So I was engaging in some of the usual snappy political repartee on Twitter on Sunday when the strangest thing happened. I got the idea for this column.

That's how social media works in my experience: 2 percent worthwhile information; 98 percent waste of time.

In this case, Shaun Dakin, founder of the free, nonprofit National Political Do Not Contact Registry, saw my tweet criticizing robocalls and tweeted me.

You know robocalls — those recorded phone messages from campaigns or interest groups urging you to support this or that candidate.

They've been annoying lots of Wisconsinites lately, as Sandy Chalmers, administrator of trade and consumer protection at the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, knows.

Everywhere she goes, people ask, "Can't you do something about this? It's driving me crazy."

She can't.

Political speech — even obnoxious, recorded political speech — is exempted from the Wisconsin and federal do-not-call lists, and there long have been concerns that restricting it would violate the First Amendment.

Dakin's aim has been to maintain a list of people who don't want to get the calls and ask campaigns to respect it.

And while his 50 percent success rate isn't stellar — "Most campaigns simply don't care that much about voter privacy," he said — he is helping bring attention to the problem.

There have been signs the states are starting to notice.

Indiana requires a live person to ask for permission before playing a robocall, and in Wisconsin, state Rep. Andre Jacque, R-Bellevue, plans to reintroduce his 2011 bill to subject robocalls to the state's do-not-call list.

Personally, what annoys me about robocalls is their lack of engagement.

If you really want my vote, have someone call me up and say something like: "Look, Rickert, we've mined your data and know you aren't likely to vote for our candidate. What can we say to change your mind?"

The answer might be "nothing." But I'd sure give the candidate's merits more thought than I would after hanging up two seconds into his or her pre-recorded plea.

I guess that's why I continue to bother with Twitter. Political sparring occasionally leads to some knowledge and maybe even some agreement. You can't spar with a recorded voice.

Live calls would be more costly than robocalls and thus reach fewer voters, but Dakin points to research showing robocalls don't get voters to the polls anyway.

The problem Dakin, Jacque and others of like mind face is that, as Dakin said, "politicians know that people's memories are very short."

Once the campaign's over, so is the pressure to end robocalls.

Of course, the last year and a half in Wisconsin has seemed like one long campaign.

If that results in enough pressure to get Jacque's bill passed, it just might make the Wisconsin recalls, oh, I don't know, maybe 2 percent worthwhile.

Contact Chris Rickert at 608-252-6198 or crickert@madison.com, as well as on Facebook and Twitter (@ChrisRickertWSJ). His column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.