by Ifreke Inyang [@Ifreke]

Last weekend, it wasn’t twitfights that set Twitter alight – it was, er, blog fights. Apparently put off by the concept of ‘Twitter celebs’ on the social networking site,@TheGothPrince decided to pour out his venom as a guest blogger on @Terdoh’s blog. “Remember when twitter was the fun go-to site where everyone was equals and we all got along just fine? Yeah, those days are over,” he said in the blog post. “If you think otherwise, you are carrying a ton of last. While we were busy asking for followbacks and using the #NP hashtag, a certain group of people went ahead of us and overthrew the place. Now they rule the twitterverse (or they think they do) and do it with a heavy hand.”

@TheGothPrince, who asked us not to bother with his real name, went on to write extensively on @TweetOracle, @DrewBaba, @GbagaunDetector, @FuckYurOpinion. In the case of @DrewBaba in particular, it seemed his inclusion was an extension of ‘beef’ that existed as a result of @DrewBaba blocking him on Twitter.

@TheGothPrince had this to say about him: “My least favourite of them all. UNILAG student who attempts to intimidate everyone with his status and deride everybody he thinks is below him (LASU students, you still owe me a medal for taking him down the day he started with your school.) He used to be one average Joe till Ynaija (someone tell these people to stop hyping these twitter celebs! Twitter parties, twitter personalities, it wont help you people sell your magazines!) decided to interview him as a twitter personality. Since then, the Voltrons rolled in and he got elevated to celeb status. The Voltrons in his own army are the funniest. I mean, I saw this one day.”

About @TweetOracle, he wrote: “Now known as The Oracle or Mazi Oracle to show respect, (he is well above 30, and we have good home training), this man is one of the timeline terrorists of today. Although he tweets from 6am-3am, he claims he works in an oil company.”

Within a few minutes, the link to the blog had spread like wild fire via BBM, Twitter and even Facebook. The blog generated over 800 comments as at the weekend. “Buahahahahahahahahaha. Jizos! Subscribing to Terdoh’s blog wasn’t a mistake! Kai. These pple r finished! I started following Drew baba and Gbagaun detector out of amebo o, but I haven’t noticed any stoopidity so far. But dat oracle is d biggest fool on twitter!” @Ms_Shadee commented. @DatsickKid’s comment was: “Yo gothPrince, I must confess u are brave for dis. But in my honesty mood, u are also very jobless. You obviously wish u were like dem. How u can have some much info about their lives. It is alarming and stalkerish in all levels , u are perhaps a Gay Fan dat wasn’t given enuf attention.. Stupidity is interesting. Dis blog is jst anoda way u want to get their attention. Get a life.”

@Thelmatweets’ response was however on her blog. “Twitter has age restriction NOW? Oh dear! I am done for. Exhibiting narrow mindedness aint cool. By the way, how did you come about ‘he is well above 30′ ? Did you mother/midwife him? You know him from childhood? Oooops, that would mean you are well over thirty as well! The most important question is, how is that your concern? How is age a determining factor on who should be on twitter? I’m trying so hard to get you and please, do not get me started on his job. Like you said, it’s a social networking site and being concerned about his effectiveness at work should be purely His concern, not mine or your’s. Or, are you his boss too? It is very irrelevant as far as I am concerned talkless of where he works. Should we read meanings into your being overly concerned over something you have no business being concerned with? What’s the rationale? ” she asked rhetorically.

She then went ahead to give her two cents on the issue of Twitter celebs: “Let’s ask ourselves this; what makes someone a twitter celeb? WE ! Yes, the answer is We, Nigerians on Twitter make twitter celeb out of normal people. They don’t say they are celebs, we empower them with that precious option – Follow! Then we take it a notch higher when some of us beg and grovel for a followback. We bestow celebrity status on them by adding to their twitter self worth, consciously or unconsciously! @GbagaunDetector was a twitter celeb? I never knew that. @Drewbaba is? WoW! Truthfully, I never even knew this handle- @fuckyuropinion existed until I read that blogpost. Enlightening, isn’t it? Do not forget that one man’s twitter celeb is another man’s fool or nonentity. Such is life!”

The reaction on Twitter was equally massive. @olakib65’s tweet was: “I knw say byy nxt month, @YNaija nd @UnilagFM go call @SexUwant as d new twitter celeb *smh* :(“. @shadeladipo saw the funny side to everything. “Heeeeheeeee @YNaija see wetin una don cause for twiteruniverse ohhhh LMFAO….Gasby I’m gonna read again chei I haff quench!”

Oluwapelumi