
Wherein Twestival screw us over with their egregious unprofessionalism. - danw
http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2009/08/28.html
======
chrismear
Not that I'm condoning the behaviour of the Twestival organisers, but I find
it hard to sympathise with the venue, given that they continued reserving the
date for 'months' with no contract and no deposit paid. They took a risk on a
clearly flakey client, and it didn't pay off.

~~~
nir
"We sent a contract, and asked for a deposit. Months went by. A few times they
asked when they could stop by to drop off the deposit, but never actually did
so."

The venue's actions seem pretty reasonable to me. They gave the organizers
some slack, assuming these are basically decent people. It's not like they're
dealing with some unknown or shady operation.

Still, discovering a Twitter-related operation turned out to be much
noise/little signal shouldn't be _that_ surprising :)

------
jawngee
That's jacked. I used to be an event promoter and that kind of behavior from
fellow promoters would end up harming me in some way (not being able to book a
venue, extra heavy deposits, etc). Amateur at best, unprofessional completely.

On a side note, I am now blind because of the lime green on black. 1994 is
calling and wants its "cyber" vibe back.

~~~
tptacek
That color scheme dates back to about:jwz, in the first version of Mozilla. =)

~~~
sketerpot
If I ever find out what Project Xanadu's default color scheme was supposed to
be, then I will probably switch a web site to it. In loving memory of a future
that we exceeded and still failed to live up to.

(Xanadu was the first idea of a hypertext system. It was more heavyweight than
the current system, which may be why it never caught on -- but it was
incredibly visionary. Sometimes I read futurist writing from that time, and
I'm struck by how much better we've done and by how much of its early promise
we have left unfulfilled.)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu>

------
jgilliam
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Zawinski>

------
cyunker
Their website still lists DNA Lounge as the venue...

<http://sanfrancisco.twestival.com/>

~~~
cyunker
They've since updated it.

~~~
danw
They've also deleted blog posts mentioning DNA Lounge

------
eworoshow
Twestival posted a response:
[http://sanfrancisco.twestival.com/2009/08/29/our-side-
smiles...](http://sanfrancisco.twestival.com/2009/08/29/our-side-smiles/)

~~~
gaius
Either they or JWZ are lying, then. I know who my money's on.

------
bkovitz
I don't get it. Why do they need to close on a Friday night? There are a
zillion DJs in San Francisco, and people often come to DNA Lounge just because
it's DNA Lounge, without knowing what, if anything, special is planned that
night.

~~~
anigbrowl
In a nutshell, it's more expensive to open the club and book bar staff, DJs,
security staff etc. than they are likely to take in on that evening with other
big events on and no time to promote (ads to the local newspapers have to be
submitted a few weeks in advance). The number of people who go to a nightclub
just because it's there is likely to be less than 1-200, and a club the size
of the DNA lounge needs at least 4-500 to break even.

~~~
SwellJoe
And a club that feels empty come 10 or 11 PM will remain empty all night
because nobody wants to be where nothing is going on.

------
diN0bot
somewhat off tangent:

1\. it seems that people are more likely to reschedule and not hold to
commitments than 20 years ago.

2\. has the population changed, or some other external factor, or has the
culture changed?

3\. why?

~~~
danw
Mobile Phones. Pre-mobile there was no way of letting someone know you are
running late, or changing arrangements last minute.

~~~
joezydeco
You've never worked with a subcontractor on a home remodelling project, have
you? =)

These guys carry three cellphones AND a pager, but will never show up on time
for an appointment or call to tell you they're not going to be at your house
on the day you took off of work. But when that bill is due lookout: they're
magically available and on the phone with you constantly.

------
ivankirigin
I know the central people behind twestival, and have worked with them before.
I think it is important to know how things are actually run. You have a few
central people who are helping a ton of people organize meetups. This lets
those at the center get great reach, and makes the global event really big. It
is amazing that a global event is essentially organized by a handful of
people.

Like the internet, this kind of decentralization requires relinquishing a bit
of control. It is daring from a branding perspective to let locals plan events
under your brand's global name.

So I wouldn't say this story is the fault of "the twestival" - but of those
local SF organizers who dropped the ball.

~~~
Kaizyn
Then the Twestival SF organizers are flakes, and your friends who do the
central coordination need to do a better job vetting their local organizers.
Otherwise, your friends will earn themselves a bad name.

~~~
ivankirigin
I agree. Lots of local organizers have been booted for various reasons. I
think there are something like 150 cities. There is basically a person or two
vetting the whole thing. I think that deserves respect regardless of a few bad
examples.

I mean, there is money involved, and charities to donate to. That extremely
sensitive issue is essentially already settled.

~~~
ErrantX
Trouble is your usually defined by mistakes. Finding the "rotten apples" is a
thankless task and when you get it wrong people notice.

I feel myself siding with the venue right now: Twestival seems to be playing
the "but it's for charity! c'mon" card a little too strongly for my taste.

------
edawerd
Can someone explain to me how it is that club promoters work? Back when I was
living in LA, I'd meet lots of people who would tell me they're a promoter for
club X, but I never understood how they fit into the business model.

~~~
gaius
The promoter is an entrepreneur, their product is the event. He or she
arranges the venue, the performers, the advertising, etc and whatever's left
from the door price/ticket sales once everyone's been paid is their profit.

Lots of people do this part time looking only to break even, in that case
their profit is in the form of social capital.

------
bjelkeman-again
The Twestival consists of hundreds of volunteers in lots of different
locations. The people the I and my colleagues have worked with for four
different events have so far been very professional.

