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I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

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Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#31

Post by Jun8 »

Ohboyohboyohboy, it seems I dodged bullet with an idea that I had 5-6 years ago that was very similar to this guy's: My idea was to sit beside a sign that said something along the lines of "Celebrate yourself Through Poetry" in the morning in downtown Chicago in front of a large office building. People going in would commission a poem in the morning, I would finish it and write it in calligraphy on a nice piece of paper by 4pm for a fixed cost, say $20. They would either buy or not buy the poem after I show it to them. A poor person's Francois Villon, if you will.

I've never mentioned this to anyone other than my wife (who used to work in that building) and she laughed her head off. Now that I write it, I feel like I might do this in the future. What do you think, would you buy such a thing for $20-$30 a piece? OTOH, I've gotta admit: I think most of the customers would be young women, so that would make me seem more of an object of ridicule / creep than this guy. Still ...

EDIT: OK, now that I've read my entry I feel like I have to admit something that makes the above proposition more insane or interesting, depending on your POV: I cannot write poetry, like not at all! My proposed strategy was to lean in to my NLP skills and get software help to find interesting ideas, rhymes, etc. Sort of auto poem creation with human tweaking.

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#32

Post by 9wzYQbTYsAIc »

Brendinooo wrote: post #19

I don't know if there's a named maxim for this phenomenon, but something I learned on Twitter is that everything you say can be interpreted in bad faith. This can be done on purpose, or it just happens because there's not enough shared context to connect how you read something to what the other person was trying to say. (Also, while a picture still says 1000 words, I've never had less faith in the veracity of those w…

It seems like an extension of the actor-observer bias / fundamental attribution error.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93observer_asymmet...

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#34

Post by [deleted] »

Jun8 wrote: post #31

Ohboyohboyohboy, it seems I dodged bullet with an idea that I had 5-6 years ago that was very similar to this guy's: My idea was to sit beside a sign that said something along the lines of "Celebrate yourself Through Poetry" in the morning in downtown Chicago in front of a large office building. People going in would commission a poem in the morning, I would finish it and write it in calligraphy on a nice piece of pa…

[deleted]

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#35

Post by scoot »

Jun8 wrote: post #31

Ohboyohboyohboy, it seems I dodged bullet with an idea that I had 5-6 years ago that was very similar to this guy's: My idea was to sit beside a sign that said something along the lines of "Celebrate yourself Through Poetry" in the morning in downtown Chicago in front of a large office building. People going in would commission a poem in the morning, I would finish it and write it in calligraphy on a nice piece of pa…

Or... you could read the linked article? It seems that you've completely missed what was being ridiculed, and why.

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#36

Post by silicon2401 »

Jun8 wrote: post #31

Ohboyohboyohboy, it seems I dodged bullet with an idea that I had 5-6 years ago that was very similar to this guy's: My idea was to sit beside a sign that said something along the lines of "Celebrate yourself Through Poetry" in the morning in downtown Chicago in front of a large office building. People going in would commission a poem in the morning, I would finish it and write it in calligraphy on a nice piece of pa…

I wouldn't pay for it because I don't like most modern poetry or poets and calligraphy's not worth much to me unless the words it captures are worth it. Maybe if you did calligraphy requests.

However one should be adventurous, especially where there's so little to lose. The subject of the OP is easy to ridicule because he looks conventionally nerdy/dweeby and has a flipping typewriter at a park. Just dress normally and be friendly and you'll just be a street artist doing calligraphy instead of caricatures, nothing to laugh at

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#37

Post by pmoriarty »

Jun8 wrote: post #31

Ohboyohboyohboy, it seems I dodged bullet with an idea that I had 5-6 years ago that was very similar to this guy's: My idea was to sit beside a sign that said something along the lines of "Celebrate yourself Through Poetry" in the morning in downtown Chicago in front of a large office building. People going in would commission a poem in the morning, I would finish it and write it in calligraphy on a nice piece of pa…

You might get some takers if you did it in a college town, but as you probably know poetry is not exactly the hottest selling genre of literature... and finding people that read at all is hard enough.

You'd probably have a much easier time offering to write dirty jokes.. or juggling.

What people want on the streets is a spectacle... the louder and more garish the better.

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#38

Post by silicon2401 »

alex_young wrote: post #26

I remember this. This article convinced me that the word "Hipster" is just another random insult directed at the generic other. A completely useless descriptor.

Language evolves based on usage and what speakers need to describe. The word wouldn't have evolved if there wasn't a use for it. Maybe you mean to say that you dislike how people use the word?

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#39

Post by Jun8 »

scoot wrote: post #35
Jun8 wrote: post #31

Ohboyohboyohboy, it seems I dodged bullet with an idea that I had 5-6 years ago that was very similar to this guy's: My idea was to sit beside a sign that said something along the lines of "Celebrate yourself Through Poetry" in the morning in downtown Chicago in front of a large office building. People going in would commission a poem in the morning, I would finish it and write it in calligraphy on a nice piece of pa…

Or... you could read the linked article? It seems that you've completely missed what was being ridiculed, and why.

I did (I thought my subtle reference of dodging the bullet to a comment to the piece his ex wrote was clever ;-), I was just going on tangentially about an idea similar to the one that he had, which, in retrospect, is more ridicule-worthy.

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#40

Post by nrp »

“ After I posted, the message board thread’s climate changed immediately. Not unlike real life, people were complimentary and kind. Many people deleted their mean comments — one person was so embarrassed for threatening to smash my typewriter that he apologized to me, and then went through and started trying to make other haters apologize.”

This is deeply familiar to me and is amazing to see in action. I regularly reply to people on Reddit and HN who are crapping on a product I’ve made and witness both the person’s position on the product and the thread’s overall tone change almost instantly. For whatever reason, it works less well on Twitter.

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