Kurt Shintaku's Blog

I’ve had dozens upon dozens of ‘friend’ requests and I’ve accepted none of them.  For those reading this, it’s not because I’m a social recluse or that I see no value in networking with you.  It’s not even because this blog is business-oriented, a one-way communications conduit, and not a personal networking tool.  (Although if I were still single, I gotta tell you that there are a number of ‘friends’ that I’d have been very proud to have accepted invites from… god bless you, ladies!)

No, the reason is actually a little unusual and something you might not otherwise consider.

IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME
When I started this blog several years ago, I started it as an actual blog with comments, email interaction, friends, etc.  Then various individuals that I didn’t really have any interest in conversing with (Anything-but-Microsoft-types, competitors, headhunters, press/media reporters, etc.) started using this blog as a means to contact or in some cases, harass or floodmail me.  So I shutdown all email communications, instant messaging, comments, etc.  but I didn’t think "Friends" would be a bad thing to have remain on the site.

THE DREAD ‘PLEASE PASS THIS ON’ PHENOMENON
Until one day, somebody made me think otherwise:  A reporter from a large unnamed media company used the contact information from one of my "friends" to email them and asked them to pass a message onward to me.  After this happened more than a couple of times, I decided that no friend of mine deserved to be burdened with being a communications conduit for unknown Internet users or worse, saddled with the uncomfortable issues of a Microsoft employee.  Someday, I’ll write a book about some of the communications I’ve gotten in the last 12 years.  I won’t go into details but remember that our company is:

• International & covers 26 languages over hundreds of countries worldwide
• Produces the world’s most used operating system, a video game console, and MacOffice, the most popular software package for Mac users
• Perceived as having money-to-burn & mistakenly synonymous with the Gates Foundation charity

CUSTOMERS ONLY, PLEASE
So anyway, that’s why I don’t accept ‘friends’ requests and why I no longer have a friends section.  It’s not you – it’s me.  Seriously.  It’s just that some people on the Internet ‘don’t get it’: 

This blog is for my corporate customers only and they know how to contact me.