A conspiracy of theorists

August 21, 2009 8:51 PM

Several Twitter-based games were launched during the world's first Literary Twestival: Flash Fiction, Collective Nouns, Pass the Plot, and Project Twutenberg (via).
posted by Mr. Palomar (20 comments total)

I will be glad if I never hear the word "Twestival" again.
posted by shii at 9:16 PM on August 21 [1 favorite]

Actually, I'll probably be glad either way because I live in a comfortable postindustrial society where the only threatening aspect of a new technology is its ability to spawn tinny neologisms.
posted by shii at 9:22 PM on August 21 [8 favorites]

You might suppose the ranks of these folks are filled by ex-interactive-fiction authors that grew beards and turned evil?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:50 PM on August 21

Twestival

oh god fucking kill me now
posted by Afroblanco at 10:28 PM on August 21

From Project Twutenberg:

@hatmandu Steve: History is a nightmare from which I'm trying to awake. Leo: I'm going for a walk. Molly: dammit, that was a good poo.

Genius.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:30 PM on August 21

I admit it, I'm a twitter-hater, so this isn't for me. But, "twestival"?

That totally kicked me in the twesticles. Hard. Repeatedly.
posted by jefbla at 11:37 PM on August 21

this is (still[!{?}]) absolutely unlike how I write :
this is exactly what I can't stop reading.
thanks.
posted by es_de_bah at 12:56 AM on August 22

I will be glad if I never hear the word "Twestival" again.

"Thufferin' Thuccotash!"
posted by DreamerFi at 2:13 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]

No. No. No. No.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:24 AM on August 22

damn, I just lost the game. I have no use for twitter though.
posted by tiamat at 5:58 AM on August 22

[insert kneejerk reaction to a post about or tangentially related to Twitter]
posted by flatluigi at 6:18 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]

Twestival

*rips off tie, throws briefcase away*

*picks up anti-tank bazooka*

You want to try saying that again, buddy?
posted by loquacious at 6:40 AM on August 22

Eh. It gives me something to do with my account. My 16 year old talked me into signing up and then in a fit of rejiggering herself she cut her hair, closed all her social aps, and rebranded her "crush" into a BFF.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:07 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]

Holy hell. "Twitterary" works so much better than "Twestival," in no small part because it looks a lot less like "Testicle."
posted by Sys Rq at 8:51 AM on August 22

While I agree that it seems like nothing good could possibly come of something called a "Twestival," that Collective Nouns link is delightful.
posted by honestamalia at 12:42 PM on August 22

Yeah, you're all fucking happy to MeFiThis and MeFiThat, but someone puts "Tw" in front of a word and you're acting like someone spatchcocked your cat. If a word, or a concept, can create such apoplexy in you, you really need to step away from the computer and chill out a bit. Twucktards.
posted by benzo8 at 4:40 PM on August 22 [3 favorites]

Metafilter: you really need to step away from the computer and chill out a bit.
posted by Evilspork at 7:43 PM on August 22

The explanation for that, benzo8, is that Metafilter is good and glorious, while Twitter is a broad and shallow puddle of liquid shit.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:14 PM on August 22

stavrosthewonderchicken: "The explanation for that, benzo8, is that Metafilter is good and glorious, while Twitter is a broad and shallow puddle of liquid shit."

...in which gems can still be found.

When I moved to a new city five months ago, I searched Twitter and quickly dredged up people from here who I started to follow and talk with. That in turn has quickly opened up social opportunities in the real world from which I have benefited greatly.

At the same time, I began tweeting myself in earnest as a way of keeping friends and family whom I'd left behind abreast of how the move was going - something which they all appreciate - without needing to think about writing a (macro-)blog entry daily, or otherwise.

Since then, I've met tens of useful and interesting people who work in the same field as me, a field which tends to be relatively solitary and focussed. Some are fast becoming friends; all are useful contacts for work in the future; and none of whom I'd have met without Twitter.

Of course, none of these things was impossible before Twitter, but they have been made easier, quicker and more natural by the Twitter way of doing things.

In short, Twitter is a tool and its efficacy is directly related to how you use it.
posted by benzo8 at 1:04 AM on August 23

I know, I know. I was just going for the bon mot again, my perennial weakness.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:44 AM on August 23