Miss Manners Guide to Webcam Etiquette

I have this one friend associate acquaintance—let’s call him Mike—who also works in the business. We talk occasionally, and although I tried several times, we never networked. (You know us black folks, especially BGM, we're afraid to talk about work and who is hiring and where opportunities are.) He’s a former CNN producer. The last time I saw him he was slightly drunk at Stonewall told me that he's in "publicity" now. He never said what clients, I never asked. An industry rule: if it's not volunteered, you don’t ask . Phrases like, “development at Miramax” “special projects producer” “associate editor at Black Book”, vague as they seem, all have a certain cache. So if your current project has no cache, you never volunteer specifics.

But Mike has many more caches and megapixels now. Last night I discovered he is in “publicity” for himself, via webcam.

Just a little backstory: I am *not* a voyeur. I'm getting more YIM and AIM requests to view 'cams. Routinely, I say no, it's just never been my thang. What's really strange are all the brothaz who hit me up and say they don't have any pics, but want me to view their cam. ???Haven't quite figured that one out yet.

So any-hoo, "Mike" hits me up on AOL under a screenname I don't know. We trade pics, and his are tight. But it's not "Mike." Twice, he asks me to see his cam.First, definitely not in the mood. Second, I'm wireless in Starbucks, and mention that. "Oh, no, it's all good," he assures me.

But when I accepted his webcam, I realized he was (a) defnitely not the guy in the pics, but "Mike" and (b) it was definitely not "all good." He was looking rather thick "off-season". And he didn't need to have his little business out there like that.

VERSNBKLYN[12:09 AM]: nikka its me
ME[12:09 AM]: Wha??
VERSNBKLYN[12:09 AM]: wassup u know me
ME[12:10 AM]: You didn't send me your real pics. I said I'm in a public place. I'm out, yo.
VERSNBKLYN[12:10 AM]: wassup u have cam?

No, I don't have a webcam, but I do have a tip. Mike: you need a strategy. And since we didn't network before, let's try now. If you're serious about this multimedia/publicity/webcam thingy, here's a posting for a Video on Demand Producer. See? A great sounding job with cache.