So up to now I’ve stayed clear of this. But since +Sarah Rios nominated me and she’s thoroughly deserving of a circle, I’ll add +Bliss Morgan as a must have in your circles.

Please copy and paste instructions into your Circle Description when sharing, including this sentence. FOLLOW (directions) & PAY IT FORWARD, everybody gets in.

I was alerted to this post over on Google+ after seeing this memetic friendshare float all around my circles, and while I was grateful, it ended up leading to the following:

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I’m thumbing my nose at the directions because every now and then that is precisely what I do best.

Let me begin by saying that I’m quite honored to be considered someone to admire; over the last several months I have gotten to know Eoghann well enough that I respect his opinion, and for him to have such a positive one of me is quite flattering. I truly feel honored to be the one person, out of all his circles, that he recommend to people to encircle.

That having been said:

I hate these things. I revile the encouragement to choose one person to place above others in recommending them as someone to follow. The idea of doing so is based in a presumption that someone I admire is de facto someone you should admire, and all your friends should admire, and so forth – but if you got one or two iterations through people’s circles, you’ll find people with very different tastes indeed. The people you like to read are not the people I like to read. Heck, the people that the people I like to read like to read are not necessarily the people I like to read. Even among the folks who have me circled, there’s such a wide variety of interests that I couldn’t adequately offer up a single person to all of them.

This meme, while flattering to those who get chosen, is predicated on the idea of some sort of bland superlative. It’s sharing people that excite you, which is wonderful, but it also supports a popularity contest aspect that I have abhorred elsewhere, and do so here as well.

Not to mention the fact that too many of you are simply too amazing and admirable for me to simply choose one.

Therefore I eschew the directions, and ask that we CHANGE THE MEME and pay it forward thusly: Ask me for someone among my circles that I find superlative in a specific way. Who shares the best links? Who always makes me laugh? Who has given me the best recipes? Who do I have in the most circles? Who is the naughtiest monkey? Who is most hangout-able? Who’s the biggest Phinease&Ferb geek? Who’s the most supportive muse?

Those I will answer as best I can, and even still I’ll probably end up offering a couple of names for each… but the best thing I could offer in return to this sort of circle-sharing meme is this:

Look at my stream. Look at my comments. Look at all the wonderful people who read what I write and respond to it via +1s, comments, and shares. See how they engage with me, and with each other. They are all awesome.

You’re reading this right now. I admire you, and you deserve to be circled and shared and listened to and known.

…and that’s all I have to say about that.