My Twitter Honeymoon is Over.

When I first started playing around with Twitter, it was fun. All these people, communicating in real time, finding interesting articles, weighing in with opinions, making pithy comments and wry observations.

But alas. All good things must come to an end. First, there was the onslaught of the multi-level marketers. I figured out how to avoid them (if you have more than a few thousand followers, you are either a vapid celebrity -- Hey, Oprah! - or all you are interested in is ramping up your twitter stats. That's fine, but either way, you won't miss me if I don't follow you back.)

Then there are the self-absorbed twitteraholics. They never reply to anyone. And they spew out twits -- mostly retweets from genuinely intelligent, helpful twitterers -- every five seconds. Seriously, if you can twit every five seconds all day (and sometimes all night) long, you are an unemployed loser who lives in his mother's basement. Ergo=who cares what you think.

My favorites are the ones who merely retweet others twits then add 10 hash tags. The ultimate is when they are arguing a point with you, can't substantiate their opinion, get frustrated, then tweet the ubiquitious #fail. Apparently on twitter, "# fail" is the pinnacle of debate skill.

I envisioned twitter as a two-way street. Short, direct conversations punctuated with helpful bits of information. With some humor strewn about. Some of the best twitterers are congresspeople and news anchors. Some of the worst? The self-proclaimed twitter "experts."

Some days, the fail whale is a welcome sight.