Twitter just went down. Don’t worry, it was planned. It should only be offline for about an hour today but there’s another downtime planned for Monday as well. I’m sitting here not quite sure what do with myself, as I’m sure many of you are. So I’ll go ahead a prepare a list of alternative activities for today and Monday, in order of importance/likelihood:
- Talk about Twitter being down on FriendFeed
- Talk about Twitter being down on Facebook
- Talk about Twitter being down over IM
- Leave a comment on a blog post about Twitter being down (preferably this one)
- Talk about Twitter being down via text message
- Talk about Twitter being down over email
- Tip TechCrunch that Twitter is down
- Write your own blog post about Twitter being down (for an example, see this blog post)
- Talk about Twitter being down on
PowncePlurk - Talk about Twitter being down on Identi.ca
- Talk about Twitter being down internally on Yammer
- Think about Twitter being down
- Call an actual friend to talk about Twitter being down
- Invite an actual friend over to talk about Twitter being down
- Go outside
And here are some other alternatives inspired by commenters:
- Compose a tweet using Birdhouse to send out when Twitter comes back [thanks Josiah]
- Bitch about the Twitter coverage on TechCrunch [thanks Austinite]
- Question the timing of the planned maintenance [thanks Carl]
- Accuse TechCrunch of being paid to promote Twitter [thanks what? (and Scoble and Winer)]
- Find a homeing pigeon [thanks courtney benson]
- Talk at a conference about Twitter being down [thanks Scoble]
- Talk to Walt Mossberg and Jimmy Wales about Twitter being down [again, Scoble, who loses a point on the leaderboard for name-dropping]
- Resort to hyperbole [thanks Shanky Baba]
- Compare TC to a pubescent boy and Twitter to Scarlett Johanson [thanks Beer Universe]
- “losers” [thanks Max]
- Fix typos [thanks Erick]
- Update IM status [thanks Drew]
- Visit this site [thanks Orli]
Update: And Twitter is back. But save the list for Monday!
They perform planned maintenance during midday? Who do they think they are, Caltrans? LOL
Seriously, what are they thinking?
“They perform planned maintenance during midday?”
midday where ?
Where most of their users are? Duh.
Will add to this list – Think about:
1. Is there such a thing as Twitter-Syndrome
2. If yes, what are its symptoms?
3. If no, what is MG affected by?
4. What would the world be if Twitter did not exist?
5. What would happen to me if Twitter bird failed to come alive again?
6. When will I meet my Twitter again?
7. Above all, what can happen to TechCrunch if Evan Williams and Dorsey plan to close down Twitter?
Why is TechCrunch getting so boring?
I know you probably get paid talking about Twitter. But in the long run, you are losing readers if you continue to piss everyone off posting about tiny litter things about twitter
see: alternative list item #4
_|_ u and Twittercrunch
I have stereos.
Nice pastime when Twitter is temporarily away. But MG, dont you think that we are too Twitter-obsessed?
Tehcrunch is getting so annoying with all these Twitter post.
it maybe hard for TechCrunch to believe. But seriously most of us don’t care about Twitter. And the majority of readers are really really sick about Twitter post.
well, I think the list is hilarious!
Paul..yup probably.., but people dont come to TC to read comic sh!t…
I long for the old techcrunch. Just like in twitter, it’s getting harder and harder to find signs of intelligence nowadays.
Like I already posted below, that’s because they are saving costs by having the downtime during the day. Downtime at night would mean overtime pay to the staff..and twitter doesnt make any money whatsoever, so it is going to save money this way..
I knew this would a twitter rest stop since Arrington has been a Twitter cheerleader as of late!
Another suggestion for things to do while twitter is down: GET A FRIGGIN LIFE!
Damn! Another post about stupid Twitter. One hour down? Who cares?
How many regular TechCrunch readers care about 1 hour twitter downtime?
TechCrunch blog is sucking more and more.
a lot of readers
You either work for Twitter or you work for Techcrunch.
Or you’re a freaking loser.
Let’s make use of this time with some Twitter fail whale wisdom: What’s everyone’s favorite ‘tweet later’ or ‘tweet scheduler’ app?
the birdhouse one is pretty good. actually – adding that to the list!
