As with yesterday, newest posts are at the top.

Check out these two feeds:
My flickr account (photos)
My twitter (tiny tweets)

[@4:11pm] I’m home from ROFLcon — have to head out with the family for Orthodox Easter celebrations now. Had to miss out on some of the final panels (tweets on the ROFLcon feed are telling me perhaps I didn’t miss much) but I’m already looking forward to next year. I’ll post more about my overall thoughts on the conference in a later post. Have a lot to digest from the past two days before I can get some cogent thoughts together.

[@2:26pm] Whoa, Timbaland ripping off OCremix isn’t getting any coverage? If true, how is no one picking up on this story?

MSM and radio and talk shows read Fark for material. Apparently show networks can’t attribute Fark for material because of union and network contracting rules — legal ramifications. Hat-tips just don’t happen in MSM, says Curtis. He’s explaining how many TV news networks quote each other when stories breaks. This isn’t news to me, but a lot of audience members seem shocked. Old media ethos is exact opposite of how sites like Fark and Reddit work, kind of incomprehensible about how the two will mesh more and more.

“The Internet” = Fark.com

[@2:11pm] We have now successfully RickRolled the panel.

Alexis of Reddit: “So many buzzy PR things happen organically and it frustrates the hell out of them. ”

Another question — are trolls necessary?
DJPretzel: “They are necessary to deal with the marketers that come to the site. If you’re real it will come through, if you’re fake you’ll get trolled–there’s no way to pull one over the audience.”
Matt of Metafilter: “Marketing comes off as fake.”
Fark summary of comments: “People submitting content, great. Marketers, fuck ‘em.” Oooo.

Corollary: Old media being fooled by stupid stories/marketing, Drew Curtis not sure why old media is always getting drawn in by these fake stories all the time. I’m not either! (Mooninites anyone?)

[@1:56] Fark’s Drew Curtis on what Fark is: “Everybody else is stupid but I’m smart.”

Anil Dash deserves a lot of props and shoutouts, he’s doing a fantastic job of moderating this panel.

Comments on how Reddit and the Reddit community is changing, has changed. From geeky LISP-related news to political memes (Ron Paul) etc. Fark and Reddit commenting on their community–even the gripers–they’re really happy with the communities. OCRemix wants to see more diversity of games remixed, I can’t argue with them there (I go for the FF and Chrono Trigger remixes mainly but other games I like are barely touched by remixers). “Don’t always go for the lowest common denominator in terms of what you want to see featured.”

Current top comments on the backchan interactive are the first few lyrics from Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
That’s right, ROFLcon’s RickRolling Fark, Metafilter, Reddit and OCRemix. It has all come full circle.

[@1:47pm] Starting the “Incubating the Mindvirus” panel on memes– OCRemix, Fark, metafilter, reddit. This might be my last activity of the day — it’s Eastern Orthodox Easter tomorrow and I need to be with my family this evening.

Randall Munroe, creator of XKCD, is here. He says thanks to the referrals from Reddit he’s on there all the time. Figures, ’cause XKCD is on Reddit all the time. Cozy.

More twitter-reddit hybrid comment posting on a projection. Top posts right now: “Trolls: are they an essential part of the community?” and “Do you think the Internet is less interesting now that you’re all in here?”

Reddit gave a shoutout to Yahztee (Zero Punctuation game reviewer), says Yahztee should be here next year. I couldn’t agree more! Yahztee’s fast-paced potty-mouthed game reviews are painfully funny, and his homegrown reviews have basically dwarfed all the professional game reviewers out there from word-of-mouth alone.

[@1:15pm] We got locked out of an event room but there are a few ROFLconners inside. I’m twittering one of them, asking them to open the door (since they can’t hear us knocking) when they see the tweet. This is really bizarre, even for a geek like me!

[@1:01pm] TripAdvisor provided 225 boxes of free pizza (I asked an employee, that’s how I got this number). I think we ate about half of the food, I wonder what they’ll do with the ~100 boxes of untouched pizza? [I'm overhearing talk of Salvation Army and Pine Street Inn.]

Earlier, Anonymous (4chan) showed up toting pizza. Cries of “Anonymous delivers!” rang out.

Had a group photo outside of all the attendees. It’s a beautiful sunny day for it, can’t wait to see the pics.

