Simple rule: whenever you engage in a conversation in social media, avoid giving more than 3 replies to the same person. If you do, most likely your other readers will be bored. No need for flame wars. Solve the situation by other methods. (idea & credits go to Cristian Manafu)

In a recent workshop/training in Turkey, I found out a simple difference, which has major implications: When you write for the regular Internet audience, you should consider your audience – in a hurry, wanting fast results, eager to get to the point. Small sentences, active verbs, no gerund, no passive voice, no metaphors, plain speech, short texts. When you write for a friend, when you write a letter, you should also consider your audience – you can write longer texts, your verbs can also be in a passive tense, you can have non-active verbs, you may use the gerund, metaphors are allowed, so are fancy words and long texts. In a nutshell: The Internet is for speed. The friendship is for long, warm texts.