in foreign countries. A couple connections blocked me as well. I might have been too much. There was no more to say and it's not like I am going to bump into them at the store.

Don't base your self worth on how well you are known on social media. I have no name in the street and prefer it that way. The ones who respond with "Thank you for expanding my reach" are removed. If they are using me for vanity metrics, there is no reason ever to comment again.

I'll end with a woman whose name escapes me. She bragged that she was the most downloaded woman on the internet. For a while she had a syndicated show and they yelled "Webkini!" since she predated instagram and made a name for herself in swimwear.

It is not important enough to look her up. I don't care how much money anyone makes. They don't care about my finances, either and I don't mention how many figures are in my salary.

It doesn't matter. What matters is the impression you leave on others. Communicate and learn from others. At least be open to the possibility. You may be surprised. People who talk and don't listen aren't going to enhance the experience. Cut them loose. They will say what they want and you don't have to listen as better relationships are cultivated.