• random, stupid hashtagging #knowwhatimsayin?
• commentating on things. If I’m not watching it, I probably don’t want to read about it.
• geolocating – I don’t care where you are, or if you’re the mayor of there. Not sorry about it either.
• Instagram.
• Retweeting an old-style retweet. Find the source!
• Repeating a word you already used in a tweet as a hashtag #hashtag #repeating

I’m tired of things that annoy me ruining my enjoyment of social networks, so I reserve the right to unfollow people with a clear conscience and no fear of repercussions/hurt feelings.

Now, when people shout “Newton Faulkner” at me in the street, I think I’m OK with it. What a dude.

This has happened a couple of times to me on twitter. I’ll make a throwaway comment about a company, chuck in an @mention about them (not expecting a reply, but secretly hoping for one) and I actually get a response. This isn’t the first time it’s happened with LOVEFiLM, and it probably won’t be the last, but they’re just so good at it. The situation is really unavoidable and I didn’t expect them to do anything about it (and really, didn’t see anything they even could do about it!), but they rallied anyway.

After this interchange, I figure they don’t have the title, I can’t rent it and that’s why. It was really just a throwaway comment, because it’s the first film I’ve searched for that I haven’t been able to queue for reasons other than its release date not having passed. I have since received an email from a customer service representative:

Dear Jasper,

Further to our conversation on Twitter, unfortunately, “9″ is not currently available to rent from LOVEFiLM due to very recent problems with the supplier of rental copies. I‚m sorry for any inconvenience or disappointment this may cause you. If this situation changes we will of course let you know. To make it up to you we are crediting your account with a free rental.

Now, this is how you treat customers. I am on an unlimited plan, so an extra rental isn’t really going to affect me that much, but the gesture is the point. This shows me that, even though this isn’t a fault of theirs, they’re trying to show that they care about my experience with them, and (I hope you’re listening Panelfly and Sony Playstation – I know my updates are protected now, but they had weeks to respond before I did that!) ensure that every experience I have with their company ends with me being happy. You certainly nailed it again, LOVEFiLM.

So, I decided to start using twitter again, on a heavily decreased account – basically removed everyone I’m not acquainted with and protected my updates. Realised that I hadn’t spoken to a lot of my friends in quite a while, and twitter is a pretty decent way to keep up with them. I’m not going to be posting everything up there, but sometimes it’s fun to just write down a thought or quote or something. Plus, a lot of friends don’t use RSS, but do use twitter, so I can use it to pimp blog posts that might be relevant as well!

Go me, and hypocrisy.

Yes, you.

I was linked to a quote on twitter by someone way higher profile than me, and it appears to have sparked a bit of a debate, so I’ll weigh in.

Honestly, I’m shocked that in 2010 I’m still coming across ‘web designers’ who can’t code their own designs. No excuse.

I 100% wholeheartedly agree with this. How can you possibly design for the web if you don’t understand the limitations of the platform? Sure, you can draw a picture of a website, but will it work? If you’re lucky. Not EVERYTHING you can draw is easy or even sensible to interpret to a website layout, so you’re really limiting yourself or risking a substantial backlash if your design process isn’t influenced by a knowledge of CSS, browser inconsistencies and all of the cool little things web browsers can and can’t do.

I have to work with quite a few people who are “web designers” but don’t know HTML and it’s the most frustrating thing. It’s so clear when you’re working with a design of someone who doesn’t know the platform.

A couple of responses were to do with top chefs not working in their own restaurants or product designers not making the products they design. That has missed the point entirely (which is odd, because the source of one of those comments is incredibly well-respected) – chefs CAN cook, and could do it beautifully if they wanted/needed to. Product designers MUST know about the production process of the product they’re designing – you couldn’t just sit down and design a car or an aeroplane without knowing about production, materials and the thousands, probably millions of things you need to know about the product and production process.

So, from now on, if I work with you in your design capacity and you don’t know HTML or CSS, you’re not a web designer, you’re a website picture drawer.