Steve - You are probably in a unique position because of your visibility, at least within the community itself if not to at least some subset of recruiters. Recruiters that read the tech news have probably (hopefully?) seen your name a few times, though I could still imagine you being approached by a freshly minted recruiter for a junior level Rails job in some far off town.

Surprisingly, I too go back and forth on the value of most recruiters. My business model is so much different than pure contingency recruiters that it's not an apple to apples comparison. The industry is plagued by a well-earned bad reputation in some cases, but there are some that are worth the time. If you are ever interested in having a discussion with another recruiter (that probably won't have a job for you, but perhaps some insight), I'm easy to find and I'd be happy to take your call.

I can't tell if that was a joke. You seem smart enough to not try to recruit someone while he is complaining about people trying to recruit him.

Maybe less subtlety in the future? For thick people like me.

When a recruiter offers to talk to you, it's not necessarily a threat that you will be recruited. Some of us are real life human beings, capable of having a conversation without the need to try and push a job or my clients on the other person. I talk to lots of people about their career, give tips, etc. without the thought of possibility of recruiting them. Most of these people are more junior and certainly not as well-known as Steve, but I get requests for career advice often based on my writing.

My business focus is geographic at this point, so unless Steve wanted to move to where my clients are I probably wouldn't have a job for him. My mention of 'probably not have a job for you' could have been clarified as 'I'm quite confident that I won't have any relevant jobs to discuss'. But based on his mention of only having spoken to one recruiter, my offer to discuss his career with him remains open.