So, in spite of all of the interesting debate — typical of a tech blogger’s weekend (where’s Jason Calacanis, though?) — around Mike Arrington’s not showing up at BlogExpo, thoughts about this being a deliberate link-grab notwithstanding, it turns out it indeed was a colossal misunderstanding.

We’ve got Mike’s own take on things, and for a more complete version of things head over to Rick Calvert’s blog at BlogExpo wherein he goes into the gory details, and a mea culpa culminating in some calendar confusion.

I think I’ve learned a seemingly self-evident things from this debacle.

1. Mike Arrington is the blogger everyone loves to hate – but perhaps its human to both love and loathe those who are at the of the pyramid, not requiring much at all to go from one to the other kind of emotion.

2. Bloggers love their blogging dramas – hey, I know I do.  Its kind of lame, but here I am writing about it right now at 2am.  Go figure.

One thing I *don’t* understand, though.  Why did Leo Laporte say that Mike “forgot” about coming to BlogExpo, when it clearly wasn’t a case of remembering at all?  I suspect that we may never actually know, unless someone puts a bit of a match to his feet.

Update @ 0015h: Looks like there is a better reason than forgetting, and a lot of it has to do with communication errors — mostly, perhaps on BlogExpo’s behalf as like Mike never formally agreed to attend in the first place. Yoinks.

So this afternoon, I was somewhat — nay, overwhelmingly — flabbergasted to read that Mike Arrington wasn’t able to keynote his talk at BlogExpo along with Om Malik, as they were meant to both talk with Leo Laporte on the Cult of Blogging. Om Malik was out with a bad back, and had to cancel a number of appointments recently.

Fine.

But the excuse given by Mr. Arrington?

He forgot.

I mean, I haven’t heard his side of the story yet, but let’s forget for a moment issues like how some people paid good money to fly to Las Vegas, to stay in Vegas, and to actually attend the conference, perhaps to meet someone *like* Mike. Or issues around accountability and respectability.

I mean, the excuse is just *lame*.

I think we’ve all been in the position where someone we’ve depended on couldn’t come in to work. I know I have. My position, however, is that I don’t really care what the excuse is.

Just … please. Make it either believable or entertaining.

For believable ones you could always try being sick. You could even try something specific like “gastroenteritis”, or “acute lower back pain”, or “migraines”, or “the flu” — all things that could lay you out for 24h-48h legitimately. Or, you could cast the “Personal reasons” card. Great blanket statement that could cover all kinds of personal issues, from family things to spouse-related ‘issues’. I find that transportation-related failures are also somewhat plausible. You car breaking down. Flights getting delayed. Bus blowing up. Something plausible like that.

But if you can’t think of anything believable, please — at least make something up that’s somewhat-entertaining.

Don’t say “I forgot”.

Say “Aliens abducted me and after probing me in all kinds of areas they removed my hippocampus. Then, I totally forgot about coming after that. In fact, I can’t remember anything now.”

Or, “I was brutally assaulted by some people I didn’t want to review on TechCrunch, and which resulted in some massive head injuries. I couldn’t remember much after that, and am calling you from the local emergency room.”

I mean, fine. You couldn’t go / didn’t want to go / had better things to do. I get it.

But could we just hear a better excuse next time?

Its been a good six months since SXSW, where it seems like Twitter exploded in the Technosphere’s stream of consciousness, and if Alexa is any indication (barring all its faults), it seems like its usage has leveled off a bit.

I haven’t been keeping up with Twitter usage myself, as I just didn’t “get” it before, but I am finding myself drawn back into Twitter as my presence-management-tool du jour, not only as something I will be reading (well, following others), but something I plan on participating in.

Here’s why.

As fellow tech bloggers already know, many people carry out conversations on Twitter. In that way, its like an instant messaging tool, although Twitter’s original use seemed to be quite different: letting people know what you’re doing when you’re doing it, particularly since you can Twitter through your mobile, thereby actually *being* somewhere when you’re Twittering.

No, I think its real usage — from a bloggers point of view — is at its least, far more voyeuristic, and that’s to monitor other people’s conversations. And as Marshall Kirkpatrick notes: its one way to read about news real fast. Like its-breaking-now-fast.

But the latter would be something that *I* might take advantage of, as in, I am a back-and-forth between Marshall and some other Twitterer.

On the other hand, it can also be used as a one-to-many instant messaging tool, where you can send out messages into your group. Queries for help. Broadcasts about a recent post. And so on. Instant feedback.

So, I do wonder if Twitter is maturing as a medium in a way, perhaps, that its founders hadn’t intended. And in that way, I do wonder whether or not Twitter is poised for some new growth.

Not just because people are using it differently, but also because of BlogWorld Expo. Something I am not actually attending, but, many other bloggers who are Twittering *will* be.

Will BlogWorld Expo cause the same kind of mini-explosion in growth that Twitter saw at SXSW? Probably not in the same scope of things, but its possible it might, particularly as people blog about it more, and /or people who run the event and speakers *at* the event tell people about it.

Like if Jeremy Wright, CEO of b5media told his audience today “Tris just told me that my fly is open via Twitter“.

Not earth shattering, but it would certainly get people talking about it. ;)

Other bellweathers? A-list blogger Chris Garrett is talking about this very topic today. Or rather, yesterday. Close enough.

PS: If you’re interested in following my Tweets, I’m interested in hearing/ reading about yours. Twitter me at tonyhung (or http://twitter.com/tonyhung)!