Um...."Fuck you and thanks"?

My thoughts exactly.

... I don't even know where to start. On the one hand, I think I'd be pretty offended. On the other, I can't stop giggling at how awkwardly worded that all is for someone who tells stories for a living.

And why bother telling you that they decided against inviting you to sit on the panel? Why not just say "hey, we're having this thing, I'd love for you to come".

Weird, man.

yeah that's what i thought too. like he was trying to explain why he wasn't invited or something to make him feel better? weird. and yes especially considering the person's said profession.

I guess he figured that otherwise Brad's first reaction would be "panel discussion? But why am I not on the panel?" Which is what I would have thought. At least this way he explains the situation up front.

But I'm kind of wondering how many other people there are in Portland who are more worthy to be on a panel discussion about blogging than any of you guys. It's not like 6apart or Blogger or [ick] Dave Winer are locals.

Reply in kind?

Dear [name],

I'm a Pdx programmer who put together a popular site on blogs and blogging...

translation:

dear brad,
were having this party and youre not invited, but you can come and watch us.

umm thanks guys!? what a bunch of dorks.

Dear Mumble-Mouth journalist

I'm a Pdx programmer who put together an online blogging community, located online at http://www.livejournal.com. I took serious thought whether or not to give you an account, but given your horrifying inability to write a god damn letter without sending creepy-stalker vibes, I ultimately opted not to.

I would however like for you to read my journal (http://brad.livejournal.com/), and to participate vigorously in the discussion threads therein about the douchebags and morons I have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. I hope it'll be something that you and any subliterate journalist can get behind.

Sincere thanks,

Brad Fitzpatrick
LiveJournal Pimp

I vote for this response :-)

PS: You got served.

Im curious as to who exactly these "panelists" are and what makes them more qualified to talk about blogging than brad is.. Or what this "panel" is going to decide..
Probably washed up cam-whore drama queens.. Or wanna-be-important goths who frequent DeadJou-er.. nevermind. :)

Hey, didn't Brad buy DJ on April 1st????

My guess is the actual panelists are people known for their individual blogs rather than for constructing hugely successful journal websites. ;-)

What everyone else said: who else is in Portland?

Though I do remember Mena Trott mentioning they were thinking of moving to there...

also i want to know who is going to be in the audience? is this a hot topic there? :)

You're a star in your own right and they want you at the party but they filled the head table with people more useful to their needs than you but they need some validity and you provide a great measure of validity.

It's clearly how the whole world works...

Don't answer. Silence is far more powerful.

Hopefully he "opted" to not have you on the panel because he already had a balance of different people to talk on the subject. If he already has a programmer on the panel, then it doesn't make sense to add another. But then again, are there any other blogging programmers in PDX other than the LJ Team?

Anyways, if I were you I would still go. Most of the time in the public relations/journalism world, any presence is good presence.

Hell, post the time and location in the "Damn Portlanders" community and flood the event with LiveJournal users. Then his story will surly mention LJ, and it would also kinda stick it to him for not putting you on the panel.

The only thing I can think of is perhaps they decided not to invite you because you run a blogging site and perhaps all the other panelists are average-joe users, so you didn't fit what they were looking for?

Reading the email, I tried to run on the assumption that the person isn't trying to be insulting, so that's all I could come up with. :-/

yeah, it could be because he didn't want the panel to turn in to "OMG I LOVE YOU BRAD CAN I HAVE YOUR BABIES"

That's kind of what I imagined.

Hey whitaker!
Im going to be in portland for some "blogging" convention that they want me to be the head of some pane.. er.. uhh... you never saw this.. :)

heh, here's how you reply:

"lol"

All done!!! ; )

You ignore it entirely.

There's no way to accept without being someone's bitch, or being bitchy.

Hmmmm

I'm posting only because I seem to have a very different take on this than the other responses-

I think whoever sent this to you doesn't even know who you are-
This looks clearly to me like a form letter for a marketing survey-
They want (for example) blog users to sit and chat with them and tell them what features they want in their upcoming new blog/n-degree/whatever-

And wtf is a "pdx journalist"?