Friends... such a difficult thing

I've posted a lot in the past about the uncomfortable situation of having to dump a FB or LinkedIn connection. It happens, and it's very uncomfortable.... and so my policy has been not to friend people I don't actually know pretty well. After use-testing - I've broadened that policy to be:

I don't friend people unless I know and like them well enough to want to meet them for coffee.

Just yesterday, someone from my high school sent me a FB friend request. I graduated in a very small class from a very small school. Strangely though, I do not know this person. I searched my brain... but I just don't know him. So I sent him a note asking him if he might help me remember who he was. I feel like that move (not my note) was pretty bitchy.

The online world needs an etiquette manual.

Target didn't really diss bloggers...

I've had this bookmarked for over a month - planning to blog about it. But I haven't been blogging. I've been working full time, consulting, and doing that pesky MBA. It's a lot. And it's pretty stressy. But it's almost over (not the job part, but the school parts).

So this isn't very timely, but I'm going to blog about it anyway. The link references a post on Consumerist--evidently a nice feminist blogger wrote Target to complain about an anti-woman/offensive billboard. In response, Target told her:

"Good Morning Amy,

Thank you for contacting Target; unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets. This practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest.

Once again thank you for your interest, and have a nice day."

This response garnered a lot of bad press for Target - evidently people saw this as Target dismissing the power of bloggers.

I think everyone might have missed the point. At first read, I was going to say Target should know better than to say it doesn't care about nontraditional media outlets... but then when I read it again, I realized that the Target person was was saying they didn't think Amy's concerns or her organization were a very big deal.

So, the lesson here is probably not that Target has an issue with bloggers, but that Target doesn't care what Amy thinks about their ad. The "new internet" is all about honestly. I wonder what Amy would have thought if Target had been bluntly honest. Hmmm.