Hello there.
You have either asked me to retweet a post or to draw the attention of my followers to a particular site. It is quite probable that you want to alert as many people as possible to a worthy cause, an extraordinary person or perhaps a landmark day or event that should be celebrated and recognised by as many people as can be reached. It is just as probable that I heartily approve of your cause and its aims. And yet I am sending you here to this page on my website instead of complying with your simple and reasonable request. What on earth am I playing at? How can I be so uncharitable, so unfeeling? With a quarter of a million followers isn’t it my duty to use my captive twitter audience for good and noble ends?
Well yes. But try and understand how difficult it is to comply with your wishes for a number of reasons.
If I direct followers’ attention to one site on request, then don’t I have to for all?
Suppose I miss a particular request, suppose I just don’t see it stream past me?
Suppose one such ‘charity’ is revealed to be rather more self-interested and less charitable than I had supposed, not unlike certain appeals for sponsorship that have turned out to be little short of attempts to get money for a nice long holiday for some enterprising scamster? How can I have time to check out the dozens and dozens of sites a day? And yet, if I don’t, how can I be confident that I am not leading my followers astray and giving the oxygen of publicity to frauds?
Most worryingly of all, how can I guarantee that your site is robust enough take the sudden burst of traffic that a retweet from me will inevitably cause? I have to be realistic about this. It isn’t vanity or braggadocio, but simply a melancholy facing of the fact that when I tweet a site that site will get inevitably get stormed, stampeded and smashed into collapse. It has happened too often for me to doubt it, and after webmasters have sworn blind to me that their servers and hosts can easily shoulder the burden. It has happened to highly capitalised major servers that one really might have expected to be structurally sounder. The power of Twitter is only just being understood. The last thing I would want is to be responsible for slash-dotting worthy, important and useful services.
The only answer to all these problems, so far as I can see, is to take the following step with regard to any request for worthy retweets or the passing on of charitable links.
1. Include the hashtag #fryretweet somewhere in the body of your post to me. If you are unclear about how hashtags work, look here. Essentially though, all you need to know is that #fryretweet should be in the body of your tweet.
2. Once a week, I will select one cause from the mass in the #fryretweet search. I will select more or less at random, check the one I have chosen for server resilience, kosher qualities of worthiness and so on. Then I will tweet the link I will have been asked to tweet.
3. The next week I will search amongst the next seven days #fryretweet posts. If you wish to resubmit your worthy site, then simply make sure you repost with the hashtag each week. The odds are against my being able to do anything for you, but that is probably better than my breaking your site.
Please note that this does not apply to anything commercial. Only genuinely deserving, insofar as I am able to judge, entries will be considered.
Let’s see if this works. If not, I’ll refine or alter the system and try and let you know.
Thanks for dropping by. See you in twitterland…
x
Stephen
© Stephen Fry 2009
Producer note: A number of you have made comments about being blocked and expressed some disappointment. Please be assured that it is due to a technical bug and not because @stephenfry has deliberately blocked you. I’ll contact each of you that have made a comment on here asking you to send me your Twitter user profile name so you can be unblocked. If you don’t hear from me, please email help@samfrylimited.com Best wishes, Andrew Sampson, stephenfry.com producer.
Oh please don’t let this blog become just an extension of your twitter account!
I wonder how many sites could survive a Fry bashing? It is a good thing you are doing sir. Well done.
If you ever want to ride a pushbike long distance in Australia, give me a yell.
http://www.helpnorbshelpthekids.com
I am sure we all know the worthiness of certain charities over others but none of us I am sure would want any Snipper of any kind to be left uncared for or unsustained.
