Did you get that tweet, baby?
Last night, talk show host - Jimmy Fallon - and a guest were griping about glitches at Twitter which were a little unsettling.
What a relief to hear that I am not the only individual in the limelight who has encountered difficulties with respect to logging in, being recognized by the system, getting feedback from technical staff at Twitter, and so forth and so on.
Fallon's guest expressed frustration over the fact that if you're a celebrity - you can't just sign up and tweet up a storm - without getting a shake-down from Twitter staff first.
For instance, well-known actors have to go through a verification process.
Twitter will field various questions, and likewise - engage in a few histrionics to determine "you are who you say are" - for starters.
After all, what is to stop a wicked identity thief from suddenly jumping on the social hub, and misleading fellow tweet afficiandos into believing they are Johnny Depp, let's say.
There have to be some security measures in place, for sure.
A few months ago, when I casually mentioned in the course of a conversation that Shannon Tweed was following me on Twitter, a friend quipped without hestitation.
"How do you know that it's really her?"
"Well," I fumbled for words, "It is."
I hestitated for a moment, then found myself snapping back to "he of little faith".
"Twitter wouldn't let that happen."
Would they?
In addition, Fallon and his guest, grumbled that even though they provided the right information in the "verification process", the problem was not resolved right away.
"My verification was denied," the actor snorted in disgust.
I feel their twitter pain!
One day, after I posted a tweet about a tribute to Johnny Cash on Facebook, I got locked out!
Every time I attempted to log in, a dialogue box popped up requesting that I try again.
After several failed log-in attempts, I finally tried the old twitter - "retrieve password" - function.
But, to no avail.
Each time I clicked on the link they provided in an e-mail - inputted a new secret password and attempted to log in - I was denied access.
At this juncture, I zipped off an e-mail to twitter and quizzed the technical staff.
"What gives?"
After about two days, the support team responded, and confirmed that somewhat was WRONG!
However, days passed, and no action was taken to alleviate the problem.
A follow-up e-mail failed to rustle up any response (or respect).
So, for about two weeks, I was unable to tweet!
Followers must have thought I dropped off the face of the earth or grown weary of twitter-ville!
Then, this past week, I thought I'd give the log-in the old college try!
Eureka, the magic twitter portal opened magically without explanation, and I was busy happily tweeting away once again!
Perplexing, eh?
Uh-huh!
Life is not always that tweet @ twitter.
Yoko 1st Celebrity to follow me on Twitter!
(or was she?)
