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January 5, 2004
New rule: Don't call me if you don't know me
Posted by David Weinberger
I like
Skype. It lets me make phone calls for free to the other 4M people who have signed up for the service. The calls go through my computer and they work real good.
But I've just gotten my second random phone call from some well-intentioned stranger who wants to know if I want to chat. Actually, I don't. If you call my Skype number randomly, the odds are just about perfect that you're going to be interrupting something that I'd rather be doing than speaking with a stranger. And here's how you know that: If I wanted to be speaking with a stranger now, I'd be on the Skype phone calling one. If you can get through to me on my Skype line it's because
I don't want to be speaking with a stranger now.
Thank you for your attention.
Comments (6)
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1. Michael on January 5, 2004 1:19 PM writes...
I'm not sure why people like Skype so much. Am I a weirdo for not wanting to sit at a computer when I'm talking on the phone.
IMHO, the best way to derail a phone call is to be sitting in front of a computer while the other person is talking.
Permalink to Comment2. Matt on January 5, 2004 3:36 PM writes...
You can set Skype's preferences so that only people you have on your buddy list can call you. It's not the default though.
My Skype cold-call:
Permalink to Commenthttp://www.blackbeltjones.com/work/mt/archives/000786.html
3. Glenn Fleishman on January 5, 2004 9:44 PM writes...
This is EXACTLY my reservation about the whole Friendster, etc., phenomenon. I know enough interesting people that I don't need random people trying to make contact, no matter how interesting they might be.
Permalink to Comment4. Marc Eisenstadt on January 6, 2004 5:35 AM writes...
These phenomena are not new of course... when VoxChat first appeared in '96 or '97, PART of the buzz and excitement (in addition to low-cost long-distance calling) was genuinely about random contacts. Now, it's less of a novelty, and more of an annoyance, as David Weinberger rightly notes. So, a few observations:
a) long-distance calling nowadays is so cheap (I routinely phone Alasksa from England for ~5cents/minute, inevitably with Voice Over IP 'hidden in the plumbing' somewhere along the line!), that the relative BENEFIT of 'desktop/laptop/headset phone calls', when you factor in other contextual issues, is less spectacular than it was originally
b) for newcomers to vanilla Voice Over IP from a desktop/laptop/PDA, there is still an excitement factor akin to the 'DX-ing' experience of Ham Radio. DX-ing is PRECISELY about contacting random people far away (!!!), for a bit of tech talk and random talk, purely to 'add it to the log book'.
c) The ham radio community is small and focussed compared with modern Internet users-- ham operators share at least the context of 'DX-ing intentions' (so, for example, TELEPHONING a random ham radio operator in Timbuktu would completely miss the point!)
d) Skype and similar tools fall in an awkward gap... part ham-radio-DX-appeal, part mundane-so-what-it-sounds-like-another-long-distance-call (to paraphrase a great Muddy Waters song). The way to bridge the gap is EITHER to apply the setting, as someone else has posted, to disable calls from people not on your buddy list, OR to hang up quickly on the random caller.
-Marc
Permalink to Comment5. umair on January 6, 2004 2:26 PM writes...
Not to be an ass, but I think it's kind of perverse to write a blog about social software and then complain when people call you to chat.
Permalink to Comment6. John Wilkins on April 9, 2004 1:30 AM writes...
I can understand someone's frustration if they're trying to watch TV or get some work done and the computer keep interupting what is supposed to be a relaxing moment. I know that when I got my phone turned on I didn't start dialing random numbers just to see who might answer on the other end. If someone going to invest money in a VoIP software program, they should see how many of their friends are hip to the idea before spending the money. After all, I think most of the strangers calling are people who feel they have to use the software that they bought to justify the money they spent. To put it shortly, why spend your hard earned money on something that you're not going to be able to use? I say get your friends ok before spending the cash!
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