The following request is remarkably off-topic and off-course but I hope you understand. (I request people who have a somewhat impatient temperament not to peruse the following)
I am exceedingly apologetic and somewhat embarrassed to leave a request of this kind here, I think you’ll say that I am capricious and self-centered to be doing this here(and you won’t be far wrong) but you see I’ve tried on many occasions on twitter (well actually only five) and readily understand the inherent problems in getting in touch with you considering the mass number of tweets that you receive everyday (the thought that you have perhaps seen one of my tweets and have disregarded it hasn’t entered my mind because of your generous nature, although I fear such a statement implies sycophantic intenton my part), so I’ll apologise again to you and to fellow users of this site for stooping to this level here. My request is a fair and simple one, will you follow me on twitter please? Consider me as a sort of Dominic Applegard who had a regard for Bob Holness in one of your sketches. Don’t be too alarmed though my mother did not leave me when I was four months old nor do I think I am capable of handling a cod comfortably. (I would thoroughly understand if this isn’t posted and there is a fear with you being gone for six days and nights that this may not come across your attention)
Well I only have 60 followers at the moment and the reason I came to twitters was to see what Stephen Fry was up to…ok and maybe see is Russell Brand would talk to me but Stephen gave me the link…and with how many people are following him it is totally impossible for him to even read all the stuff about the people he is following !!!! plus all the stuff he was doing .. I could understand if all he every did was sit at home in front of his computer…but seeing how busy he is…I take it as an honour just to be party to the little snippets he shares…
share on my friend
see you on tuesday for the next instalment of Stephen Fry in American, I think its’ California this week.
thanks for the entertainment
I am horrified to read my post and think I posted it in a moment of psychotic lunacy. I apologise again.
Of course it is an unbridled pleasure to be able to read Stephen Fry’s thoughts and snippets of information on a daily basis and when I’m in an insalubrious mood, one of the things that can bring me to my senses is to read one of his tweets or see some of the amazing pictures he sends on twitpic, or alternatively I can jaunt off and grab a Wodehouse book.
Oh darn it. I guess this means you’ll see through my vain attempts at having you pay for my flight. And here I was thinking it a brillian idea…
Incidentally ignore my earlier post, I am more horrified of it than anyone can imagine. Of course I understand that Stephen Fry can’t follow everyone and I did read his earlier blog on twitter and his explanation about why he can’t follow everyone, it sort of slipped my mind (ignorant, foolish me). As long as Stephen keeps on tweeting I’ll be happy.
Hi Stephen
I’m a friend of Dr Sue Black. Many thanks for tweeting about #bpark. Totally understand your predicament RE: retweeting. We were jolly lucky, I think.
I have a possible solution to your linking problem; redirect throttling.
When you link through a site like tinyurl.com, there’s an opportunity to block requests above a certain frequency threshhold (e.g., based on estimates drawn from their own traffic stats about the domain you’re linking to). If the threshhold was, say, 5 requests per second, then the 6th requester would be shown a page asking them to try later, and the target site would be shielded from too many concurrent users.
I think it would be relatively simple to implement that. I know I could do it, if only I had access to servers that could take that kind of load. (Oooh errr, missus!) Renting a cloud would be one option. They work out at about £1/CPU/Hour, I believe.
Forgive my rampant nerdishness – just can’t help architecting a solution when someone describes a problem!
omairzahid… you seem to be having some sort of internal crisis!!
Nice to see that you are thinking and writing on your feet!
My Mac has no hash key. Does that make me a valid cause for charitable intervention? But how to apply? A connundrum! t.x
(Note to enthusiastic comment readers – please don’t tell me a fancy shortcut key. I don’t have the brain capacity to store the information correctly and I shall end up inserting annoying little things – ♥♥♥ – you see how annoying it is?! t.x)
A simple solution to crashing sites would be to request followers to look at new sites on a schedule. If your last name starts with a-c please look on Monday, d-f please look on Tuesday, etc. I’m sure that the people that are following Stephen have enough respect for the man to do this and cause him less grief!
