TweetupSL 5

Yesterday was one of those busy days for Tweeps and this wasn't because someone had come up with a funny hashtag or because of some sort of incident we could all tweet about. No, yesterday was meet in real life day. TweetupSL is an amazing event organized each year and it is basically a gathering of tweeps with games, music, competitions and of course, an awards ceremony.

I could still be considered a newbie 'cause I've been at just two Tweetups and mid-2013 I followed nearly no Sri Lankans and no one followed me. By mid-2014 though I had met so many tweeps and made many friends but not as many as so many other people have. I'm basically a nobody on Twitter and I'll say this now, this is my opinion and while you can have your own opinion about Twitter or TweetupSL, your insults won't really bother me. So if you don't agree with what I have to say, well, disagree/insult away.

What I liked about it

Tweeps

I met and spoke to some really nice people. There were people I've met before and people I've never spoken to before. I got and gave a few 'do I know you?' looks but with the people who actually introduced themselves to me (I'm socially awkward and don't introduce myself to people), I had some meaningful and lovely conversations.

I won't mention any names but I'm glad I spoke to all those people I did speak with. Especially during the last bit of Tweetup.
Also to all those I didn't talk much with, sorry. I'm too shy and awkward and scared of people to talk.

Fun

It was entertaining, mostly for the wrong reasons but I did laugh and enjoy the event. I'm more of a enjoy from a distance person, and I managed to do this yesterday. I would have liked it if there was grass I could sit on and play with while people had their conversations, took their selfies and were thrown off rodeo bulls. But the cement tiled floor was good enough and ya, I had fun.

Free food

Now, the story goes that there were people who attended just for the free tshirt. I didn't attend TweetupSL for the noodles, and as not-that-good as it may be, free food is still free food and should be appreciated. Plus the Nescafe coffee was good.

People

Twitter is a good place to be who you aren't. DPs and tweets can be deceiving. So Tweetup was a good place to learn about people and realize who is worth knowing and who should be just unfollowed. Not to be mean, but some people are just too pretentious and I have no time for such people.

What I disliked about it

The awards

I think that rather than how many tweets a person posts per day, awards should be given based on the content of the tweets. And also how interactive this tweep is. However, we are to blame for this 'cause  we voted for these people. I have no issue with the award winners and some of them actually post some good tweets. But some of them are just plain silly.

Now before anyone insults my tweets, I'll admit to posting silly stuff. I tweet about having lunch, random words that come to my mind and even senseless rants. But even if I have five thousand followers, I wouldn't consider myself award-worthy because I feel there are so many people whose tweets are useful, helpful and make sense but hell, they never even get nominated 'cause they aren't Twitter celebrities.

The accents

Okay, you go abroad and get back and this silly accent never leaves you. Everyone makes fun of it and you feel sad. But sometimes you haven't been abroad that much. Some haven't even left the country. And yet, some indistinguishable and difficult to understand accent has crept into your life. I find reading Sinhala and even Tamil words written in English a wee bit difficult. However, if you are reading out names at an awards ceremony, regardless of the magnitude or importance of this ceremony, please learn to read the names properly. And if you don't know how to pronounce a name, ask someone, before you make a fool of yourself.

The tshirts

I registered on time. I paid that 200 rupees. I got my noodles and coffee but I didn't get a tshirt because they ran out of tshirts even though they knew how many people had registered for the event. Now, unlike accusations made against certain people, I wasn't there for the tshirt. I rarely wear tshirts. But I would have loved to have something that would remind me of TweetupSL5 years after the event. The ticket won't do this, the already-digested coffee and noodles won't either.


Overall, I liked TweetupSL. There was the good, there was the bad, but the good outweighed the bad.