scott plummer

sorry, no witty title this time around.

after more than two years of being on twitter, i have finally figured out how to use it, at least in a way that pertains to me.

i first heard about it listening to cnet's buzz out loud podcast, and as i am want to do i avoided it because it seemed like the whole tech industry was gravitating to it. i've done this before with music and movies that were too mainstream preferring to be out on the fringe somewhere.

it seemed like no matter what i was posting or how i was posting that i was getting little to no feedback or interaction from other users. i started thinking, "this isn't a very social, social network".

there was even a point over this past summer where i went a month without tweeting once.

what really changed it for me were #hashtags. for the uninitiated a #hashtag is used to track a conversation on a particular topic. they became so popular that twitter integrated them into their service by adding the "trending topics" section on twitter.com.

like the @reply, the #hashtag was not created by the developers, but rather the community as a way of making the service, some might say, more usable.

the main hashtag i follow and use is #pens for the Pittsburgh Penguins. i have met more people that i talk to on a regular basis through this #hashtag than any other that i have used on twitter.

just to name a few

@toastcommunism who i've met in person and saw Avatar with, she also tweets more than anyone else i follow, and that is something considering i follow robert scoble
@omgitsjen who i've also met in person and hung out with downtown on new year's eve
@lvallana & @rvallana sisters who are from my hometown of latrobe, they bring the funny consistently, they also love tacos, and goats (don't ask)
@FoxMists who went to my alma mater iup

as i discussed in an earlier post i've become a huge fan of amanda palmer (@amandapalmer) and the dresden dolls. sometime ago she created the #hashtag #LOFNOTC or losers of friday night on their computers. i have been a faithful #LOFNOTCer for awhile now and again have met some great people that i regularly talk to.

@kapnkaty who brings the funny more than most people i follow (along with the vallana sisters), i retweet the kapn more than just about anyone, and was once told that i am good for her self esteem. glad to help kapn.
@SheikYurbouti quality source of the out of the blue laugh which is one of my favorite kinds of laughs.
@LaurenMaeO another quality source of the out of the blue laugh.

i'm apologize to those that i follow that didn't get a mention. i love you all, but if i listed everyone that i thought was worth mentioning this post would be never ending.

i use other #hashtags on the odd occassion but these two are the ones i use the most and have met the most great people from.