Not to be crass but I don’t know why you should bear the burden of making your Twitter account a platform for worthy causes. Does being in the public eye mean that you have to expose world injustices in every venue and mode of communication? I understand the argument for it but it seems like an awful lot of work for you. Why can’t people just enjoy your tweets and not make demands upon you? If anyone feels their cause merit more attention, I suggest they attach suction cups to their hands and knees and climb the gherkin or something. I’m no sycophant but I’m just worried that demands will only get more burdensome, you are a busy man and I don’t think you should further cut down on your leisure and sleeping time. Besides, you could get seriously annoyed and chuck us all. People just don’t know when to stop!
I have never asked you for anything and never plan on doing so. One, although you are a fine chap (of course no Woosterian words of praise come to mind at the mo), I don’t need you to acknowledge me for me to feel I am worthy to walk the Earth; two, I know you have better things to do with your time. This “please advertise this worthy cause for me” schtick feels very much like a round about way of attracting attention to oneself.
In reading this missive, one should keep in mind that I am suspicious by nature. No misanthrope me, I couldn’t very well be described as a philanthropist either.
Oh wait… you could mention Bloomsday come June.
Kidding.
Lots of love,
Aloysius here, ChantalEmiliann on twitter (and I sign this because I’d like to know other Fry fans on twitter)
Yes it definitely was an internal crisis and I lay unusual stress on the word definitely, I believe it comes with the territory of a disturbed sleep-depraved mind.
I couldn’t have acted more like Dominic Applegard even if I practised for a month
Stephen,
Excellent idea. Let’s have a try if #fryretweet works
ehummm, why can’t I leave a comment here?
I think that we should listen more and talk less. I like to hear what Mr Fry has to say, we is followers should not over burden him, otherwise he will stop and I don’t think that anyone wants that.
Good afternoon from Sydney! Nice to see your new blog.
Briefly ~ I had the great felicity of seeing you once more on Parkinson, with the witty dialogue, and magnetic personality with your magic smiles, and keeping Sharon Stone in laughter-mode!
Quite made my afternoon! Not to mention B. Midler who sang the most marvelous song before she sat down!
With your workload, and ambitious ever-in-motion type of life style, I cannot doubt that the above mentioned possible major runaway avalanche of requests would get a little overwhelming at times! haha! [-_-]
I just want to wish you luck with whatever way you deem fit to deal with the great tidal-wave of requests, etc….
En Avant, kind sir! I hope you are enjoying your current location and schedules…
bonus oriens Stephen , ego have tantummodo iunctus velico , is videor a valde interesting informatio , hinc mihi lectio interesting unique insequor , iam ego eram admiratio si vos could succurro mihi , ut ego have iustus exertus ut reperio Magister Stephen W Hawking , iam is videor sit non a velico , quod est a dedecus ut ut would exsisto alius interesting Stephen quod mens insequor , hinc meus prex pro vestri succurro could vos compello Magister Hawking quod scisco him si is would meditatus decens a Velico commodo , ego animadverto is est a porro offa ut vos may non vel adepto ut lego is , permissum unus res is may non planto sence ut ego sum trying ut reddo is in latin , tunc nimirum magister hawking quod vestri may puteus exsisto recedentia quoque districtus ut adstringo. tamen ego mos servo meus fingers crux crucis. Plures Gratiae James
Hello mister Fry,
You are a very lucky man! Travel all round our beautiful earth. Embrace our amazing colourfull nature. It’s a gift that not happens to many people.
Be grateful for every opportunity you get to be part of our often ignorance treasures. Sunny regards!
Wiesje
@ Kitschen Pink
You may know that the hash (#) is known in the US as the “pound” key. Therefore, on US keyboard layouts it occupies the shift-3 position – which on a UK mac keyboard is the pound (£) sign.
So your (simple and not at all fancy) key to get the # is alt-3 (or option-3 if you prefer). Simple, and should be easy to remember (if you get the pound/pound) thing.
I find alt-key combinations on the Mac to be refreshingly mnemonic and straightforward, better than alt+0345 type things on a Windows/DOS machine.
This is a great post that you should have moved to the top of your page so anyone that visits knows your stance.