Another one of those “Only at ROFLcon” moments — Tron guy, the Firefox and Cheez (CEO of Icanhascheezburger.com) all chatting together:

BTW, looks like there’s a Tron guy documentary in the works. He’s trailed by a sound and video guy at all times. Fascinating.

Earlier, the FireFox and Ollie the Owl (TripAdvisor’s mascot) duked it out:

… but they reconciled, all in the name of OMGfreepizza:

Going to get a seat now for the Stuff White People Like blog panel. I talked to the blog creater earlier, he’s a really nice guy and I’m interested to hear more of what he has to say on his blog’s very, very sudden and huge popularity.

[@11:59am] Fans are kind of asking for dirty Homestarrunner — Homestarrunner porn? Have Homestar say things he oughtn’t? Bros Chaps reply: “Corner me in the john.” Um, no thanks.

Lunchtime. Free pizza (oh, it really is like college again). The Firefox and the Owl will have a smackdown. Hmmm.

[@11:51] Brothers Chaps affirms they did indeed visit Disney and met with a producer there, he wanted to collaborate with HSR. Apparently nothing came of it (conclusively) but they found it very flattering that Disney folks liked their work.

Panel voted unanimously: The internet is awesome.
Great.
Glad we cleared that up.

The Firefox asked the panel about adding features for accessibility and open standards on their websites?
…Panel replies they don’t really get what open source is.
Moderator: “This is like a panel of people who only visit the internet.”

[@11:46] Someone asked the inevitable “How does Strongbad type with boxing gloves on?”
Strong Bad: “I’m gonna murder whoever put that question up.”

[@11:41pm] Neely: “I’m waiting for the day when someone tells me this thing is all over…but I have secrets” — OK, it must be obvious I am a huge Brad Neely fan. If he’s got other things up his sleeves, I can’t wait to see it!

Brothers Chaps: Someone actually thought the whole HSR joke was that Homestar has Down Syndrome?!?! What the heck?

[@11:34pm] Brad Neely–”Flash to me is a guy in a red suit that runs around”–talking about processes and tools used in production. HSR still uses Flash 5. Wow!

[@11:15am] Here I am again at the MIT campus in a sea of geeks and laptops. I didn’t get back from the ROFLconcert at the Middle East Upstairs (in Central) last night until 2:30am, so as you can imagine I’m pretty tired. In my exhaustion this morning, I forgot my camera at home! So it’s all cell phone photos today. Sorry!

Still the main focus fo the day are the excellent panels going on today.

Right now I’m (a half-hour late) to the Making It Big panel. Big names here–Brothers Chaps of Homestar Runner, Brad Neely of SuperDeluxe.com (Babycakes, Professor Brothers), Burnie Burns of Red vs Blue and some of the staff of Cyanide and Happiness.

The discussion has moved from what “selling out” is, to freedom of expression on the internet versus self- or imposed-censorship on other media, to the processes they go through to create their popular content.

Applause for Homestarrunner.com never running ads on their site for the eight years they’ve been going.

Q: “Can you talk about not having ads on your site?”–moderator
A: “There’s nothing to talk about, ads are the worst thing about the internet”–Bros Chaps

Brothers Chaps apparently work out of a “inspriringly depressing shopping center.”

There’s a room-wide twitter-like channel going on. Comments are up-down voted ala Reddit and the entire screen is projected behind the panelists so they can see what the most popular comments and questions are. This is a fantastic idea.

New entries will appear at the top of the page with events in reverse chronological order.

Other feeds to check:
My flickr account (photos)
My twitter (tiny tweets)

Newest update:

I will be at ROFLcon on Saturday! And yes, I’ll be liveblogging/posting photos from that as well. Keep an eye on this site for that entry tomorrow.

[@9:19pm] Molasses slow internet connection at Middle East Upstairs, no liveblogging from here, that’s for sure.
But I managed to upload this for you guys:

Also we just ran into the Hello Kitty Avenger of Banditos Misteriosos fame. We’re getting our wires crossed! Oh noes!

[@8:25] This might be the final post of the night–dinner time in ROFLconland, we all invaded Central Square. Go fig, Miracle of Science was packed to capacity. Ramy and I went to Phoenix Landing down the street, deathly quiet. Another go fig. We’re now at Toscanninis and ROFLlers have invaded here as well.