Twitter is so freaking slow and now it’s down… man what’s up with this site.
you forgot “b!tch about amount of Twitter coverage on TechCrunch”
excellent one. adding.
MG,
Your story made me laugh!
I especially like #15
Great job and thanks!
But if you do any of these what’s the point? Can’t tweet about it, can we?
One more thing you forgot to add is to sign up for http://www.wallpipe.com coz nerd says WallPipe = (Twitter + Facebook)*10*Faster
How about writing a blog post about something other than Twitter with this free time???
See: Alternate list #2
MG Siegler,
Why do you think my comment about WallPipe cannot be in alternate list???
Is it because we haven’t had a beer together in long time??
exactly.
Well then here’s my suggestion:
Have a beer with MG Siegler in the mean time and tell him about your website
How about this?
lol
Totally agree. People don’t come here just to hear about Twitter nonsense. Please keep the post quality up.
How about get some work done?
Works for me.
I am a retired guy who was using Twitter to pass time since my wife is too old to have sex so now
I am slumming tech crunch to keep fingers loose
Twitter’s growth rate for April is down as well. The numbers from Compete came out today. I posted an article about it this morning. Their still kicking ass however, just not as much. Still very impressive though and it’s likely they will surpass Digg by the end of the summer if they continue this trend in growth for monthly unique visitors.
Twitter needs some serious METHAMPHETAMINE.
The site is SO SLOW I hate it!
I gave up last week — it’s so slow that no one can use it.
Absolutely Horrible!
Did you guys hear that Twitter is down?
Who the hell does “planned” maintenance at 5pm Eastern Time on a web app as big as Twitter? Planning FAIL as far as i’m concerned.
adding.
well there isn’t a better time to plan to be down than during your busiest time of the week.
I know why…it is part of cost cutting…maintenance during night time would mean overtime salary to staff..Twitter doesnt make any money, anyways. So how about saving money by having a downtime in the day time!
techcrunch is ALMOST CERTAINLY BEING PAID TO PROMOTE TWITTER. ITS REALLY IS LAME!!Techcrunch used to be an impartial blog. Well Im not gonna bother reading this crap anymore and im urging people at my university to do the same!!
tech crunch was NEVER an impartial blog. Is this even such thing as an impartial blog?
added
Well that is the only reason why TechCrunch is steadily loosing readers. I just checked on compete.com
Here’s the link: http://siteanal...techcrunch.com/
And here’s a brief:
01/2009 -> 1,999,747
02/2009 -> 1,759,892
03/2009 -> 1,870,680
04/2009 -> 1,846,447
I bet “lose” or “losing” is the most commonly misspelled word on techcrunch comments. I seem to see it every time I read comments section.
Alternative website.
http://www.readwriteweb.com (they have less twitter post)
http://news.ycombinator.com/ (avoid techcrunch)
Seriously,TechCrunch needs to stop writing about trivial Twitter stuff. I am a big TechCrunch fan and it is just so disappointing to see TechCrunch trashing their own website or brand
Seriously. I used to read this site all the time, now I’ll check in sometimes, get annoyed by the Twitter posts, and find something better online.
running out to find a Homing Pigeon
will add
You forgot one. Talk at a conference about Twitter being down.
added.
Our site
Geofollow.com
One good thing about this: now there’s no suggested follow list anymore.
Everyone is equal again! Heheh. Actually I’m at Kinnernet sitting next to Jimmy Wales. I think I’ll talk to him about Twitter being down. Oh, now Walt Mossberg sat next to me. I’m going to talk with him about Twitter being down.
http://downfore...com/twitter.com
interestingly enough, that actually doesn’t work because twitter looks up to them with just a maintenance page.
Everyone knows that Twitter is down because they ran out of places to stuff all the cash the VC firms unloaded on them, so they are shoveling it into server cases.
Tomorrow’s Headlines in Major Newspapers!
-America’s productivity increases more than 50% in a hour!
-Stock market skyrockets!
-End of recession!
Reason: Twitter was shutdown for maintenance.
added this one.
Thanks …
um, hey guys… twitter is down. now what?
how about watch the CrunchCam of folks at TechCrunch freaking out or not about Twitter being down.
