Puja Tweetup Kolkata

So Puja is near. That blissful time of the year when there is literally magic in air and people forget everything to get immersed in the spirit of the festival that is Durga Puja.
A time when Kolkata becomes a center of attraction and the city resembles a big mad carnival!

A time, when bongs of the world come back to their land of fore-fathers, and bengalis of the city, remember their old.

So what would be the best time other than this to have a tweetup for all the #twitterbongs & non-bongs alike to gather & share fun and the spirit of Puja in #kolkata & also enjoy in each others company.

So please RSVP for the #pujatweetup here:
Puja Tweetup Kolkata (via @arjunghosh)

Where?	Maddox Square Ballygunge Kolkata, India
When?	Sep 27, 2009 2:30pm - 5pm

After an extensive online voting here at @twitter, Maddox Square was chosen as the best popular location to have the #pujatweetup.

Direction to Maddox Square can be found here:

View Larger Map

Twitter has gone loco! Has blocked @replies

Ok, the Title of this blog post is not completely correct. Twitter has *NOT* blocked @replies. According to this "Small" Notice on Twitter's Blog, well read it yourselves:

"However, receiving one-sided fragments via replies sent to folks you don't follow in your timeline is undesirable. Today's update removes this undesirable and confusing option."

So what it actually means, is that from now on, you can't see @replies to tweeps if u r not following them. This essentially take out the "Social" from the "Social Networking & Discovery" ease of @twitter.

Twitter's biggest asset was being able to find & connect to new like-minded people out there very very easily!

Three reasons can come to mind - first reason, as per their blog post, people actually gave a feedback that they don't like this feature and its irritating. Now who was @twitter talking to ?

From the barrage of outcry on @twitter (using the hashtag #fixreplies ) and in online blog world, it seems they have been talking to wrong people. #fixreplies is the top trending topic in @twitter itself. That should give them some idea what TWorld is thinking.


There is even a website for following all the chatter (damn! it was fast. I should have thought of it sooner) - http://fixreplies.com

Second reason may be technical. That something was being done with architecture, that removing this feature was necessary. If so, Why not say so. @twitter you have been truthful and we the fan have been with you through your darkest hours. So why not the truth. Maybe @al3x can tell us about it.

Third reason may be a business decision - maybe due to some secret reason, which will benefit @twitter in long terms, they are doing this. (Though I very well don't see how )

Well there can be a last reason also. Like the this blog title says - Twitter has gone Loco!, bonkers, plain STUPID! Well that for @ev & @biz to tell.

Well finally, only thing I, @arjunghosh can say is that - Twitter we are your FANS, not very famous or anything, but still your Fans. Treat us with some respect. Listen to what we have to say. Go #fixreplies soon.

Delhi Tweetup - meet for Delhi's twitterati/bloggers/microbloggers

This was on my wish list for long time - a Delhi TweetUp.
In fact I had been pestering @twilightfairy for long for this and that too where else - on Twitter.


And recently she granted my wish :)


I was introduced to this new "micro-blogging" fairly recently (a few months) due to some work related twitter integration I had to do. Initially was skeptical about twitter, thinking about it as *just another mashup* to integrate via Twitter API.
Well then I realized - I like this new social and new media Tool! It became an alternative to my blogging urges and much easier. In fact twitter is the reason that that I have doing less blogging now. Well its micro-blogging.
Also another reason as the instant audience you had for your post or as we say in twitterville - "tweets". As twitter is like a perpetual chat, I met lot of like minded people and had many many interesting conversation, ranging from music, movies, bikes, girls to technology,gadgets,books,etc.
I made for the first time online friends actually. Never did it with other social networking sites like Orkut or Facebook. There, it was mostly real-world friends. And now these Twittervile friends of mine connected with me at other places online like my facebook, my lastfm, my books, my pictures, etc.

So I definitely wanted to meet all these interesting people from Twitterville. And everyone shares the same notion as me, can come to the Delhi TweetUp tomorrow. If no friends to meet, then just to know about this wonderful social tool called Twitter and make new friends!! :)

Date : 20th September, 2008 (Saturday), 5pm - 8pm

Venue : Incube Business Centre
18, Nehru Place,
New Delhi, 110019 , # +91-11-3061 4401

You can register here, and on facebook too.

Twitter has become a dude. Gone through a Make Over

Twitter, that loved (sometimes hated) kid on the social networking block, seems growing up into a cool handsome dude. It has gone through a major re-design. Lot more AJAxiness, new UI reflecting better usability. It seems people at Twitter HQ are now putting close attention to details, beside the Scotch!! :)

Well the changes to twitter are mostly "cosmetic". The top tabs have gone




and they are now re-aligned to the right panel, which I think is a intelligent decision. This will give them more "real estate" to expand on future features.


Also, I feel that Twitter has now space on the lower right panel for Advertisement, which should start the revenue stream for Twitter (Even if they don't need it after their last round of investments).


I beleive twitter can have very useful focused advertisements, like for a particular twitter channel/group. This will not even intrude on the overall experience of using the twitter, if place in the empty right hand side "real estate". Intentionally or un-intentionally, this is a better way forward for twitter.

You can read about the whole list of changes at the official twitter blog.

But still have some request of mine also for @twitter: Firstly, want the "re-tweet" facility which most twitter client like Twhirl has. Secondly, want the search for twitter integrated into the dashboard itself. The guys at @twitter don't even have to create a new feature - just link up the existing site and make it part of the Twitter dashboard.

Twitter has been doing a lot well - much less @failwhale (though i miss it!!), less data errors, etc. It just need to go that much more. Otherwise, others like Yammer, which is essentially "Twitter for Business" will move first on new idea, which I feel essentially Twitter should have implemented. Incidentally, Yammer won the top prize at TechCrunch50 and thats lost opportunity for Twitter. So this re-design is going to help Twitter, but they have to do more.

Twitter is Down again as of 20th May, 2008 13:38 IST !!!

Twitter seems to be down again. Well Twitter seems to be an excellent online app with good fan following but if this continuously happens, twitter will lose people.