#FuckYouWashington Hashtag Going Crazy On Twitter

[Hissyspit]

Check It Out Here: https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23fuckyouwashington

And Here: http://www.searchtastic.com/index.php?User=&Search=%23fuckyouwashington&Page=1

@Scobleizer
Robert Scoble
Wow, @jeffjarvis got the hashtag #FuckYouWashington to trend, then got rate limited by Twitter. Now THAT is power! Hear us roar Washington!

@der_bluthund
Anonymous Watcher
The People of the United States are getting angry at government and many are using the #fuckyouwashington hashtag in a massive twitter blitz
4 minutes ago via TweetDeck
Favorite Retweet Reply

@YourAnonNews
Anonymous
#FuckYouWashington for thinking activists are the same as terrorists.
2 hours ago via TweetDeck
Favorite Retweet Reply

@trempy
Laura Jones
#fuckyouwashington for sending our soldiers on 6, 7, 8 tours to combat zones yet thinking it's too much to ask the richest to pay taxes
5 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
Favorite Retweet Reply

@Crowdsourcing
Jeff Howe
If this trends all weekend, you think it won't make news? It will. And a statement. #FuckYouWashington.
5 hours ago via TweetDeck
Favorite Retweet Reply

@watergatesummer
enigma4ever
#FuckYouWashington For Forgetting WHO you represent, Families, Elderly,Moms,Kids, WORKERs..NOT the CoporatePigs who you cater to...#ShameOnU
5 hours ago via web
Favorite Retweet Reply

@EndCruelty
speciesism sucks
@watergatesummer please don't call the corporate fuckheads "pigs". Pigs are compassionate and very smart animals.
5 hours ago via web
Favorite Retweet Reply

Etc.

[handmade34]

1. oh, yah

#fuckyouwashington for using the phrase "the American people want..." You are as far away from us as we are from MARS.

[CleanGreenFuture]

2. How does that damned thing work?

What's the difference between a # and a @ ?

I guess I'm just going to have to learn this damned Twitter thing.

[handmade34]

3. me too

I just went to sign in and I got the message that they were over capacity and I have to go back later???

[Luminous Animal]

4. @ is a member. # denotes a topic.

[CleanGreenFuture]

6. But how do you DO it? How do I make a comment that will be seen

at #FuckYouWashington ?

And how would I start a # topic?

[Luminous Animal]

8. Simply make a comment then include #fuckyouwashington.

[CleanGreenFuture]

9. Thank you. And if I want to start my own # topic?

[Luminous Animal]

11. You can put a hash tag in front of anything you like and tweet it. And you are welcome!

[bvar22]

36. ...does it have anything to do with "tubes"?

I would like to get my comments in those Internet tubes.

[sabrina 1]

43. You need to pick people you want to follow first, otherwise you

will most likely be talking to yourself.

Nearly every politician is on Twitter, eg, so pick who want to follow, then find them and click 'follow' on their page, and their names will show up on your page as people you follow. Then, each time they post a message, you will see it.

I follow Gov. Walker eg, mostly so I get his lame tweets whenever he posts, then sometimes I reply, as lots of others do, mostly not very nicely. He has to be the most boring person ever. I only keep him on my list so I can tell him what I think of him every once in a while.

The more people you are following, the more will get your message when you post it, and they may retweet it to their followers.

It's kind of like a chain letter, rather than a discussion board.

If you follow news agencies, eg, Al Jazeera, CNN etc. you get immediate news as it comes out. You can follow Anchors, like Anderson Cooper, etc. Movie stars if you like, Michael Moore, Keith Olbermann etc.

You can also follow DUers who are on Twitter which will help get your messages around as each person has their own followers and people they follow.

Anyhow, have fun. It's a tool, and you can use it whatever way you choose, I find it to be excellent for getting instant news as it happens. But it's not really a discussion forum.

I follow people like Jeremy Scahill and Naomi Klein. Just think of your favorite people, in politics, in the movies, in art, literature, news media etc. and you can follow any or all of them. And of course people will start following you, if you want them to.

[Beartracks]

45. Excellent, Sabrina. Thanks!

I never knew how someone gets traction on Twitter.

=========================

[StarsInHerHair]

5. the @ goes to that person's twitter page, the # becomes a searchable term

[Tx4obama]

10. The difference is ...

When you use the @ symbol it means that you are directing your tweet to the person's name that is after the @
When you use the # hash tag symbol folks that do a search for #(whatever) it shows up in the search results.

