Weird news from the brave new world of sports journalism and social media. Today, we learned of the existence of a Twitter entity called 'The Score Sidelines', the latest Twitter sideline from the folks at The Score. Based on a day or two of Twitter activity, the modus operandi of the site seems to be a bit of a diversion from the usual high-brow, groundbreaking internet journalism that the folks at Distilled Media pride themselves in - there were unbylined stories on Wayne Gretzky's hot daughter and Paddy Power cut and paste's, to name two.
What intrigued us far more than the sexy content however was the bodacious number of Twitter followers that Sidelines had in its back pocket. The Twitter account had been actively posting for about 48 hours old and already boasted more than 51,000 Twitter followers. You might expect that kind of turnaround from Katherine Webb, but it was surely a record amongst Irish sports websites. We searched around to see if LeBron James or BOD had given the account a plug on Twitter but no, nothing.
It was a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes or Vincent Browne.
Then a few things hit us. First of all, remember the Fake Marty Morrissey account? It was one of the most loved/reviled twitter accounts in Ireland, but had gone suspiciously quiet of late. We did know that the real Marty was not very pleased to have his name associated with Twitter's official Banter Panther.
Well, after content began to funnel into his Twitter feed today, our deputy editor PJ Browne realised that he was suddenly following The Score Sidelines without ever voluntarily choosing to. He considered this extremely odd and presumed that Sidelines had taken over the followers of another Twitter account. He wondered if perhaps Sidelines was tweeting through the old account of none other than the Banter Panther, aka @marty_morrissey, aka 19/20-year-old Paul Corey, an account that had gone dormant towards the end of 2012 and boasted a Twitter following in the range of 50k. Clicking on @marty_morrissey seemed to provide evidence that something was up.
Then after a bit more poking in the Sidelines twitter account, we were directed to the Sidelines 'Favourites' section, found a boatload of juvenile tweets relating to the GAA and Irish country living, the most popular pursuits of the Banter Panther. Heck, most of the favourites were addressed directly to @marty_morrissey. Tweets were favourited regularly all summer and dried up around late November, around the time Fake Marty stopped tweeting.
Our personal favourites of these favourites are the following:
So there you go. We're not saying there's anything wrong with following The Score Sidelines - though it is amusing that the account was purchased from a guy whose handle in real life is @paulerection. If you're going to launch a Twitter profile, 53,000 is a far better springboard than 0. But we did think the loyal 50,000 or so very loyal fans of the Banter Panther would want to know why they're getting unasked-for links this week. Don't expect puerile jokes about tea, mass, pulling or Colm Parkinson. Or maybe do. Time will tell.
As for the Banter Panther, we hope he made a killing on this one. News, when we get it, of the fee he received. And is it stands, the favourites tab on the Sidelines account is the only place online to experience the wit of the Fake Marty, one of the most followed parody accounts in Irish twitter history, so maybe the Score are doing the state some service and providing historians some material when they write the book on Ireland's strange relationship with social media in 10 years time.
UPDATE: Corey has confirmed over Twitter that he sold the account recently for an undisclosed sum. We're delighted to see somebody in Ireland is making money on the internet.
