At the end of last week Richard from Birmingham was just another Tweeter known as @brumplum.
Some might consider @brumplum telling Stephen Fry his tweets were 'boring' bad form. But, seeing as the internet is a communication tool and we're all pretty much allowed to express our feelings, it wasn't a big event.
What transpired when Stephen Fry responded saying "whereas yours are so fascinating I can barely contain my fluids" was a statement by the actor and TV personality that he was considering leaving Twitter and a rallying behind both @brumplum and Fry on the internet.
By this morning the New York Times was reporting on the vitriol which ensued following what some internet-savvy users might regard as little more than a flame war or a playground spat.
But was it news? Was it worthy of getting the attention it did? Did reporting it fuel the conversation? And are there lessons to be learnt for how we report similar conversations?
I spoke to @brumplum earlier on this afternoon. He offered some pointers about some of the dangers of reporting from Twitter.