Example if I send a tweet to Keith Olbermann and want everyone that does a search for #CurrentTV to see it - I would type:

@KeithOlbermann Please hire Cenk to be on #CurrentTV

[CleanGreenFuture]

12. Very helpful, thank you, Tx4obama! I think I've got it now. Thanks everyone.

[Hissyspit]

17. It's like magnets.

:D

[handmade34]

7. looks good

concern4others: #FuckYouWashington 4 manipulating racists, fundamentalists, uneducated with #wedge issues in order to stock Congress with corporate pawns



RealFoodChoice: RT @annelyttle: #fuckyouwashington because we don't get paid for the work we do, and you get paid for the work you don't do.

[handmade34]

13. ...

hyperlocavore: #FuckYouWashington For setting ridiculously low mileage standards for US vehicles when we KNOW the tech is there to get high mileage.




danaseverance: RT @thisguydeya: Thank you giving the #TSA the power to make me feel less than Human. #FuckYouWashington

[Luminous Animal]

14. Apparently, Twitter has put a rate limit on #fuckyouwtashington but Trendsmap

shows what's going on.

http://trendsmap.com/topic/%23fuckyouwashington

[Hissyspit]

16. Global screen capture:

Seems to be popular in Sydney.

[eilen]

18. I wonder what it looks like over

Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Northern Africa....

[Hissyspit]

19. This:

[eilen]

20. Looks like Pakistan has Twitter blocked. nt

[Hissyspit]

21. I noticed that, too.

[tsuki]

46. And Nairobi. What's up with that? nt

[ejpoeta]

22. what is a rate limit? and how can they do that and why would they do that?

[blogslut]

23. Here you go

http://support.twitter.com/articles/101058

[ejpoeta]

24. so their contention is that the same people are searching that term over and over and that is what

is accounting for the popularity? i call bullshit! i think they are using their 'rate limit' as a means to control unpopular trends.

[blogslut]

25. Probably not

I would imagine the rate limit is an automated thing that kicks in when too many people type the term and click the search button instead of simply keeping an initial search result page open and simply refreshing the new tweets.

I'm guessing that the rate limit is ostensibly designed to deter twitter spammers from trolling for targets or manufacturing trends.

[ejpoeta]

26. oic! thanks. i don't go on twitter much. thanks for the info.

[Beartracks]

42. Self-delete. Superfluous post. n/t

[tavalon]

15. I hope it makes the news

[Hissyspit]

27. Kick nt

[Hissyspit]

28. Raw Story Article:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/24/fckyouwashington-hashtag-takes-twitter-by-storm/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1561784

[Hissyspit]

29. CBS Article:

http://m.cbsnews.com/blogsstorysynopsis.rbml?feed_id=71&catid=20082636&videofeed=null

[snot]

30. Let's DU it!

For all the ranting we do here, every DU'er here should be able to add at least a dozen tweets!

[femrap]

31. Being TwitterLess,

I can't add my FuckYouWashington comments....but this is one of the best uses I've seen of Twitter.

FuckYouWashington for representing the Rich and taxing the working poor.

[CleanGreenFuture]

32. Good one. Indeed, I've seen that one a couple of times under this #

[grahamhgreen]

33. Uh-oh! I just tweeted this post!

[snot]

34. More:

#f@ckyouwashington for not taxing millionaires when 23 million people r out of wk, 50 million lack healthcare, & we spend trillions on war.

#f@ckyouwashington for spending tax dollars to illegally propagandize US citizens.

#f@ckyouwashington for paying billions more to hire private contractor cronies in the name of "efficiency."

#f@ckyouwashington for killing US entry into the Kyoto Accord & failing to police polluters.

#f@ckyouwashington for trying to turn the Internet into the biggest top-down surveillance system ever.

#f@ckyouwashington for allowing corporations to tie up copyright & patent rights to the point of stifling actual creatives.

#f@ckyouwashington for spending trillions to spread "democracy" abroad while gutting our Constitutional rights at home.

#f@ckyouwashington for allowing Repubs to own 95% of the media AND the voting machines.

#f@ckyouwashington for ignoring the biggest public outcries against media consolidation in history & approving mergers like Murdoch's.

#f@ckyouwashington for repealing laws that would have prevented the 2008 financial meltdown & then claiming "no one could have foreseen it."

#f@ckyouwashington for moving mountains to disable Wikileaks while refusing to prosecute the people who lied us into Iraq.

#f@ckyouwashington for bailing out banksters while looting the poor and middle class.

Real #f@ckyouwashington trending at http://t.co/fCwHNcf .

