As some of my readers will know, I have a bit of an issue with lengthy Twitter conversations between users.  Anything over three replies between two people is just showing that the users don't understand the medium, in my eyes.  Small converstaions of one or two replies are absolutely fine, and often very interesting, but if two people alone find they're "chatting" on an open channel, it's just yawnsome.

Also Tweet frequency; if someone is posting more than say five an hour (I don't really have an exact figure, it's what feels right or more importantly, wrong) then I get irritated by their dominance on my Twitter feed and tend to un-follow them.  To give you an idea, I've unfollowed at least five people I can think of who at one point or other were posting up to 20 Tweets an hour.  That's just a flagrant disregard for their followers time and social space online, I'd say.

And finally, this is also true of anyone who *only* uses Twitter as a chat program, ie all their Twitters are @someone.  It's just boring, I'm interested in what people are up to, and the occassional questions, comments and thoughts that pop up.

I'm aware that I'm quite militant about my views on Twitter, in the same way that I will only connect on LinkedIn with people I have actually worked with and would recommend, and the way I culled my Facebook "friends" that weren't friends.  But I've found that the value of my social network  for me is all about the quality, not the quantity.  I predict this will also start to become a more widespread view as people's networks grow and grow through evolving social media.

All my views aside though, this post, "Thinking about capillary conversations and choice" is a brilliant beginners through to advanced users guide on how to microblog, it is based on Twitter but I would suggest it is well worth rolling out across all microblogging platforms.

I've just read and commented on Mike Butcher's post on TechCrunch UK - Yabb launches VOIP micro-blogging service.

I'm probably over simplifying somewhat here, but isn't this what late night telly ads already provide as a service?  You know, "call 0890 and find other interesting people in your area"?

Paul Birch, founder of Cominded comments on the post, "We believe there is something ‘magical’ about human 1 to 1 voice conversation."

Surely though you pick up a 'phone, and call a person you want to speak to?  Pre-recorded voice snipets aren't conversation, they're sound bites / answerphone messages?  I have to point out at this stage I haven't used the product (it's in beta, and so far no invite) so it's very possible I am missing something.

Perhaps though, the 0890 model point has hit the nail on the head, a cheaper alternative to sex chat lines?  Could be useful/cheaper for the singles industry? 

Then again, if I was going to go down that route then WooMe has already done this and is a fantastic product for both voice and video chat.

The one thing I just don't get at all is on the TechCrunch post Mike mentions, "... you can’t send voice messages to people who aren’t in your Skype contact list."   So, er... Apparently, you can call your friends, and leave them a mass answerphone message...

Anybody else got one eyebrow raised at this point..? 

From the description, I just can't even find it in me to try out the beta.  I know, that's pretty poor show for someone interested in social media, but it just sounds like something I'm never going to use, or suggest to a client to use over existing products.