Tweet Week: Follow us on Twitter, win prizes

Do you like stuff? We like to give you the stuffs. So here's how we're going to do it: Every time you follow one of the Boing Boing editors' Twitter feed, we get an email. We'll select from those emails at random and award a prize. If you've won, I'll let you know by direct message on Twitter. We'll do this all week or until we're out of prizes. (That's how I getcha! So at the least, you should follow us this week before you leave en masse next Monday.) For each editor you follow you'll gain another entry, so if you're already following some of us you can still get a crack at winning by following another editor. (We started collecting entry emails since yesterday and will put all of those in the hat.) That's it. Easy. We get followers to squawk at about our bunions, you get stuff. I'll be putting up a post a day until we have all the prizes distributed. As befits a Boing Boing contest, we've got a bunch of different stuff: a guitar; a videophone; some random iPod and iPhone cases; lingerie (!); and what I'll be starting with today, three of these custom-printed Flip Mino HD camcorders from CafePress. (One per winner, of course.) More on the prizes as we go along. Here are our accounts. Collect them all!: • @joeljohnson (Boing Boing Gadgets) • @xenijardin (Boing Boing/Video) • @beschizza (Boing Boing Gadgets) • @brandonnn (Boing Boing Offworld) • @doctorow (Boing Boing) • @johnbattelle (Boing Boing) • @frauenfelder (Boing Boing) (We always have questions about if these contests are okay for readers outside the U.S. or not. Because most of these prizes are being shipped direct from the companies, I can't always promise that they'll be able to be shipped to everyone, but I'll do my best to work it out if it comes up. Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions.)

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FredicvsMaximvs

As long as there’s actual interesting content to read, I’m all for it. If it’s just a series of links back to a blog I already check out daily, then it’s not worth the trouble.

For example: I absolutely love Make: Magazine and when I discovered them on Twitter I clicked ‘follow.’After a few days I had to stop. It was nothing but links back to the Makezine blog, which I read religiously already, and there were so damn many tweets that it bumped everything from my real life friends off the page.

So, as others have said already I’ll give it a try, but if it’s not interesting you’ll get dropped like Madoff stock. :D
Joel Johnson

@FredicVsMaximVs That’s all we can ask!
minTphresh

gimme, gimme! i need more stuff!
funnelbc

I’m already following a bunch of you guys. Xeni’s twitter is particularly good follow I reckon.

Still. I’m in for a chance at free stuff! You can’t argue with the price. :D
gabrielm

Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions.

OK – could your fine print get any smaller?

Also, I am half temped to put a link with a “follow me, follow me” message… Must. resist. urges…

Thanks, @gabrielmcgovern

crap!
Raikus

Well, considering I just won one I think this is an EXCELLENT idea. Thanks again Joel. You made my day (in addition to seeing an octopus nomming on a crab).
Anonymous

I noticed that none of you really follow people back? Curious why that is?

@DanielEgan
Rob Beschizza

There are additional canonical “links to the blog” twitter feeds for Boing, *not* listed above. These are our personal ones!
Kristin

Hah. The twittering cycle continues!
Anonymous

Hey you guys stole the phrase “Tweet Week” from me! ;) http://youtube.com/tweetweek
moniker42

…

Well I was following all of you too. Except @brandonnn. I don’t play video games though. I mean, I do. I play freeciv sometimes. I have nothing against video games. I think it of it the same way I do like smoking weed. Everything in moderation. It’s the buddha, man, you know, the middle way. Dig it.
bruno boutot

No Pesco?
brandon

Uhg. Now I’ve got a bunch of noise on my Twitter feed, and the people I actually care about are gonna get missed. So if I re-follow you each every day, does that up my chances of winning, or does that go against the “spirit” of the contest?
Xeni Jardin

Joel you forgot to tell them whether or not the lingerie is pre-owned. Did we sort that out?
Avarice

I never win anything, but I gave it a shot. :D
Palilay

Following u all. So we just follow? That’s it ? Do we not tweet?
cha0tic

I reckon this contest was thought up by Beschizza & Brandonnn as they’re Jealous of Xeni’s nearly 18,000 followers. Either that, or you’re all jealous of Stephen Fry’s 200,000 odd followers :)
Anonymous

Wait, who are you and what did you do with Boing Boing?

Boing Boing would never use Twitter, they’d be using identi.ca (http://identi.ca/)!

:-P
dkMommy

I’m such a sap for a giveaway that I signed up to follow all you guys ! I guess it helps that I’ve become a boing boing addict almost overnight….
Jaimey

OK. Finished out the set and am following all. I get my Guitar Hero set when?
Michael Leung

Where’s my free set of steak knives?
Anonymous

Guess I’ll give this a shot. Trying to keep up with technology. Difficult on my budget, but I’m trying.

@ktwdg
Anonymous

Nice Contest. Following everyone. Is there any special requirement? My twitter username is bloggeragent001. Direct Message me if there is any requirement.

–Agent 001
EnglishNerd

I already followed some, but hadn’t taken the time to find out about the others. Now I have the option to find out about more random stuff in the world. Thanks everyone for letting us tag along!
yclept

I guess since I’m already following all of you I can’t win ;-)
Patrick Dodds

Eugh. Horrible concept.
bobbcorr

I think it is a rather clever concept; any problems are more Twitter-centric than BB-centric.

The first problem is that the more folks I follow on Twitter the less I see from any of them. As the TwitVolumeHaze grows thicker and louder, I tune out more.

The second problem is that folks are using Twitter as a mini-blog – it’s all links and proclamations – as opposed to a vehicle for P2P communication. As the TwitAdHaze gets more crass, I tune out more.

It’s this combination of unmanageable volume and unreadable crap that will ultimately make me stop using Twitter. Ultimately. I’m not there yet, but I see that day looming in the distance like some great slouching beast shuffling toward San Francisco.
Rictor

I’ll follow all…but boring folk get taken off my list next week. :P
cha0tic

@DanielEgan Probably because they have to put up with our bitching & wittering on BoingBoing & only want to catch Flak on one platform :)
J France

This should be better than just getting random twitter grabs + snark via valleywag.

Kudos to you guys for acknowledging non US readers with alot of your comps. Hoorah!

Twitter recommended John Mccain’s feed to me. Why!?
scbr

What about the ones that have been following you guys BEFORE this week?
Joel Johnson

@SCBR: You’re screwed! That’s what you get for liking us unconditionally.

Is there any way to easily pull the user list down from the Twitter API? If that could be easily randomly sorted through I bet I could find some more stuff to give away to anyone that was already following us all.
David Pescovitz

Twitter? What the hell is that?