
Why I Brought 12 Square Feet of Cake to Twitter HQ last Friday - tynan
http://tynan.com/twitter
======
there
_Soon enough one guy gave me instructions on how to file a ticket_

which is all he really needed to do to get the username.

i got @jcs the same way a couple months ago: open a ticket, ignore the auto-
reply email telling you twitter doesn't free up unused names, reply again
saying you want the username looked into for inactivity. in a couple days
they'll email back letting you know whether the account is inactive enough for
deletion. if so, they'll delete it and you'll have to quickly change your
username to the new one (since they won't directly hand over an account except
in the case of trademark infringement).

~~~
tseabrooks
Probably true... but who doesn't love cake? It's a heck of a way to show
appreciation for the service if nothing else.

------
Luc
When it comes down to it, this is just attention whoring, isn't it? He did
this because it fits his narrative of being the wacky, unconventional guy, who
can also advise you on how to pick up women you used to consider out of your
league. Barf.

~~~
tynan
I did it because emailing a few times didn't work, I wanted to do something
nice in return (preemptively, I guess), and I think doing stuff like this is
fun.

~~~
alnayyir
<http://i.imgur.com/mHyMB.png>

Stop signing your posts, you're only proving his point.

We can move on to doing this kind of analysis with your site if you'd like to
persist in pretending you're not one of 1,000 other people on the internet
with the same personality blog about how OH SO RANDOM and INTERESTING you are.

~~~
tynan
Why so rude?

It's a habit from writing email all day, not some sinister plot to get people
to see my name a lot. I removed the ultra-offensive signature from my post.

I'm not inclined to get into an argument about how original or interesting I
am... my ego is big, but not big enough for that. I'm content to gauge those
things by the responses of my readers.

~~~
alnayyir
Call it a personality conflict, but I value quiet, dedicated productivity over
relentless self-promotion with nary a sign of some kind of project or
productive venture.

~~~
tynan
I can't reply to your last one for some reason, which may be for the best. The
multivariate software was called Conversion Doubler, but was renamed (and
improved) by the buyer. I'm keeping the new project under wraps for now.

I consider it a personality flaw that I'm compelled to respond to (what I
consider to be) unconstructive criticism like this. I'm done responding
publicly, but will continue by email if you like.

~~~
alnayyir
Sent

------
jarin
Back when I first signed up, I had @jarin. Then later on (like an idiot), I
changed it to @jarinudom when I was trying to unify all of my logins. I later
realized the error of my ways, only to find out that someone got @jarin,
tweeted once, and abandoned it.

About a year of filing tickets later (about once a month, explaining that I
used to have the name that I wanted and that it was no longer active), I saw
an article on TechCrunch about Twitter deleting the inactive @ericschmidt
account so that Eric Schmidt could have it. So I filed one last ticket,
linking to the TechCrunch article and saying "Hey, I'm the head of a company
too (albeit a much smaller one)!" and things like that, and 5 minutes later I
had it.

------
maxstoller
I had a similar experience, except I sent a friendly snail mail letter instead
of a cake. A couple days later a Twitter employee transferred the username to
me and responded to my support ticket thanking me for the letter.

------
seltzered
While I love your blog tynan, I have a question for twitter: Since when did it
become ok to get someone else's twitter handle just due to inactivity? And if
the change occurred in only five minutes, was there any warning to the
existing user?

Domain names operate on a principle where you pay for your name every year,
and get several warning emails that you will lose your account if you fail to
pay.

Edit: read JCS's post, makes sense as long as they clearly state how inactive
you must be. That said, could you get kicked off of twitter if you merely use
it to "lurk" your friend's protected tweets?

~~~
phjohnst
See Twitter's inactive account policy here:

[http://support.twitter.com/groups/33-report-a-
violation/topi...](http://support.twitter.com/groups/33-report-a-
violation/topics/148-policy-information/articles/15362-inactive-account-
policy)

In general though it looks like they would like you to have a serious claim to
the mark (ie US or Intl registered trademark) before they'll hand it over.

~~~
seltzered
thanks!

------
swombat
_My friend Christophe, who offered to video everything, was there, as was
Jerry from The Cake Gallery, a local business that specializes in penis
cakes._

Wait, what?

Penis cakes?

<http://thecakegallerysf.com/>

 _3-D Cakes_ _3-Dimensional cakes are popular whether it’s a simple Barbie
Cake or an elaborate Wedding Cake. Adults Only, X-Rated Cakes or our most
provocative creations are adult in nature. Our X-Rated themes range from male
and female body parts to any sexual depiction your demented mind can create._

Nice.

~~~
mxavier
Pretty funny coincidence that he'd have yet another thing in common with the
Larry David/Curb Your Enthusiasm situation he found himself in. There's a
whole episode of CYE about penis cakes (Meet The Blacks).

------
maxawaytoolong
I don't understand why these cakes were bought by someone who goes on at
length about why sugar is bad for you.

~~~
tynan
I know, it's ironic. I chose cakes because everyone besides me likes cake.

------
maukdaddy
This blog looks like a MySpace page.

