Speeding back into old skool linking, I have to say not only is this piece by Atherton Bartelby on Mashable a delight, his own blog, Curious Affairs, looks like another find. (God, it is such a pleasure to read someone who can actually write!!)

Bartelby posits that the "follow fail" happens when someone follows you whom you would never follow back cause they're boring, or callow or NOC.  "This is the person whose follow on Twitter," he says, " you simply cannot bring yourself to return."

So what are the gaffes that make someone not want to follow you back? Read the whole thing here--but here's a prized quote (I prize it):

"For me, Twitter is not a shallow popularity contest, it is about forging interesting connections and conversations with other people. My Twitter followers are far more to me than a simple follower count: they are friends, they are colleagues, they are collaborators, they are peers, and they are sources. To follow someone in return whose only intent is clearly to acquire more followers would be to devalue the esteem with which I hold my other followers."