Indubitabil, Nu Conteaza.

Yesterday I meant to write at large about my Twitter experience (since I’m plugging into it for a couple of days now). In the end, I decided to give out the short English version…

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In the last few months since I signed-up with the infamous birdie, I realized peu-à-peu how friggin’ awesome this service can be for a n00b. Experienced webbies find Twitter a place to hang out with familiar faces, while building up a crowd of followers to pluck their products or (personal) brand to, OR tighten up relationships with like-minded peeps in the industry. For mere mortals, Twitter is fanboy haven.

Contrary to popular belief, I signed up with Twitter in an attempt to give a try to the service that kicked CNN ass July last year. Since then, I grew quite a handful of followers on my main (now “disabled”) account - while opening my eyes & ears to the Community. 

I started following people based on common interests, familiar faces OR content of their blogs and websites. (Do keep in mind that I’m a web content editor at heart, hence my interest revolves pretty much around the online industry, successfully represented by a gazillion VIPs.)

I soon realized how easy Twitter makes it for me to express my creativity before a large audience of followers. I started jotting out thoughts and rants that some perceived as spam, others replied to with fervor and some ignored as ‘part of who she is’. Then, I went on a little further to meet Hugh MacLeod (Gapingvoid).

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It happened that I caught his tweet about coming to Romania to speak at a local web-conference, and I immediately replied with the intent to put up a Geek Dinner. Common acquaintence Lee Wilkins helped with the logistics while Microsoft Romania sponsored food & drinks, so the thing happened (on December 4th 2007, to be more precise).

This was my first Twitter success. It didn’t move mountains, didn’t end world poverty, nor solve the oil crisis. But it brought me a hedge-fund of new peeps and (heck, yeah!) a Hugh-card.

The other week, on April 1st, me and Alin Zainescu hosted the 1st Romanian Tweetup - @RoTweetMeet - in Bucharest (pics). Out of 85 people announced, 50 showed up to the event. It was a great party, with lots of folks from the online and beyond. Again, Microsoft Romania picked up the tab for food & drinks. Needless to say it was by far the best attendance rate, considering the traffic blockage caused by the NATO Summit.

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All in all, reading Stowe Boyd’s blog post I agree to the idea that Twitter can be a place for friendship in its most genuine expression, but with limited liability. You can’t keep a close network of friends, unless your updates are protected! 

When Twitter was a new-born baby, ’twas easy to keep it all in da house. Now, with mainstream publicity and over 1 mil. users plus so many people coming in to spam, there’s not much you can do but… block!

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UPDATE 1: Who would’ve guessed it then? @gapingvoid left Twitter! Shock, horror and the question why.
UPDATE 2: He’s back… Phew!