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January 18, 2018 10:33 AM

As Tom Phillips, the UK editorial director, leaves Buzzfeed, his parting piece describes the 29 stages of a twitterstorm in 2018. Related: the 29 stages five years ago (MetaFilter thread). Unrelated: MetaFilter content previously amplified by Buzzfeed.
posted by Wordshore (34 comments total)

Poor William
posted by Countess Elena at 10:44 AM on January 18, 2018 [5 favorites]

Mefi's Own Tom Phillips, although it looks like he hasn't posted in ages, sadly. Met him once at a Mefi meet up in London, in fact. Nice chap. Impeccable waistcoat.
posted by Happy Dave at 10:45 AM on January 18, 2018 [6 favorites]

"Buckle up, because it's time for some Bayesian inference."
posted by straight at 10:57 AM on January 18, 2018 [9 favorites]

bongjedi420 is everything.
posted by ambrosen at 10:59 AM on January 18, 2018

I loled at "126 min read" in stage #10.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:06 AM on January 18, 2018

The crank with the map in the background *beautiful*
posted by Yowser at 11:12 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yowser: "The crank with the map in the background *beautiful*"

That's Tom!
posted by Happy Dave at 11:21 AM on January 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

Damn, I RTed that without spotting that he was leaving. It's spot on, and he'll be missed.
posted by AFII at 11:23 AM on January 18, 2018

MY FIRST MAP lmao

Why is it that conservative YouTube pundits seemingly always talk with a posh British accent?
posted by defenestration at 11:24 AM on January 18, 2018

as a non-Twitter type, I find this both instructive and hilarious and, of course, horrifying. But it seems to miss an obvious #30 -- Satirical Twitter piece "the 29 stages of a twitterstorm in 2018" gets mistaken for something that actually happened, gets retweeted as such, and inevitably unleashes its own 29 stage storm.

Or did all this actually happen? I guess I'm confused again.
posted by philip-random at 11:35 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

"I was going to go out to see if I could spot a grebe but might not now."

Won't somebody think about the birdwatchers?!
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 11:55 AM on January 18, 2018

William having to delete his account and say bye to all his birding friends legitimately made me feel extremely sad :/
posted by gucci mane at 11:55 AM on January 18, 2018 [6 favorites]

I'm offended by the off-hand comparison of Bayesian Inference to Game Theory. I hope Buzzfeed will apologize, or there will be Tweets.
posted by Coventry at 12:14 PM on January 18, 2018

Yeah, I had the same thought as Countess Elena, poor birdman.
posted by hoodrich at 12:16 PM on January 18, 2018

You have to laugh or you'd curl up into a ball under your bed with the door locked and never leave.
posted by parm at 12:36 PM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Perfect encapsulation of our stupid moment in time.
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:55 PM on January 18, 2018 [5 favorites]

Fergus McContrary is so bang on it hurts.
posted by ominous_paws at 1:18 PM on January 18, 2018 [3 favorites]

Nice chap. Impeccable waistcoat.

Flash is an amazing chap (in my humble), huge of brain and a great guy. Sartorially elegant too, as noted!
posted by the quidnunc kid at 3:16 PM on January 18, 2018

MetaFilterThe Internet: Then suddenly there are Nazis everywhere.
posted by tonycpsu at 3:27 PM on January 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

It was not immediately clear to me that this was satire. I can't decide how sad that should make me feel.
posted by chrominance at 4:24 PM on January 18, 2018

Once again, I am never ever ever ever going on Twitter because this shit is real.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:33 PM on January 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

ok that 2018 twitterstorm list was way funnier than I was expecting...

(I don't do twitter so I'm not currently feeling any painful recognition of omg this is not even satire...)
posted by supermedusa at 6:11 PM on January 18, 2018

the five years ago one isn't as funny. the world just was not so very very weird yet. but now...
posted by supermedusa at 6:16 PM on January 18, 2018

It's not really satire. More like a 100% true story where the names and some of the dialogue have been fictionalized.
posted by straight at 6:40 PM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Or a dozen true stories conflated into one for narrative concision.
posted by straight at 6:42 PM on January 18, 2018

was waiting for the milkshake duck where it turns out William was the one who donated £600,000 to conservative politicians
posted by taquito sunrise at 7:56 PM on January 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

30. BuzzFeed listicle
31. Metafilter post
posted by Going To Maine at 9:38 PM on January 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm offended by the off-hand comparison of Bayesian Inference to Game Theory. I hope Buzzfeed will apologize, or there will be Tweets.

Either way, I'll be right behind you with a reference to Poe's Law.
posted by straight at 10:36 PM on January 18, 2018

Jimmy Two-Nostrils
and then the first nazi has the username "praetoriangourd"

The also-bought hints in the screenshot are brilliant.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 6:28 AM on January 19, 2018

*tried to sneak in quietly at the back*

oh hi metafilter
posted by flashboy at 6:55 AM on January 19, 2018 [14 favorites]

oh hi Tom.

{looks at Tom's latest tweet}

How ... Meta?
posted by Wordshore at 11:15 AM on January 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

Hello Tom, welcome back!
posted by Happy Dave at 2:49 PM on January 19, 2018

Entertained by the first comment on this tweet, and this one.
posted by Wordshore at 3:23 PM on January 19, 2018

"Leading Lions", an organisation that provides trips to donkey sanctuaries for veterans... Stealthy!
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 5:19 AM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]