Stephen's Twitter debacle

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Gavin Scott
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We all love Stephen Fry. All of us. Each and every one.

Except one man who finds his twitter posts a bit "boring". So he tells him, and Stephen takes a wee huff (like we all do sometimes) and snaps back.

Then he has a think, and subsequently says sorry to the man he was quick to be offended by. This is a bit like the internet experience of every one of us, surely?

How come its been a running story everywhere from the Metro to the BBC?

"Fry ponders leaving Twitter site", "Fry ends row with Twitter critic", and so on.

Oddly enough the BBC published a comment from one micro-blogger - @Malcurion wrote: "The Stephen Fry story is NOT news, BBC, Sky, et al. Wake up.", but that didn't stop them publishing the updates on the story.

I know there's a lot of pages to fill on the Beeb site, but really - this has to be less newsworthy than our own Jarongate scandal, or the mental brain-droppings from James Martin.

What the heck is going on?
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marksi
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Location: Donaghadee

This kind of thing happens because news values in this country are on their arse. Or arses.

And yes, I am aware that the sentence above is very badly constructed, but it does convey what I mean.

That is all.
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Sput
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Marksi you have crossed the line between advising the BBC and lobbying and I demand you pack up your belongings and get out.
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DVB Cornwall
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It seems that Stephen was caught at a low ebb on Saturday, why we shouldn't really speculate, and reacted emotionally in a very public place. Unfortunately this occurred at the worse time of the week news wise, Saturday early afternoon, journalists on duty of which several are Tweeters and obviously followers of Mr Fry, took on board the spat. The lack of anything compelling in the news agenda promoted the incident over and above it's rightful place.

Thankfully the Spat seems to be over and Mr Fry continues his insight into his diary on Twitter.
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Dr Lobster*
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aren't everybodies twitter/facebook/etcetc posts boring? i really can't see the point of it.

who cares whether stephen fry's turd was orangey brown or yellowy brown this morning?
Alexia
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I would venture the mini-argument that Twitter's boom in popularity over the past 12 months is due in no small part to Mr Fry, and while it is indeed noteworthy that one of Twitter's leading cheerleaders briefly considered leaving something he devotes a lot of effort to, I agree that it doesn't deserve the level of coverage it has been given. A quirky note in "Also in the news..." would have done.
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DVB Cornwall
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Joined: Fri 24 Jun, 2005 21.42

What alarmed people really was the nature of Stephen Fry's response which inferred that he was emotionally upset. Several people were genuinely concerned bearing in mind his past depressive illness episodes. If he'd simply told his detractor to get lost nothing would have come of it. I for one hope he's feeling a lot better now.
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Ronnie Rowlands
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People overreacted and were wrong to send death threats to the man.

Alan Davies behaved like a complete prick on twitter. He deleted the tweets but he was basically insulted anyone who dared to suggest that the thing was OTT. But then what do you expect from that brutish get. I've heard he's a horrid man in real life.
Ronnie is victorious, vivacious in victory like a venomous dog. Vile Republicans cease living while the religious retort with rueful rhetoric. These rank thugs resort to violence and swear revenge.

But Ronnie can punch through steel so they lose anyway.
rts
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Me = Big Twitter fan/user
Fry story = Definitely did not warrant front-page place on BBC News online
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SiGa
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Joined: Sat 08 Mar, 2008 16.27

Yeah this has definitely been blown out of all proportion.

Sad that the media has nothing better to report on.
cdd
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Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 14.05

The BBC's front page this morning...

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