-
On occasion, I tweet about my travels. On occasion, my flights are delayed (or encounter other problems). A delay always prompts more tweets than a routine flight, both because I have more to say and because I have more time on my hands. So my tweeps have on occasion alleged that I jinx my travels, a claim I dismissed for a while, but finally embraced.
-
Embracing (sort of) the legend of my travel jinxI started my last blog post saying that I believe in facts, not jinxes. That bears repeating after this tweet from my traveling companion…
-
Eventually, my travel tweets prompted an unidentified wag (I still don’t know who, but I’m flattered, so thanks!) to launch a spoof account last summer, @WhereIsButtry, retweeting my tweets about travel.
-
RT stevebuttry: @MikeBrossart @fpine Hey, my flight to Cleveland was on time.
-
Apparently @WhereIsButtry used a service such as If This Then That to automatically retweet when I tweeted words such as flight, plane, landed, delayed, Dulles (the airport I usually fly to or from) or United (which has a hub at Dulles, so it’s my most-used airline). Of course, I learned of the account immediately, because its tweets always turn up in my mentions.
-
RT @stevebuttry: A spoof account. I am deeply honored. Thanks, unnamed humorist. RT @WhereIsButtry: RT @stevebuttry: Boarded flight for T…
-
Most of the @WhereIsButtry tweets do recount my travels, which usually are uneventful.
-
RT @stevebuttry: No complaints about our Christmas Day flight. On time & uneventful. (@ Washington Dulles Internatio… 4sq.com/12Nse1l
-
But occasionally the retweets reflect my whining about delays or other travel troubles (which I presume was the point, beyond merely mocking my excessive tweeting about my travels).
-
RT @stevebuttry: I was way wrong about flight delay being minor. We sat on the runway a long time, took off more than an hour late. May m…
-
RT @stevebuttry: US Airways screwed us out of our flight home. (@ US Airways Special Services) [pic]: 4sq.com/MHPeX8
-
But the best @WhereIsButtry tweets come when the trigger words appear in tweets unrelated to my travels. For instance, the Olympics prompted me occasionally to use “delayed” in other contexts:
-
-
RT @stevebuttry: Tape-delayed, highly produced Olympics are on TV, but @mimijohnson is watching live bears catching salmon: …
-
RT @stevebuttry: RT @White__Knuckles: If Paul Ryan had used the phrase “No more tape delayed Olympics” in his intro speech today, Romney …
-
I quickly noted the non-travel tweets getting retweeted, which, of course, brought a retweet.
-
RT @stevebuttry: Apparently one of the trigger words for @WhereIsButtry tweets is “delayed,” resulting in this non-t… bit.ly/Qq20cy
-
“Arrived” is another word that triggers the retweets, but I don’t use it just when I’m traveling (it was at the end of the NewsVroom tweet, but was automatically shortened).
-
“Landed” is another word I don’t use just when I’m traveling (it was shortened out of the @dcborn61 retweet):
-
RT @stevebuttry: As @tbd gives up the ghost, here’s @mjenkins’ tale of how she landed that username (we started out … zombiejournalism.com/2010/0…
-
RT @stevebuttry: @TBD @mjenkins Looks like “landed” is one of the ifttt trigger words for @WhereIsButtry
-
RT @stevebuttry: RT @dcborn61: So much talent at @tbd. They coulda been a contender. @stevebuttry looks where the ta… bit.ly/QIQfSX
-
RT @stevebuttry: True. RT @donw: @mimijohnson oh I meant that @stevebuttry landed you, of course. Men mourned your unavailability and env…
-
These two used “plane” in the travel sense (the first was at the end, automatically shortened; the quote was “it’s a plane”), but they weren’t about my travels:
-
RT @stevebuttry: Enjoying a starry night in the Georgia mountains, @mimijohnson says, “In the city, every time I think I see a star, it’…
-
RT @stevebuttry: RT @dbrauer: @stevebuttry read it on the plane. Agree. All was to deliver Rupert’s cross-ownership payload.
