Live data from Hacker News

I Was Internet-Famous

nymag.com

31–40 of 54 posts

Re: I Was Internet-Famous

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My own writing style, for better or worse, tends to hover around a sixth-grade reading level, but I love experiencing authors who have distinct voices, and I especially appreciate ones who have the courage to break out all of the five dollar words and obscure metaphors. In our anti-intellectual culture, doing that really risks mockery (case in point), but I think sophisticated, complex writing can illuminate in ways…

>anti-intellectual culture I agree- I really wish there wasn't such a stigma against, as you phrased it, "five-dollar words". I love reading older writing because (maybe without the internet and things like /r/iamverysmart?) they seem drastically less afraid to say exactly what they want to, in the way they want to. There's also an anachronistic charm to them I guess, but I think the word-choice-freedom is still a bi…

to be fair, a good portion of /r/iamverysmart is not just about using fancy words, but also about misusing them or using them to present yourself as better/smarter than other people

Re: I Was Internet-Famous

#32
I was close friends with an "internet celebrity" ca. 06-07, when she became huge on YouTube. She did get millions of views (I believe; she was on of the earliest to monetise YouTube), ended up pulling everything off after being hacked and abused at her home address.

I haven't spoken to her in years but I remember the affect the depraved stuff aome people do - call pizza for delivery, leave things in mailboxes, hack the computer and steal private files, stalking.... It's just crazy.

Re: I Was Internet-Famous

#34
post #14

In my day being Internet Famous was having your a quote in bash.org

Or when all the planets aligned you actually got to post an article on slashdot (I never did).

I was "published" in a perl book; a screenshot of the #perl efnet IRC channel was used in the "other resources" section, and something I'd said was part of that. The money that rolled in after that, ....hoooo, boy!

Yeah, I'm still working for a living.

Re: I Was Internet-Famous

#35
Pretty interesting to see quite a few that South Park ended up using in their bit about "Internet Money" from a while ago. I really enjoyed their take on the subject. Hell, even Garfunkel and Oates turned their little gimmick (Pregnant Women Are Smug) into an actual career in entertainment so the article kind of misses at least one, and probably more.

My closest actual relation was with a member of The Gregory Brothers who did Auto Tune the News, which was viral, but also kind of a business card for potential future work.

I never understood the logic behind www.Zombo.com other than to be a marker in the sand for mocking internet culture. Glad to see it's still functioning. THE INFINITE IS POSSIBLE AT ZOMBO COM!

Re: I Was Internet-Famous

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or when all the planets aligned you actually got to post an article on slashdot (I never did).

I was "published" in a perl book; a screenshot of the #perl efnet IRC channel was used in the "other resources" section, and something I'd said was part of that. The money that rolled in after that, ....hoooo, boy! Yeah, I'm still working for a living.

I remember at one point there was a "White Pages" published which listed every email address on the internet. Such fame. So wow.

My other brush with fame was having my site posted on slashdot and later on digg. http://www.deadharddrive.com/ It was definitely exciting and an eye-opener to some of the experiences these people must go through - the positive and the negative.

Re: I Was Internet-Famous

#38
post #32

I was close friends with an "internet celebrity" ca. 06-07, when she became huge on YouTube. She did get millions of views (I believe; she was on of the earliest to monetise YouTube), ended up pulling everything off after being hacked and abused at her home address. I haven't spoken to her in years but I remember the affect the depraved stuff aome people do - call pizza for delivery, leave things in mailboxes, hack t…

>I haven't spoken to her in years but I remember the affect the depraved stuff aome people do - call pizza for delivery, leave things in mailboxes, hack the computer and steal private files, stalking.... It's just crazy.

I think this teaches us that there are two categories of people in large-ish quantities:

1) Lots of imbalanced people out there.

2) Lots of teenagers whose parents didn't instill social skills into them.

Re: I Was Internet-Famous

#39
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was "published" in a perl book; a screenshot of the #perl efnet IRC channel was used in the "other resources" section, and something I'd said was part of that. The money that rolled in after that, ....hoooo, boy! Yeah, I'm still working for a living.

I remember at one point there was a "White Pages" published which listed every email address on the internet. Such fame. So wow. My other brush with fame was having my site posted on slashdot and later on digg. http://www.deadharddrive.com/ It was definitely exciting and an eye-opener to some of the experiences these people must go through - the positive and the negative.

Huh - published by Seth Godin

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-The-Internet-White-Pages-1994/...

Re: I Was Internet-Famous

#40
post #20

This brought up so many memories...funny to think of how many of our lives' funniest moments are what we saw on YouTube. A few other memes I thought of worth including: - re Bloomberg's sign-language interpreter, the interpreter at Nelson Mandela's memorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hCdtUxnOG8 - Aleksey Vayner, who posted a video resume titled, "Impossible is Nothing", and then later committed suicide: http:/…

It's also kind of dark to learn the stories behind / life after these. It really ruins a lot people's lives.
Post reply on HN