You should add “tweet that twitter is down…oh wait, that kinda…yeah I know.”
So its funny, I saw twitter was down and the first thing I wanted to check is if tech crunch wrote about twitter being down.
Sure enough – here is the article.
I wonder if Tech Crunch is to twitter as a boy going through puberty is to Scarlett Johanson
an interesting one, added.
Glad you guys liked it! I think its original
lol
twitter, twitter, twitter, why does it always have to be twitter…why can’t it be Jan
Vote in a twitter based competition at http://www.twit...for-a-cause.php
I’m going to updated my AIM status every 30 seconds like I used to do BT (before twitter)
And apparently spell things wrong.
well, added anyway
losers
apt. added.
Yey, that post is cool
Good post. TweetCrunch !!!
if you can’t find any interesting stuff to post, just shut up. I am so sick of Tweeter right now. At least 70% of the articles for the past week is something about tweeter.
The reason i never go back to Mashable.com is because there are so much twitter nonsense (about 90% of their post is twitter related). TechCruch is also becoming TweetCrunch.
at least 70% of the time, it works every time.
100% agree
http://whentwitterisdown.com/
nice. added.
Talk about how Twitter’s Business Model should be putting ads on the FailWhale (or milkshake? or whatever it is) page, “Since we see it enough” /sarcasm
you can use Twittelator pro to save your tweets as draft when Twitter comes back alive, you can just open Twittelator and done.
I wanted to follow techcrunch, but twitter was down …
I’ve frozen. lost. sad.
this is still my best title of all time, imo:
http://www.tech...time-overnight/
Bring Blaine back!
Make a dirty joke about how often Twitter is down, and somehow involve a French professional in the mix.
do we really need like 12 twitter articles daily?… like OMG someone spoke twitters name today.. lets blog about it…. How much are you guys getting paid to promote that boring text message service? …
I think its about time to hit the unsubscribe button when the articles stoop so low as.. things to do when not on twitter..
Dave, Good point.
TechCrunch needs to listen. We don’t come here just to read everything little thing about Twitter.
Can someone start a tech blog like NOT_ABOUT_TWITTER.COM ?
I will be the first one to subscribe.
I decide to bitch with a post: http://www.crow...ime-batman.html
Bookmark a page that I didn’t know existed: http://search.techcrunch.com/
twitter search killer.
Speaking of real-time search and a nice competitor to Twitter search…what about http://scoopler.com ?
Good day for scoopler, first Techcrunch does a writeup and later in the day Twitter decides they need some downtime
Look at old Twitter comics from a year ago
http://almaer.c...e-for-publicity
When it comes back up please check out my app 140b.us
Seriously, why can’t you bloggers focus on something else already. Every tech blogger talks about twitter all day as if its the only thing that has and will ever matter. MOST OF US ARE OVER IT. MOVE ON PLEASE.
I get how bloggers like writing about stuff they use. But the majority of Americans don’t use twitter and probably never will. So get over yourselves. Write about NEW interesting tech more. Stop this twitter myopia.
It makes sense for bloggers because your job requires real time knowledge. Most of us don’t mind if google news is 30 min or so behind.
Exactly!!. Please TechCrunch, I know you guys are crazy about Twitter and get paid promoting Twitter. But come on, let move on and start focus on something not about Twitter.
Or if you actually work at Twitter, don’t talk too much but make sure the service is getting back up…
Seriously, why the middle of the day on a #followfriday? Like Sanjay said, “Who do they think they are, Caltrans?” Not a good choice considering how many OCD twitter users there are going through simultaneous anxiety attacks.
Actually work?
Go to http://twuffer.com and prepare your tweet for do be the first one to post a tweet when twitter is online !
LOL NOT! The day I get a valid Acquisition offer that I really am considering. I can’t twitter it. Well there it is. More as soon as I know. I had more pages in craigslist then photobucket. “yes I need validation” but I also don’t have employees, and 2.2 million see imagedeposit, massive traction, a old business model redone, monetizing engagements I had a $700+ cpm can prove last month. yes seven f**king hundred, this is a lucrative space. I would also like to provide image hosting cradle to grave for all people on the planet, that’s my big goal.