-
When I was tweeting during the Online News Association in September, I used three different trigger words: delayed, flights, landed:
-
RT @stevebuttry: .@dickc says #nbcfail tweets about delayed broadcasts boosted ratings because people knew what was coming up to watch th…
-
RT @stevebuttry: RT @sadandbritish: For @stevebuttry RT @azizansari: I bet Endeavor was supposed to have a bunch more flights but United …
-
RT @stevebuttry: After @MarsCuriosity landed, crowds in Times Square chanted “Science! Science!” #ONA12
-
RT @stevebuttry: Where Buttry isn’t. RT @WhereIsButtry: RT @stevebuttry: After @MarsCuriosity landed, crowds in Times Square chanted “Sci…
-
After my nephew Brandon died in November, I was at ceremonies when his body returned on airplanes to Dover Air Force Base, Del., and then to Shenandoah, Iowa. The setting made inappropriate retweets inevitable:
-
RT @stevebuttry: The ceremony on the flight line was in the nor’easter’s driving wind, rain and cold. Chaplain called the rain God’s tear…
-
RT @stevebuttry: Brandon’s family watches as the military prepares to bring his casket off the plane. flic.kr/p/dtbQ5U
-
I guess “United” triggered this retweet.
-
RT @stevebuttry: RT @AntDeRosa: 247,131 fatal shootings in 8 years in the United States bit.ly/VHhjQX
-
I’m not even sure what word triggered this tweet, maybe “drive”?
-
RT @stevebuttry: RT @DylanByers: .@EzraKlein publishes the post that will almost certainly drive the gun-control discussion going forward…
-
Yesterday, I used a trigger word in a completely unrelated context, praising a former colleague:
-
RT @stevebuttry: If you’re looking for a top-flight photojournalist, check out @jwestcottphoto. He’s creative, class… jaywestcott.com/onward/
-
Really, I don’t deliberately work these words into tweets unrelated to travel. But if you use automated services, you should be aware that things may not work the way you planned. If the point was humor, that might be just fine. But if not …
@WhereIsButtry shows the perils of automated tweets
January 8, 2013 by Steve Buttry
Posted in Digital First Media | Leave a Comment
Leave a comment Cancel reply
-
Join 16.2K other subscribers
Top Posts
Steve Buttry’s Twitter stream
Tweets by stevebuttryFacebook
Meta
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Steve Fehr on LSU Manship School Memorial… Maya Carpenter on Journalist Steve Buttry dies o… saraben822 on Steve Buttry Memorial Julia Fernandes on Journalist Steve Buttry dies o… Al. on Finding and developing story… Archives
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
Support my blog (& others) using Kachingle
Categories
- #twutorial series Accuracy Advice for new Digital First editors Blogging advice Breaking news Career advice community engagement Complete Community Connection Detailed ethics discussions Digital First journalism Digital First journalists at work Digital First Media Ethics Facebook Gazette Innovation in the media Journalism Journalist profiles leadership Mobile opportunities paid content Personal plagiarism Project Unbolt Social media TBD Training Training Tracks archive Twitter Workshop handouts
- accuracy Alan Mutter American Press Institute American Society of News Editors Andy Carvin anonymous sources ASNE Associated Press blogging breaking news Buffy Andrews C3 Chuck Offenburger Chuck Peters community engagement confidential sources Craig Silverman crowdsourcing curation Dan Conover Dan Gillmor Dean Baquet Denver Post Des Moines Register Digital First journalism Digital First Media Erik Wemple Facebook Flickr Gazette Gene Weingarten Google Howard Owens Ivan Lajara Jay Rosen Jeff Jarvis Jeff Sonderman Jim Brady John Paton John Robinson journalism ethics Kansas City Times leadership LinkedIn linking liveblogging Mandy Jenkins Margaret Sullivan Mark Potts Mathew Ingram mobile first New Haven Register Newspaper Next New York Times obituaries Omaha World-Herald Online News Association paid content paywalls Personal content Pinterest plagiarism Poynter Project Unbolt Social media Society of Professional Journalists SPJ Code of Ethics Storify TBD Tim McGuire Twitter verification Wall Street Journal Washington Post writing
Blog Stats
- 1,204,124 hits
Top Clicks
Steve Buttry's Flickr Photos
Steve Buttry on Facebook
Pages
- About Steve Buttry
- Media commentary
- Training and consulting
- Steve Buttry consulting and training on business models for news
- Steve Buttry consulting and training on career development and job-hunting for journalists
- Steve Buttry consulting and training on community engagement and social media
- Steve Buttry consulting and training on digital journalism
- Steve Buttry journalism ethics seminars
- Steve Buttry leadership programs
- Steve Buttry reporting, writing and editing workshops
- Steve Buttry workshops on training journalists
- Steve Buttry workshops on writing and digital skills for non-journalists
- Steve Buttry’s digital-first journalism workshops
- Steve Buttry’s keynote speeches