communicate :: collaborate :: commemorate

Uncluttering

by Volker Weber

Once in a while you have to stop in your tracks and re-evaluate what you are doing. I have recently done that and made a few changes:

1. No longer checking into Plazes. There are plenty of options to find me. Plazes has not helped in doing that once.
2. No longer logging into any IM other than Skype. Skype is the IM that works best. Across companies and firewalled networks.
3. Removing Skype contacts who are never online. If you think that lurking as "invisible" is a great idea, think again. If you are not on my buddylist, you can't talk to me.
4. Decommissioned wiki.vowe.org. It never achieved critical mass. And I was getting requests from people to change things in the wiki.
5. Started ignoring all mails from accidental readers who ask for technical assistance. 99% don't even bother sending back a "thank you" note. Same goes for people asking for expertise without ever giving anything back.

Comments

Good on ya! Have to clean up things once in a while....

I too have recently cleaned things up. Dropped Plazes - Nobody ever found me that way, plus it was a pain when restarting your laptop - took extra time and it was always popping up when you weren't connected on airplanes, meetings, etc. They really should configure the client to check to see if you're online before trying to connect to a Plazes server, and not start up until you are.

Also, stopped responding to requests for advice/expertise a long time ago. Same reasons. I found that responding/putting energy into providing free, unappreciated help just begets more energy in that direction.....best to change course.

Don't you think that it is the wrong way to offer help only when you get appreciation? Of course everybody likes to get appreciation, but it is always the same, when people say they stop it, because the mass doesn't respect it. If you only help that 1% and they appreciate it, then I am sure, those will help another 1%. You can't change the mentality of the people surrounding you that quickly, but you should lead by example.
I don't know how much time you use to help (answering those requests for advice/expertise), but maybe you should just answer the most desperate requests.
I appreciate you because you share your information and thoughts here in this blog.

Do not worry. vowe is a good mother. And I can smell a sucker in a split second.

Skype might work best across firewalls, but haven't you experienced the lagging transmission of messages? Sometimes, messages are delivered after a couple of hours although the sender and receiver were online all the time.
Or another annoying thing: you have conversations while you are working on your office machine over the day. When you turn on your computer at home in the evening and start the Skype client, you get some of the conversation again as "new" event.

Sensible. Did also get rid of apps you only used once or twice?

@Sebastian: Like Office 2007, for example?

Ceci n'est pas un blog

vowe.net is a personal website published by Volker Weber a.k.a. vowe. I am an author, consultant and systems architect based in Darmstadt, Germany.

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