Tips

TIPS

Here are some tips for contributing to this blog. This list will be updated as this blog develops more.

How it works:
Thanks to an elaborate system of tubes, we are all connected by the internet. Nowadays, lots of people use Twitter. We have constructed a mechanism that will automatically post input from people using twitter. This allows us to build a large collection of a specific type of information that is nicely organized and timestamped. Just as in the act of computing a symbolic integral, any particular point (or haiku entry) is trivial, but hopefully we will be able to construct something meaningful by analyzing the trends of these insignificant points.

Posting instructions:
All that you need to do in order to post on this blog is to use Twitter and reply to the _haiku account. That is, use Twitter (on your phone or computer) to write a new entry that begins with the phrase "@_haiku" (minus the quotes). That's It! Please note, however, that in order for your contribution to show up, you must not have 'protected' your posts in twitter. Only user accounts that post to the public timeline in twitter will appear here. Also, don't panic if you don't see your post right away. Updates usually happen every hour or so, but may take as long as several hours, depending on how the tubes between the servers connect.

Credit:
Because of a very technical situation that no one can understand, no Twitter account will be credited as the author of any particular haiku. Of course, on Twitter there will be a record of you writing that haiku, but it is unlikely that anyone outside your social network will ever make the connection.

Formatting tips:

• Use the Enter or Return button to make line breaks between the three lines of your haiku. Don't worry if the line breaks don't show up on Twitter. They will show up on this blog. Also, it looks nice if you type @_haiku, then an enter, then the first line of your poem, then an enter, etc.
  
• The average haiku (including two line breaks) is around 70 characters. Twitter will allow you up to 132 characters (not 140 because every message must start with @_haiku). This means that you have almost twice as much space as you need!
• You may attempt to format your haiku in any way you like. You may even be able to make your haiku stand out by using your own personal formatting.
  

Last updated: June 01, 2009