Lameness abounds on Craig's List and other personals sites
I know I can't expect to save the online hookup scene singlehandedly, especially not with a small (but loyal!) readership such as I have. But that doesn't stop me from being depressed when I get a response to an ad that says, in its entirety, "hit me back".
I mean, of course none of these guys have seen my blog, because they don't think they need help getting hookups, and if they don't get any, they figure it's because the women are fake or snobby (well, okay, snobby is right) or that the ads they're responding to are for spam or what have you. I don't even want to help these guys, so why do I care that they're still as clueless as before I started the blog?
I don't, really, and, yet, I can't help taking it personally when I get the same lameass responses. It's not that I want that guy to have improved, because if he's really that clueless, I'm glad to have an easy way to recognize him. Instead, it's that I want him to stop bothering me. Some brilliant geek needs to come up with a "lame response" filter for me.
Comments
Now do we really want all of them to improve? It can be such fun to see 20 some replies in the mailbox, knowing the fun that is coming. And hitting the deleat button can be exhilerating, a purge of sorts, done with a sigh and a shake of the head. Ta-da, gone and forgotten with a (kind) laugh.
Posted by: Rosie | August 17, 2006 9:51 AM
Send them a link to the blog ;)
Posted by: Olivia | August 17, 2006 11:46 AM
Maybe this is a dumb idea, but here it is anyway. Has anyone seen this page [ http://www.nothingisreal.com/dfki/no-word ] that's basically a concise argument against sending stupid Word attachments to people who don't use Word?
Maybe we can set up a page like that, with one screen of text laying out some ground rules for CE-type ads, complete with a bullet list of "things that will cause me to ignore you", and everyone can put the URL for this page at the end of their message.
Cluechick, do you think you could come up something that's short enough to make the point before the reader runs off, but effective enough to make a difference?
Eh... Maybe I'm wrong to presuppose that the idiots writing these ads and email responses are actually literate.
Posted by: Zachary Gray | August 17, 2006 12:11 PM
Zachary, no, that's not a dumb idea. I'll have to give it some thought -- probably a lot of people would find something like that useful.
Posted by: Cluechick | August 19, 2006 12:27 PM