Snapshots from a photo booth sponsored by Facebook flashed on two walls above the room's panoramic view. The line to get into the photo booth was 10 deep; this, after all, is a crowd that adores nothing more than photos of themselves. "I got up at 9 am, opened a bag of Cheetos and did nothing else but sit in front of the TV til 4 pm," said Internet lothario Rex Sorgatz.  "Some people would call it patriotism, I would call it public consumption." 

Earlier that day Mr. Crowley had hosted friends for an inauguration work-party while he hammered out plans for "4 Square," a new site that's "kind of the same thing as Dodgeball but works on the iPhone." (Mr. Crowley sold the Twitter-like mobile networking site to Google in 2005, then left in dissatisfaction in 2007; Google announced last week that it is closing down the service.)   Crowley was blithe about whether he - or anyone - could find the funds to keep building Web sites.  "Some of the financing may dry up, but people in this room will keep doing interesting things, just because they want to," he said

Fern Mallis, the woman behind Fashion Week, felt the same way about her industry. "Creative people can design their way out of anything," she said. The Daily Transom asked whether she was concerned about all the Fashion Week cancellations.

"The numbers aren't important, it's the quality," Mallis said.  "There are so many people stepping up to the plate and putting good money down." Ms. Mallis said she loved seeing Michelle Obama in her yellow Isabel Toledo ensemble. "Bravo to her for wearing young American designers and wearing them so beautifully. She wears the clothes," Ms. Mallis said, "the clothes don't wear her."

Ms. Mallis was dressed-down in a t-shirt with the Obama campaign logo, whose designers, Chicagoans Sol Sender and Amanda Gentry, happened to be in attendance. Sender and Gentry both say there were proud to be a part of the campaign, even though neither ever met the hometown Senator-turned-President. Ms. Gentry said she cried during the ceremony. "[The logo] still embodies what inspired us when we were approaching it," she said of the design.  "Except I guess now it's hope, realized."

Did the record-breaking campaign pay well, the Daily Transom wondered?

"We didn't do it pro bono, but we didn't charge what we would for a Fortune 500 company," Mr. Sender said. 

At the party, Ms. Gentry and Mr. Sender's iconic "O" was overshadowed by the Times's own specially designed Obama emblem.  It was already ubiquitous for anyone who logged onto Facebook yesterday, (members could "give" it to each other), and last night, each party-goer received a logo lapel pin on the way in, and a small poster on the way out.

But Times metro reporter/ byline beast Sewell Chan, who as of this afternoon had 2,383 Facebook friends, assured the Daily Transom that, specially-designed logos not withstanding, the paper maintained its objectivity throughout the day, and that nothing journalistically untoward had happened earlier at the informal watching party in the paper's conference room. "It was exciting, but decorous," Mr. Chan said.  "There was no inappropriate whooping or cheering."

Certainly, these guys are "men about town" in that they go to lots of parties and... date people. "Playboys" is a bit of a stretch. The article simply follows them as they attend a NY Tech Meetup and go on date with their girlfriends. Kinda boring, especially compared to their actual work in online social networking, which is pretty cool. What do their ladies have to say about it? Silicon Alley Insider points out a conversation between Mr. Karp's lady, CNET reporter Caroline McCarthy, and Ms. Allison. Their conclusion? "unbelievable." Ms. Allison: "I know [Charles] had a long, long talk about BUSINESS stuff with this woman. this is going to really upset him." Ms. McCarthy, later in the conversation: "hey, it's Details. nobody is going to be reading it for sage business advice."

The audience laughed, slightly uncomfortably.

“These people are basically start-up groupies,” he continued. Mr. Forman has brown hair and brown eyes, and wore a navy blue polo shirt and olive khakis. “Founders are their rock stars—your Alexa rank equals their self-worth. They will blow your IT just to get to you.”

Mr. Forman’s iPhone-toting audience on Tuesday evening was assembled at Tribeca bar M1-5 for Ignite NYC, a symposium on Web culture. Several presenters had preceded Mr. Forman, speaking for no more than five minutes on topics like “NYC's Startup Scene: Where are the geeks?” Mr. Forman’s discussion was called “How to Date Celebrichauns with Cyber Fetish.”

Many in the audience were undoubtedly aware that Mr. Forman’s most recent girlfriend was the Web personality and recent Wired cover subject Julia Allison, who sat in the front row, sporting a new hairstyle. Along with her constant companions Mary Rambin and Meghan Asha, Ms. Allison has recently started a Web venture called NonSociety.com, which chronicles the threesome’s adventures hitching rides on private jets and their attempts to land geeky boyfriends. (Ms. Allison also has a personal blog, a Twitter, and a Facebook page, as well as a dating column in Time Out New York.) Ms. Allison and her sidekicks are also starring on a reality television show on the Bravo network, which is tentatively called IT Girls. Last year, when Ms. Allison was dating Jakob Lodwick, another Web entrepreneur, the pair thought it would be a good idea to chronicle every aspect of their relationship on a blog called JakobandJulia.com. Needless to say, that ended badly.

Needless to say, it was abundantly clear to whom Mr. Forman was referring.

“Celebrichauns are self-absorbed, self-perpetuating, empty inside, and 97 percent disappointment. … They don’t pay for shit! Celebrichauns have their own trust funds—them having you pay for stuff is just their power over you,” said Mr. Forman, as slides raced by on the screen.

“Sexual side effects may occur—like not having any!” said Mr. Forman. Ms. Allison, who has made repeated public claims of prudishness, might have been smirking. Several members of the audience stared into their beers.

“This joke is basically centered around Julia Allison,” Mr. Forman concluded. “The smartest person I’ve ever met, the most beautiful person I know … Sorry things didn’t work out. I love you.” Mr. Forman came to the edge of the stage and Ms. Allison hopped up onto it. They embraced and kissed as the audience cheered.