Although, having said that, if you believe it is important to help fuel the research that will end cancer > and in the process of doing so > enter a drawing to win a new KitchenAid mixer > please do come visit my blog this coming Friday. I am currently hosting several contests that anyone can enter. And there will be new contests with new prizes each and every week (until my tax return is gone).
In three weeks, I’ve raised almost $7,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, due in large part to readers of my blog who have made 100% tax deductible donations to this critically important cause.
With so many followers, I don’t plan on tweeting this to you. But I’ll plug my charitable cause here and hope that in the off chance you tweet about it, my blog can withstand the spike in traffic.
I’m willing to take that chance.
I think the burden that ‘fans’ wish to lay upon you (i.e. the famous) can be too much sometimes.
After all you can’t cure all the worlds ills, everbody has to play their part. And that part doesn’t just involve asking, nay demanding you to post a link to their favourite charity, cause, whatever.
Even analysing one charity a week will I daresay become quite a challenge unless the groundwork can be done by someone else.
By posting a link you will (in some people’s eyes) be declaring an association with it that you couldn’t possibly be responsible for.
But some people may indeed hold you responsible for any misgivings that arise later.
Good luck!
I must say I agree with Aloysius on this.
I would also like to add that unless you are going to investigate these organizations and make sure they are doing what they say they are doing and are doing it effectively you might just be promoting something truly awful. And destroying your name in the process. A site a week is a lot and very little time for investigating.
I once worked for a children’s organization that received public support from a well-known US celeb. And that organization was really horrible behind the scenes. Not gonna go into detail but I did email the celeb’s organization and let them know what was going on. Needless to say he managed help raise a lot of money for an organization that was causing as much trauma to these kids as the families they came from. I lost a lot of respect for the guy for either not bothering to find out what the organization was about or just simply not caring. And now that organization has more money to continue on with its “mission”.
Just don’t do it.
Dear Mr. Fry,
Thank you for your series on MD/BP – which I have posted at my little blog.
http://pharmaceuticalsanonymous.blogspot.com/
But I wonder why you are supporting Rethink, which seems miles behind your work – very old-fashioned indeed.
Can you comment, please?
Your fan,
PA
I logged on this site after seeing you talk about Michelangelo theories on TV last night. And now I find a site dedicated to alerting people to things that aren’t receiving enough attention. Great!
My Michelangelo theory (a ‘decoding’ of the Sistine! ) is much better than the ‘brain on the ceiling thing’ – ie a link between Michelangelo and Copernicus – but although I first published it in 1990, and as a book in 2000, it’s not getting the attention it deserves!
Valerie
On twitter I’m blocked from ‘following’ Mr Fry!
how do i fix this?!
I woke up this morning after a nightmare in which you had contracted HIV, and were talking about it on ‘Breakfast’ with Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams. It was dreadfully realistic and I woke up terrified that somehow what I’d just dreamt was true. You had been sitting on that couch talking ever so gently about it, looking rather delicate but still putting on a brave face for the nation. I googled your name and the word ‘news’, taking a good few minutes before I’d accept that you were genuinely safe. I remember thinking ‘No! Not another one!” in reference to Terry Pratchett’s Alzeimer’s diagnosis. I suppose it’s selfish to panic so much simply because you’re afraid that you might be losing a beloved comedian, writer or actor sooner than you’d want. I can’t imagine how much more empty my life would be without your smile and your voice.
I’m not sure why I felt I had to share this with you, but thank goodness you DON’T having HIV. I hope my stupid brain will shut up now.
Hello there too, mr. Stephen
I for the first time on your page blog.Hope at you everything is all right and you are not ill!
“The big people – the big communications”
the Comment:
People everywhere is different. Organisations and neighbours unfamiliar and a bit familiar people. They everywhere the different. Some people use other people because it naturally for them. Presently seldom reflect on respect (though its banal enough sounds and so often occurs in the negative plan). Certainly the organisations in which people transfer money this original place. You cannot supervise their each step. Even if you wish to know precisely that occurs. And especially on the Internet! It risky! The organisations are created to organise people. To draw attention. But its possible to organise honour of the person only by means of court (if its the started variant of places where the help from people becomes exploitation and to gangs receive for it a free forage).To make thus answerable one person does not mean at all that the others will follow to its example. It will be noisy and is ineffective.