Ramy got a cheeseburger at the Phoenix Landing. He didn’t realize why I started laughing when he ordered it.

A cheeseburger, he can has it. Rather he can… did …has it? And he says it was delicious. Thumbs up to Phoenix Landing!

In a half hour the ROFLcon music show (yes, the ROFLconcert) will start at the Middle East Upstairs — I’ll be taking photos but won’t liveblog from this, it’ll be pretty much impossible. When I get back to my apartment in East Arlington (I’m biking back!) post-show, I’ll upload my photos and do a brief write-up for you all.

One of the highlights of my day: I got my own post on UniversalHub. Sweeeeeeeeet.

[@5:51] Q: “How do you know when you’re fucking with the matrix?”
A1: “When the CIA contacts you.”
A2: “When more people are wearing gem sweaters.”

Good answers all.

Oh sweet. ROFLcon bingo.

[@5:42] Panel opened up to questions. Previously Bubble Guy made extended comment on public space ads versus ads on TV. That was awesome. Not entirely ROFLcon-y or geeky but still really fascinating. Now Bert is Evil guy is commenting on use of his images by protesters in third world countries, etc.

[@5:35] Hey, I’ve always wanted to be in The Guardian. Well, my writing isn’t there (… yet), but one of my photos is! Huzzah!

Applause from audience when Leslie Hall asked whether anyone on the panel has major ads/banners on their sites and everyone responded no.

[@5:29] twitter reactions seem to be on the same wavelength — this panel is really odd. Bubble Project, Gem Sweater, Bert is Evil guys are very interesting. The rest of the panel… I don’t get it. Plus moderator questions are unfocused. Ramy turned to me and asked: “Can we get a nominative definition of ‘pwnage’?” I agree.

I mean, what does this mean: “How do you think schools can integrate pwnage into the classroom?” Seriously. Someone explain this to me.

[@5:20] Sorry for slowing updates — battery keeps dying and outlets are scarce. I camped out at one and now things are better.

Am at the PWNing for the good of mankind panel. Bubble Project guy worked at Saatchi&Saatchi — that’s brilliant.

This is a much calmer discussion than the LOLpanel. Some of the questions: “How did you become internet famous? Were you trying to pwn” Hmm.

Also, ROFLcondom.



Hah. Like any of the geeks at ROFLcon are going to need these.

This is a weird panel I have to say — not really sure what the focus is here (kind of a scattershot panel gathering). Why is the ACLU in on a discussion of pwning? I would expect a bunch of lvl70 rogue with epix to be in on this discussion… not so much iJustine. *shrug*

[@3:46] OM NOM NOMed greasy calzone (yays), am at “I Can Haz Case Study” panel of the LOLcat/LOLspinoff phenomenon.

Quote of the panel: “What is it about cats? What is it about them that makes them so LOLable?”
ICanHasCheezburger.com CEO talks about the diversity of cat-related reactions. I wonder if Cat Fancy really IS here as I keep hearing they are? So many cat-quotable moments…great, now I miss my cat!

LOLphenom made up of “overwhemingly female” contributors? Does that contribute to the popularity of LOLcats in general asks LOLcode dude. This is a very philosophical conversation, given the topic at hand!

The LOLpanel with Tron Guy in the audience.

Obtained ticket to tonight’s internet meme music concert. Very, VERY happy about seeing Group X!

[@2:01pm] Latest Tweet: “awkward gender conversation sprung on unsupecting panel, but it was handled well. time for lunch: OM NOM NOM”

Explanation: The keynote turned to a discussion of race and gender — why was the panel all young white guys? Isn’t the internet the great equalizer? It’s an interesting discussion to have though I think the panelists were rather flummoxed by it — things got awkward mighty fast. I’m as sick as the “THERE ARE NO GIRLS ON THE INTERNETS!!11″ joke as the next chica but I don’t believe these guys were prepared to speak on that topic –keynote was about making money online, not gender/race dynamics of the internet.

Still, I think it was inevitable someone was going to bring it up. But boy oh boy, the angst was palpable once someone asked that question.

