How to do Threadapalooza 2021

December has begun, thus so has @threadapalooza 2021, our internet festival of giant opinions about X threads! I'm @Malcolm_Ocean, your host this year for this ever-evolving phenomenon. Mostly that's just gonna mean retweeting threads, but I'll offer some framing here too! 🧵👇

Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv · Dec 2, 2020

I think many can agree that @threadapalooza was a delightful Internet moment. Vgr didn’t want the hassle of doing it again, so I’m doing it this year. And to keep things fresh and lively, I’m going to hand it over to someone else for 2021- let’s get an Internet tradition going!

Dec 3, 2021

In keeping with past tradition (that we're just totally making up as we go along), before assuming the role of host for this year, I was to kick it off with my own 100 tweet thread. Context for that from last year's host:

Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv · Dec 2, 2020

the person who passes the sentence should swing the sword: vgr did the first 100 tweet thread of Threadapalooza 2019, and here’s mine for 2020. I will choose my successor amongst those who successfully complete a 100 in this year’s thread games.

quoting @visakanv: 1. Do it 100 times. Write 100 songs, cook 100 omelettes, talk to 100 people. It never seems like a huge deal until you try it yourself. It’s manageable, and yet it stretches you, and you’ll be observably different at the end of it. Effective way to get a foothold on a new thing

...12 later (with breaks) I finished it! Whew, that was a lot. 💯

Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ @Malcolm_Ocean · Dec 2, 2021

100 tweets on "what if it were good tho?" (for @threadapalooza 2022) Assigned to me by the @visakanv voice in my head when I asked actual-Visa "wanna gimme a topic?" Feel free to request things to make good! Aiming to do 100 different products/apps/systems/services etc.

Now to don my Threadmaster hat, so I can share more on how to do @threadapalooza: 🎩 😜

I resonate with this sense that having someone else give you a topic is good—they'll pick something you wouldn't have thought to, which will bring out a different side of you. But they have to know you.

Conor @Conaw · Dec 18, 2020

The thing that made the original threadapolooza such a chaotic good was @vgr assigning topics to mutuals. Would never have picked Programming Languages as my topic, surprised myself with result Felt like a strange gift, and honor, being named "regional expert" of weird twitter

quoting @vgr: Thread of opinion threads (some are doing 1 per like, others are just going straight for a target number)

Instead of having them all handed out by one person though like @vgr did the first year and @Conaw did a bit last year, I'm going to suggest people assign them to their friends. Go do that here:

Threadapalooza! @threadapalooza · Dec 3, 2021

If you'd like to join this year’s Threadapalooza (Dec 15), but you have no idea what to write, reply here! Fellow thread enthusiasts will offer their suggestions. You might tag someone who knows you well (or a new friend!) for an assignment.

Assignments *can* lead to writer's block—happened to me in 2019 where I had a lot of thoughts on culture but few on the more specific topic @vgr gave. (This turned out to be weird foreshadowing: 2020 involved me doing a deep-dive into precisely this👇😮)

Venkatesh Rao ☀️ @vgr · Dec 15, 2019

@Malcolm_Ocean Bridging subcultures that don’t quite harmonize

I felt awkward and a little embarrassed about not finishing the thread, but I forgave myself: it's so so SO much better to write something at all than write nothing for fear of falling short. You can always go back and add more later, which I may do this year!

This is not to say the target doesn't matter. It does! Striving to do something you've never done before will stretch your limits and transform you, however long it takes 🎯

Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv · Nov 23, 2020

1. Do it 100 times. Write 100 songs, cook 100 omelettes, talk to 100 people. It never seems like a huge deal until you try it yourself. It’s manageable, and yet it stretches you, and you’ll be observably different at the end of it. Effective way to get a foothold on a new thing

Target options:

Threadapalooza! @threadapalooza · Dec 3, 2021

Two kinds of @threadapalooza targets are: ♥️ "1 like = 1 tweet about Topic (up to 100)" For if you want encouragement from people to keep at it, and/or are worried nobody cares about Topic. 💯 "100 tweets about Topic" For if you want to face a steep challenge from the start!

December 15th is Threadapalooza Day, if you want to do it all on one particular day. But you can start a thread now and add to it gradually. Step 1 is to pick a topic though, so tag a friend and ask for one!

Threadapalooza! @threadapalooza · Dec 3, 2021

If you'd like to join this year’s Threadapalooza (Dec 15), but you have no idea what to write, reply here! Fellow thread enthusiasts will offer their suggestions. You might tag someone who knows you well (or a new friend!) for an assignment.

As always, this is internet rules 🙃 I am not your boss, not your mom, & not your teacher. So if you're wondering "can I...?" then the answer is yes, of course, absolutely, don't let me stop you. You do you 🤸