It would not be desirable that have finished shooting the second film College (in real events) where webs will be more than textbooks. It will be unpleasant and silly.
Never certainly you will get to a brain of people. Especially if you are adjusted decently and benevolently. Your rules always remain yours. To help people its good. But it should be real for two parties. It is almost similar to Santa Klaus. It is not necessary to repeat its experiment it eternally does one and too. Gives and gives… For Christmas to someone whom I never know (me, he never gave of nothing – he dont know me too?) )))) But Santa – a Christmas symbol. To it possibly have already got used during a certain season. And the person giving something should weigh all consequences carefully. Even in that case if there will be a failure of its goodwill. When people will take advantage of it not on the good purposes.
Because if you give something… You Realize that the life of other people too partly depends on yours.
(sorry for my dont best english)
PS. Can i ask you??? I dont know what it mean when at the end letter people write it: “xxx”. What this mean?)
I have problem with post comment-tooo ((( why so i dont know really..
Dear sir, I have a separate offtopic comment, forgive me for not following the subject, please.
Can I contact you only through your Agent in order to ask a few literature-related questions, which I hesitate to publish here?
I have recently taken up a project (well, being my degree paper, to be honest), which is to 50% devoted to studies on your books (connections between certain peculiarities and Jane Austen’s fictional world), as well as the course of seminars I hold for the 4th-year students – about Media & Brand Functioning in Modern Literature (the first seminar was about seeing Jane Austen as a tool of Media). I represent Dept. of History of Foreign Literature at the philological faculty of MSU Lomonosov (Moscow, Russia).
I will be enormously grateful, if you could provide me with some hint I could use for that matter.
Thank you very much, sir.
Dear Stephen… don’t feel the need to respond to or comply with any of our requests (or even ‘demands’ ) ..we are fans of your “output” as it were,we love your work and you bring much joy into our lives…if you choose to do things for our benefit then thank you kindly and good on yer sir… but the idea that some of us would have the gall and sheer brass-neck to attempt to add to what seems an impossibly hectic schedule is..well,almost embarrassing.. do what you like Mr Fry and we shall appreciate it if we appreciate it ..:)
Viktoria, “x” or “xxx” means “kisses” usually
Good grief! With all that you do, it’s amazing you find time for this! Thank you for sharing your gift of gab and comic timing with the world. It’s a much more fun place with you in it. ~victoria
I’m not sure I fully understand how re tweet works infact I think I may have misunderstood alltogether I have not yet got my head around hashtags either I am working on it though.
Yes, please don’t make this blog an extension of your twitter account. Otherwise I night be blocked from reading your posts here too. I have never contacted you other than one polite tweet comment in support of a tweet you made about MMR. I am a perfectly normal balanced person. Seems a shame to just randomly block people. Perhaps I am being over sensitive about it, but for some reason I feel a bit offended to have been blocked by some one I have never been in contact with and therefore could not have offended.
Anyway, just thought I’d mention it in case you decide to suddenly block any other innocent tweet reader for no reason. It doesn’t feel nice to be honest.
Regards,
James.
dear Stephen…
please…please…please…
this is a simple yet somehow complex quest: I would like to be ” re-added ” on Twitter in your book of “following.”.please…for I’m not sure what happened as one minute I was there, part of it, on your page, and the next I wasn’t…for no apparent cause or reason..
I have so enjoyed following your wise observations and amusing play on words and would like to comment back from time to time, so please may I be added once again?
keep up the good work on Twitter, you are , unlike others , there, FOR and WITH us ,……….and that’s great
)
thanks, and do remember to re-add me , please!!!!
