M I D S T – not “meidst.”

and remove the breaks (@ripsup can show you hat those are if you're not sure)

http://www.nwitweetup.com/2010/04/12/the-great-…

“Buying 15,000 followers does not an A-lister make …”

Wayne, I like and I would like to think that NWI and Michiana can work together soon, but don't spit on our head and tell us it is raining.

D

I was gonna stay out of this more, but I'll say this much:

THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN MAKING PASSIVE-AGRESSIVE COMMENTS IS GOING BACK AND EDITING THEM AFTER YOU'VE BEEN CRITIQUED!

UNBELIEVABLE. SIMPLY UN****INGBELIEVABLE.

I'm better.

Being part of the Central #Indiana twitter scene, one sentence in your post really stuck in my head. You typed, “We have long heard rumors of Indy having some issues with dueling tweetups whether they be real or perceived.” They are real, Dave, but most of the issues have not been handled out in the open like this one. When Wayne offered his phone number I CHEERED when Steve Dalton typed, “As for phone calls, we all like the transparency of this blog” If I had my druthers, the little snippy IndyTweetUp positioning discussion would take place on twitter in @replies NOT DMs.

To my knowledge Dr. Thomas Ho had the first TweetUp in Indianapolis and he created the @IndyTweetUp account. I KNOW Dr. Ho set up the account because a few months later I sent him the Two Red Cardinals Indy Tweet Up logo which appeared as the avatar for a long time.

Dr. Ho used some sort of magic when he set up that account because every time a DM was sent to @IndyTweetUp – it magically appeared in the public time-line as a regular post from that account. Once @IndyTweetUp reciprocated your friend request, it was available for ANYONE to use to set up a TweetUp on the fly. There was no discussion about creating a LLC and claiming dominion over the IndyTweetUp brand or staking a claim to a specific day.

Dr. Thomas Ho relinquished control of the @IndyTweetUp twitter account last year and sadly DMs are no longer automatically posted. Someone decides whether or not your tweetup is worthy to use the account. In my humble opinion, this goes against the very essence of SOCIAL media and it goes against the original intent from Dr. Ho.

Is this the dueling tweetUp issue to which you were referring, Dave?

I'm glad to get that off my chest in a fully transparent manner. Thank you so much, Wayne Clayton, for sparking this discussion.

Wayne, if you had been honest that there were two competing groups we could have reached out to that other group and included them on the 13th .. helping rather than further complicating your issues on confusing people with events. I've now reached out to them and they are more than willing to work together and feel very frustrated that no one told them of the event on the 13th. They have a very active ning social site, kinda like reconnect over here.

What we've all learned is that no one has ownership. Charging for a tweetup is dangerous territory, because it's a free market and anyone can do a tweetup for free. Wayne if you are charging those restaurants … you better make sure that your attendees know that you're making money off of them attending these events. That thought arose over here and was summarily struck down immediately. Hosting companies and restaurants would do well do give stuff away, and be terrific hosts … like Golden Technologies has done three times now … but to charge them and put the money in our pockets, that isn't happening.

We planned on the 13th some weeks ago, when we heard Kyle was going to be in the area for another event. Several of us know Kyle and he agreed to stay over and meet with us all. This is a community driven networking event, I have heard more than a few people say that there is more business done at one of “our” events than any bni or other type of tip groups.

I am really sorry that is played out this way, but I think there is a time and a place for things to be said and on this blog was not one of them. You asked me not to make it a joint venture and I did not. We invited people over, I think you are upset that we may be giving the milk away for free, but I think the karma is priceless.

Any place would kill to have rabid fans like we have in the #nwitweetup, to have 30, 40, 50, 60, people talking about your place in a positive note is unreal. We do not charge for our services, but if you want to learn more about social media there are 2 or 3 of us that can teach it,and 9 times out of 10 I am telling them to call Kathy and not anyone else. Karma is a train and it will run you over.

I think I got rambling here, but this is not a joint venture, but anyone from #michiana is welcome to come over and have fun with the best damn twits in the world.

Dave