Lunch break time now, Ramy is here and we’re going to grab something to eat. All I had this morning was a tiny thing of yogurt and then a gut-churning can of narsty Brawndo–after a half hour bike at 9am and many hours of sitting around, I am ready to gnaw my damn arm off. See you at the 3:30pm panel!

[@1:24pm] Interesting keynote. Panelists: Million Dollar website guy, One Red Paperclip guy, JibJab, RocketBoom, Chuck Norris facts, Marmaduke Explained.

You come away feeling so, so much of internet “fame” is pure dumb luck. You put your content out there and spin the roulette wheel. Some of the panelists are more surprised that they’re up there than I would have believed! (Especially Chuck Norris facts guy. He’s been sued?!? Poor dude. We should start a pool for his defense. FTW)

Says the Chuck Norris Facts guy: “I’m completely 100% a fluke.” Honesty!

I wonder… what really is the takeaway from this? It’s fascinating insights but not much actionable knowledge here. Guess I shouldn’t be too surprised about it though. (And not that I’m looking to become famous on the internet.)

My laptop battery is near-dead and I have a gnarly headache from the Brawndo (avoid avoid avoid). I think it also gave me a heart murmur. Yeesh.

Fun fact: Stuff White People Like guy grew up near Greektown in Toronto. Yay! He says “gyro” correctly. Props man, props.

[@12:35pm] Keynote about to start — guess who I’m sitting behind?

LEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNKINS just introduced himself as the MC for ROFLcon.

BEST. MC. EVAR.

I wonder what he drops if we gank him onstage….

[@ 11:39] And now Christian Lander of Stuff White People Like! I freaking love his blog. We’re asking about how he came up with his blog. “It was entirely a fluke… didn’t expect any of this.” His site was picked up almost instantly since he started it–shows when you have a really good concept, people will find out about it!

I told him about the Asian Girls entry and how a friend (an Asian girl) sent me a link to his blog and how bizarre that was.

He then asked me why I don’t have a Mac (EVERYONE liveblogging ROFLcon is on a Mac but me, it’s kind of pathetic).

He’s the third person to sit in what we’re now calling the meme chair.

[@11:35]
Alex Tew got out of one seat, Kyle MacDonald (One Red Paperclip) sat down. What is this, the meme seat? He’s presenting at 1pm.

Aaaand Denny Blaze just walked by. O_o

[@ 10:42 a.m.]
Registered! Got my schwag, badge. Biked over to Cambridge from Arlington– a great ride on a beautiful day, but it only ended up taking about 25 minutes (a lot shorter than I’d predicted!) so I got here awfully early, wayyyy before they were ready for registrants.

First girl in line though, w00t. (Geek cred +1000)

Now we’re all chugging Brawndo (this stuff is uber-YELLOW) and twittering or updating blogs. Poor MIT wifi server, it’s going to get hammered today. Caffeinated geekery.
Lots of Firefox stuff around, he’s our hero~

I’m hearing squeals from people recognize their favorite internet celebs. It’s a very surreal who’s who. Seeing Tron Guy in meatspace, whoa. What?

This whole thing is going to get liveblogged to death, isn’t it? Worse than SXSW, I’m thinking.
Lots of college students from the area around here. At 24 I feel a bit old in this crowd.

Already ran into Wired, heard NYT and NPR are wandering around as well. Just saw the Reddit dudes too.

Man, this Brawndo stuff. Dyes your skin yellow if you drip. But but! It’s got ELECTROLYTES.

Am still trying to decide which panels to go to.

Schwag obtained:

Freakin’ love the lunchbox.

Also, lots of free stickers (Firefox ones from Japan–CHOUUU KAWAIII) and as much Brawndo as we can chug.

ROFLconners — did you bring your DSes with you for PictoChatting? I didn’t, though I’m wondering if I should bring mine tomorrow. Pictochat? Anyone? Anyone?

OMG. I’m sitting right across the coffee table of Alex Tew (the Million Dollar Homepage guy). *___* Whaaaat!

Oh, the memes we’ll say. Oh, the shenanigans we’ll have.

I just bought my ticket to ROFLcon—I could never forgive myself for missing out on something this awesome, in my backyard no less.

So yes, I’m going to go. I’m going to blog it. I’m going to take pictures. I’m going to get ph4t lewtz, or at least say hi to Anonymous.

April 25th and 26th at Harvard University. ROFLcon or GTFO.