Stephaniexx
magicpotion on Twitter
hi,
please, please stop posting public service announcements to tweeting people in place of your normal insightful and informative blessays on whatever. to be honest, i was quite sad when i went “lets see what mr fry has had to say” and was rewarded with “hey if you don’t tweet you suck and non-tweeters need not even pay attention”.
maybe i’m too sensitive, but really. shiny and new does not mean better, just sayin’.
-greg
Twitter username:
citizen_uno
Without your tweets the most interesting thing I get is David Lynch’s daily weather report. I expected something more from him…
I understood that the ‘x’ written at the end of letters is tokenistic of the tradition of kissing the wax-seal on an envelope. Presumably a way to invest luck into its delivery or vouch for its integrity.
It seems more likely that, as illiterate people would (and still do) sign their name with a cross, the X just means ‘My Name.’
Google thinks its because the letter X looks like pursed lips, but that’s because Googles an idiot.
Peace, Love x
I’m surprised that no one has signed with kisses as well as a HUG?
All my Birthday and Xmas cards finished with xoxox since from as long as I can remember…surely not just a Kiwi (NZ) thing?
Enjoying the Blog.
Cheers,
xoxox
Mr Fry
I wanted to thank you for your wonderful documentaries you continue to make. (Especially, The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive). You have helped many people all over the world.
One of those is me.
Kind regards
Hah! Yes! Finally! I’m able to leave a comment!
I am also blocked from following @stephenfry on Twitter. I suddenly became unblocked one day, only to become blocked again the next. It was most distressing.
Then I tried leaving a comment here, but couldn’t! If I get actually genuinely unblocked by Stephen Fry himself, that will about make up for it, I reckon.
Cheers
@penopelop
It would be very cheeky of me to make such a request after you already commented on my blog and I quite naturally assumed it was one of my readers winding me up! I was wondering only recently if new Twitter accounts are set up to follow you by default…
hi Stephen, it’s not to leave any comment about anything but only to send you a message and i didn’t know how i could, so i’m trying this way, i hope you’ll read it..
pls i’m watching eckart tolle on you tube,
eckart tolle:uncut interview, part 1
i think you’ll find it interesting.
all the best
Santi
fair comment to the bloke really, i mean if 250,000 people hand in 250,000 requests… he’d never get anything done.
mind you, in saying that, we ain’t exactly cannonised a latter day saint for a while have we… Stephen Fry, patron saint of doing good things for people what need help getting good stuff done.
that should just about do it.
out of interest, seeing as how saint steve is a bit on the busy side, does anyone know how you go about getting celebrities to donate a few seconds of their voices?
only worldofmungo.com needs celebrity ringtones for me to offer as free downloads if its to sustain its life of longlessness.
toe jam forever on a roller coaster of cheese!
GET IN
hello i just have a quikkie for you..and not in that sense.
I very much doubt that you will have time to reply to this yet here i go.
I would like you to reccomend me which book of yours to purchase as i have chosen to take your words with me on holiday next week!
much obliged
alexandra
Mr Fry – My comment is nothing to do with this post. It is feedback for your podcast.
When i first heard your podcast i thought it was a little narcissistic (sp?!) and luxurious to just ramble on for 20- 30 mins, so i stopped listening. then i tried again recently listening to your ‘language’ episode of your podcast. i loved it. you have a true skill with language, a true skill. i encourage and implore you to do more podcasts. part of your skill i believe comes from your passsion. i could hear the passion in your voice. i am someone who goes to work for a corporation every day and it is a souless environment. it pays well, but it a small payoff for lackking passion in your life. When i heard your podcast it brought tears of joy and laughter to my eyes. you have a true skill sir with language and once again i ask you to keep it u, if not just for my sake
excuse the lack of capitals, it’s early in the morning and i am a lazy typer.
strength.
Leon
Mr Fry
I have recently written to you c/o Talkback Thames and wonder if you have received my letter and enclosure? I should be most grateful if you could let me know as my anxiety and depression are gradually getting worse once again and it would be most uplifting if I thought I would hear from you at some time in the near future.
Regards.
Maxine Willden