Where Are They Now?

Posted on May 26, 2008 by dianakimball.
Categories: Uncategorized.

So, Tim should have a more momentous birthday post up soon, BUT. In the meantime, here’s an after-school special that everyone can enjoy. (Well…everyone who enjoys blogs, at least?) It’s Where Are They Now: ROFLCon Team and Assorted Friends Edition!

Will you like it? Maybe!

From the top…

Secretly, most of the ROFLCon team moonlights as an organization called Harvard Free Culture. In a final, blow-out, year-end event, HFC buried a Zune and an iPod in a ceremony that was “part-Viking, part-mafia.” It was a Zuneral! HFC post about the Zuneral here; awesome pictures by Dave here.

Also (and this is definitely self-serving), witness: the Tim & Diana Show, hosted by me (Diana Kimball ) and the illustrious Tim Hwang. It happens on Saturdays. It is usually about 8 minutes long. It is never called “the Tim & Diana Show.” Maybe you will watch it!

I can tell you with probably about 107% confidence that more absurd projects will be coming down the pipeline. We can’t seem to stop working together, so I think we’re just going to keep making up excuses! Even when those excuses involve unscripted fake talk shows, and spatula’ing wet concrete into red plastic buckets.

And then there are the blogs. So many blogs. And Twitter accounts. And Tumblrs. See:

Tim Hwang—blogging at The U.S. Bureau of Fabulous Bitches, Twitter at timhwang.

Christina Xu—blogging at ComPromise, Tumblr here, Twitter at chrysaora, Flickr here.

Dean Jansen—heading up DRMisDeadToMe.org, working on YouTomb with a bunch of other friends & associates of ROFLCon.

Carrie Andersen—Tumblr/blog at Identity is the Meaning of Surface.

Rachel Popkin—blogging at www.rachelpopkin.com, Tumblr at qwerticious, Twitter at arrkay.

Kevin Driscoll—blogging/portfolio’ing at kevindriscoll.info, DJ work at lonewolf, Twitter at desconcentrado.

Natalie Bau—blogging/Tumblr at econgirl.

Oliver Day—blogging at zeroday.

Susannah Roush—Twitter at wombatina.

…And, finally, yours truly! Diana Kimball—blogging at dianakimball.com, Twitter at dianakimball, Tumblr at sleuth.

So many services with unmelodious names! We only hope you’ll find the writing and pictures and miscellany on these strange websites at least a little bit melodious.

Keep in mind that this is far (far far far) from being a full list of everyone who worked on ROFLCon. It’s strongly biased toward people with TWELVE MILLION ACCOUNTS on twelve million different services, too! But you’re the one who asked, “Where Are They Now?”* And this is everything I know, for now.

So here’s where we are. Thanks for coming along for the ride, and I hope you find something new to love today! Here or, you know. Out in nature somewhere.

*Actually, you’re not, but: details, details!

*Also, psst: ROFLCon Internet Cult Leaders panel moderator Professor Christopher Kelty is coming out with a book! Two Bits. It’s about free software. It’s also looks totally amazing. Nice work, honorary fellow team member!

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Really Short Summary: INCUBATING THE MINDVIRUS: MEME INFRASTRUCTURES

Posted on April 26, 2008 by Kevin Chiu.
Categories: Uncategorized.

[photo cred]

Moderator: Anil Dash (Six Apart)Panelists: Matt Haughey (Metafilter), Josh Schacter (del.icio.us), Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), David Lloyd (OCRemix), Drew Curtis (Fark.com)

Q:What did you do before you started? Reddit: student trying to avoid going to law school. Metafilter: I was a designer/programmer. Fark: Running an ISP. Overclock Remix: Going to highschool. Doing radio.
Q: Does print legitimize you? A: I want to say no, but yes. A: We got into New York Times. We got into a couple magazines that have since gone under.
Q: Do you do it for a living? A: Yes. A:Yes. A: Remixing video game music … yeah we’re poor. No. We’re doing a remix soundtrack for Street Fighter HD.
Q: Community leanings? A: Mario, Chrono Trigger, Squaresoft. A: Web obsessives. A: Ron Paul, Lispers, Paul Graham fans
Q: How would you change your communities? Metafilter: Nothing. Reddit: Buy more t-shirts? Remixes: More diversity. Don’t go with lowest common denominator.
Q: Do your communities reflect you? Metafilter: Sort of. Reddit: I hope not.
Q: How much interaction between sites? Remixes: We submitted our new FF7 album to Fark… it didn’t get in. Fark: We believe in cross-pollination. Metafilter: Fark links used to cripple our site.
Q: Control: Reddit has the least, Metafilter has elitism built in. Fark: Editor approval. Influences the government. Remixes: About 10 submissions a day, we examine them very carefully. Our community has a very high standard.
Q: How do you wield your power? Fark: Tried to bump up a stock price. Didn’t work. Reddit: Mr. Splashypants, stop humpback whaling. Japanese gov’t stopped whaling season.

Panel gets rick rolled through question submission.

Q: How do you feel about marketers. A: I hate marketers. A: Message to marketers: Things just happen organically, we couldn’t stage the Mr. Splashypants phenomenon if we wanted to. A: If you’re legit, people will accept you.
Q: Super star users stealing the spotlight? Reddit: We support them. None have turned or abandoned us to our knowledge. Metafilter: Cut off the bad ones. Fark: We have a bunch of strong microcommunites. Check out Kelly Keagan. Remix: We have a broad userbase and new talent is always coming in to fill the void left by old talent.
Q: Do you keep tabs on each other or use each others’ sites? A: No. A: No. A: Remix - if we’re competing with these other guys, we’re losing pretty badly.
Q: Do you have IP issues? Remix: We’re in a grey area. We chose our battles wisely. Fark: All major news outlets use us as a source. We would like to get some cred, but there are legal issues about product placement if we get mentioned. Writers like to avoid those kinds of issues. Metafilter: It would be nice if they linked back. Reddit: Major news sites should rip us off more. They’d get better content.
Q: Community in-jokes? A: Wake up sheeple! A: They show strong community, but are kind of confusing for newcomers.
Q: US-centricity? Remix: We’re doing translations. Japanese is the biggie. Reddit: 40% of hits are from outside the US.
Q: Can anyone in your community create a meme? A: Yes, but not on purpose. Remix: Your best bet is to take two things from different sources and combine them.