When a former HowStuffWorks-er told me about Twitter back in 2006, I was a vehement naysayer. I absolutely did not want one more way to keep in touch with people (or to have them keep in touch with me). The more people told me how great Twitter was, the more I dug in my heels. By the time it seemed like everyone on Earth had joined Twitter, I was dead-set on being obstinate.

But last week I saw Jonathan Strickland work some crazy Twitter magic and decided to give it a shot. I feel a little like I’m walking around with my freshly bought copy of a well-loved sci-fi classic that has “Now a Major Motion Picture!” emblazoned on the cover. But in spite of that, I’m glad I joined, mostly because I got to watch the magic of #ihate5e unfold yesterday afternoon.

It started with a cryptic (at the time) tweet from D&D writer and developer Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) that made its way to my phone: “Edible power cards that must be consumed to use a spell?!?! What an awful, though admittedly tasty, idea. #ihate5e.” Searching for the #ihate5e hashtag called up almost 200 tweets, all of them faux gripes about insane rules in the not-in-reality-yet fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons. The number of #ihate5e tweets passed 300 before I left the office for the day.

I plowed my way through them — I don’t think I ever got to the bottom of the pile — giggling and trying to figure out how the whole thing got started. That part wasn’t clear until a post about the best of the best #ihate5e tweets went up over at allgeektout. We have @madbrewlabs and @jrients to thank for a three-tweet exchange on fourth-edition griping that sparked a new meme (and coined the term “speculative hating,” which I now adore).

It really made me miss D&D — it’s a game that’s close to my heart, but it’s been so long since I played that I don’t even know the 4e rules that laid the foundation for all the ruckus.

Edit to add: And the next day came #robotpickuplines and #feliciadayrumors. Since I clearly have not used the word “magic” enough times in this post … Twitter is magical.

More on the technology to enable giant, spiraling inside jokes at HowStuffWorks.com:

How Twitter Works
How SMS Works
How Cell Phones Work