Twitter Fail Whale While being Interviewed about Twitter

Can you Twitter on Twitter that you're being interviewed about
Twitter if you can't get on Twitter?
Nope. Damn that fail whale!

Fail Whale

"If it weren't so cute I would have some serious anger." ~ Matthew Wettergreen (@organ_printer)

On April 28th my business partner's Comcast internet went down. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, who needs a better excuse than that to head out to a wifi coffee shop. This day, her son was home sick from school and when our kids are sick - we stay home. One of the most important reasons we started True Light Resources is so we could be available to our families. We have set up our work environment accordingly. We both have home offices and though I work harder and longer than I ever have before, that just may look like working on the laptop in my rocking chair with a flu ridden 4 year old sleeping in my lap. But if I am home with a sick kid, or the repairman, or cause dang it I want to work at home that day and I don't have internet - well that just throws a wrench in the whole system... and that's what happened to Tracey. She struggled through the jungle of the Comcast phone system and finally got an estimated time for the repair - 4 days. 4 Days! With not only no internet but no house phone. Then Tracey (@truelighttracey) did what we do in this Web 2.0 world and picked up her Blackberry and Twittered her frustration.

Who knew it would have such a far reaching effect. Here's the blow by blow... in very condensed format:

Dwight Silverman (@dsilverman) at the chronicle saw Tracey's post and responded in kind, asking who her provider was
With Comcast being the answer Dwight alerted Frank from ComcastCares (@comcastcares)
Frank looked up our site, looked up the Whois data, got my info and contacted me in search of Tracey
I passed Frank's info on to Tracey who called Frank who had a repairman out to the house and the problem fixed that day... not only for Tracey, but the entire block
Tracey Twittered about the success and Comcast's victory in the changing face of marketing
Dwight wrote an article in the Houston Chroncicle
ABC Nightline World News got hold of the story and came out to Caroline Collective (@carolineco) today to interview Tracey for the evening news

Yes, that's right... ABC World News

See, like I said... who could have predicted that?!!

And who's the bell of the ball? Twitter of course.

I know I am not the only one who has a growing level of frustration with Twitter's performance these days. I love twitter... and I was one of the more resistant adopters. It was Ed Schipul's (@eschipul) tweet about me not tweeting that actually got me to jump in. Ed is good like that. Twitter helps me know what's going on in my world, it connects to people I would never have met otherwise, and bonus... people send me Nutella recipes. How could that be bad?

I start to get a little panicky when people predict the early demise of Twitter... you know, well this is the beginning of the end, the writing is on the wall kind of talk. How will the editor of Pink Ray Gun (@jul_weiss) find me to send me recipes? How will I reconnect with people working in cities I used to work in? How will I know my friends have landed safely on their travels? How will I connect instantaneously with people to bounce ideas off of when that magical moment of inspiration strikes me?

Twitter helps me serve my clients better. It helps keep me abreast of the latest news and technological breakthroughs. It also helps me connect to people. People from all over the world doing all kinds of things. And right now, as I design the logos for Super Hero Camp, using Twitter to communicate about ideas, get decisions on meeting times and direction on the project - Twitter and me are making the world a better place.

So, now you know where Twitter and I stand. I have a little love affair with the Twitosphere. And this morning, I did what I really, really don't want to do. I researched other options.

Why?

Cause ABC Nightline World News came to my office to interview my business partner about Twitter. And I being a good Web 2.0 Evangelist for my company, stood in the hallway and twittered the event blow by blow... down to the mic being turned off for Tracey's final pit stop before filming. As the crew was wrapping up Matthew walked down the hall and let me know nothing I had twittered for the last hour and half had been posted.

I uttered the best/worst word under my breath.

We checked and rechecked and they just weren't there.

I uttered the same word again - a little louder - but not loud enough to make it onto tape.

Brent Ozar (@brento) helped me find the messages on my phone. Erica O'Grady (@ericaogrady) advised me to resend them. Matthew suggested transcribing them at a later date. Still, the point was to have the community at large be able to follow this story blow by blow in real time and Twitter Fail Whaled me.

They took the entire site down this morning. I don't know the technical reasons behind it.

Glory be - when they brought it back up, all my tweets went through.

And not so glorious - getting the very cute whale filmed by the crew of ABC World News as we tried to show them Twitter.

I like to think geek in pink... but I am not a super techy star. I don't know what's up with Twitter. I do know I like it. I use it - probably too much. I recruit people to it (even my extremely reluctant husband (@lassberg)). I sing its praises. It (and Dwight Silverman and Comcast) got my company on the evening news.

I just want it to work - cause I like it.

And I am writing this cause I want the Twitter guys to know - I like it. I am frustrated with it. And I really, REALLY hope that when the piece airs and everyone goes to check it out... there is no whale to be seen.

Good Luck Guys.

~ JJ