[Hissyspit]

35. DUer Luminous Animal points out Jeff Jarvis' blog explaining how this all got started:

http://www.buzzmachine.com/2011/07/24/fuckyouwashington

#fuckyouwashington
So I was angry. Watching TV news over dinner — turning my attention from scandals in the UK to those here and frankly welcoming the distraction from the tragedies in Norway — I listened to the latest from Washington about negotiations over the debt ceiling. It pissed me off. I’d had enough. After dinner, I tweeted: “Hey, Washington assholes, it’s our country, our economy, our money. Stop fucking with it.” It was the pinot talking (sounding more like a zinfandel).

That’s all I was going to say. I had no grand design on a revolution. I just wanted to get that off my chest. That’s what Twitter is for: offloading chests. Some people responded and retweeted, which pushed me to keep going, suggesting a chant: “FUCK YOU WASHINGTON.” Then the mellifluously monikered tweeter @boogerpussy suggested: “.@jeffjarvis Hashtag it: #FUCKYOUWASHINGTON.” Damn, I was ashamed I hadn’t done that. So I did.

And then it exploded as I never could have predicted. I egged it on for awhile, suggesting that our goal should be to make #fuckyouwashington a trending topic, though as some tweeters quickly pointed out, Twitter censors moderates topics. Soon enough, though, Trendistic showed us gaining in Twitter share and Trendsmap showed us trending in cities and then in the nation.

MORE

[snot]

37. Thanks!

Update: just looked at http://trendsmap.com/topic/%23fuckyouwashington again; looks like it's still growing!

[tsuki]

47. I have been watching on trends. I asked someone what percentage

of twitter #f@ckyouwashington was. He said about 12.5% of traffic.

[Hissyspit]

50. they were coming fast and furious last night when I was watching

It clearly should have been shown as trending. A censorship failure on Twitter's part.

[tsuki]

59. I was surprised at the number of sites that did not report on

how widespread the twittering was. You'd think with 12.5% of the twitter world using the same hashtag and topic, there would be more articles.

[Hissyspit]

38. Washington Post picks up on it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/amid-stalemate-in-debt-limit-talks-americans-take-their-frustrations-to-twitter/2011/07/24/gIQAuumFXI_blog.html

Hat-tip: Ruby The Liberal

[snot]

39. Odd: When I google search DU for "youwashington", I get just one result . . .

when I know there have been several OP's and lots of replies . . .

[glinda]

40. I just did about a dozen of them.

[neoralme]

41. None of this will do anything. This is serious. They

are destroying us. And they view us as consummate pussies.

[earcandle]

44. Love it. I should join Twitter.

[libmom74]

48. Didn't the Tahrir Square protests

do a lot of their organizing using Twitter? Hmmm.

[Beartracks]

49. What does it take for a topic to "trend"?

People are saying they want #fuckyouwashington to trend. Does that mean it gets used/forwarded/searched enough to get onto the "short list" of trending twitter topics?

Looking at TrendsMap (http://trendsmap.com/topic/%23fuckyouwashington) it appears that #fuckyouwashington should be trending, right? But if I click "United States" under the "Country Trends" list below the map, #fuckyouwashington isn't there. What am I not getting?

================================

[Hissyspit]

52. Some are suggesting changing it to #FTW

[Beartracks]

53. ? Because of the F-bomb in it? And isn't FTW For The Win? n/t

[Hissyspit]

55. Twitter seems to be censoring it from trending because of the F-bomb.

They say they aren't.

[glowing]

51. Thanks for this... Its amazing how good it feels to see all those tweets

and that people are actually aware and not so stupid as the politicians like to believe they are.

[Petrushka]

54. When I clicked on the searchtastic.com link you posted, this is the message that appeared --->

Sorry we are shutting down the site because we do not have time to continue maintaining it.

Please contact us if you are interested in buying the code or the domain name.

[Hissyspit]

56. Both links were functioning last night.

The searchtastic one not so important. You can look at Trendsmap: http://trendsmap.com/topic/%23fuckyouwashington

[Petrushka]

57. The trendsmap site is fascinating. I was curious about #FYW in Australia.

:kick:

[AsahinaKimi]

58. I just re-tweeted this one:

nicolesandler Nicole Sandler
by AsahinaKimiko
#FuckYouWashington for letting the GOP frame the debate. The problem is unemployment, not the debt or deficit. You lie.

[Beartracks]

60. Very, very true.

I see businesses going out of sale around here. What's the problem they all cite? LACK OF CUSTOMERS. Not lack of a balanced Federal budget.

Sheesh.

================

[Bryn]

61. I tweeted this:

#fuckyouwashington for allowing Media to continue to reporting a wee group of teabaggers waving misspelled signs instead of worthy protests