Silicon Alley meetup impresario Brett Petersel, roundly mocked here and elsewhere for offering to pay anyone $25 to set him up on a date, has had a taste of fame and can't get enough. He's even planning to start a business based on the "buzz." Problem is, Petersel isn't as good at leveraging his newfound microcelebrity as he is hosting meetups for Silicon Alley wantrepreneurs and their VC patrons. His latest blunder?

You remember Brett Petersel. He's the self-promoting Silicon Alley tech-meetup organizer who opened widened himself to public ridicule by posting a Facebook note offering $25 to anyone who'd set him up on a date. Maybe you felt bad for him. Don't. So far the Lodwickesque exhibitionism is paying off. Petersel says his Facebook inbox is jammed full and yes, gay-hating dating site eHarmony gave him a free membership. But then came Petersel's really bad idea.

Brett Petersel can gather most of the New York tech scene on a whim, organizing events such as October's Lunch 2.0 in Soho and last month's Web 2.0 Social Networking Tech Meetup in Chelsea. But the guy can't can't get a date. So he's decided to pay for one. "I will give $25 (US) to anyone who sets me up on a date, and then another $25 (US) if a second date occurs," Petersel wrote in a Facebook note. Here's the whole ad.