ROFLcon as enjoyed from across the continent

Apr 26, 2008 at 9:35 PM
3 comments

April 26th, 2008
I would like to open this blog entry by stating the obvious. And then stating it again. And if it wouldn’t get me disqualified from the IMBC I would spend this entire blog entry stating just one obvious fact. I love the internet. I am absolutely head over heals in love with the internet. I can’t lie about it, and chances are that if you are reading this you are well aware of my passion for the interwebs. Today I was reminded of exactly how much I adore this series of tubes.

Last night I was playing risk and checking my RSS feed when MC Frontalot made a post about his adventures at ROFLcon. For those of you who don’t know, ROFLcon is an internet culture convention which was held at MIT and had discussion panels with some of the internets most influential faces and/or memes. I knew ROFLcon was being planned, but had no idea that it was happening so soon, and in fact had already started. When I woke up today I went straight to my laptop and looked for some updates on the goings on at the convention. It was the second day of the 2 day convention, and they had some cameras set up sending live feeds to the world wide web for all the world to enjoy. And as a user of the World Wide Web, I did enjoy it, and thoroughly at that.

ROFLcon Logo

I wish I had started watching these streams sooner, but the risk game went until 5am last night so waking up before 1pm simply wasn’t happening. When I tuned in, there was a panel in the middle of a discussion titled “Incubating the Mind Virus: Meme Infrastructures” . I quickly pieced together who I was watching. The founders of MetaFilter, Fark, Reddit and OCRemix were answering questions about their experiences as some of the hot-shots in the internet media aggregating business. The OCRemix guy definitely had interesting things to say, but seemed as though he was placed on the wrong panel and was merely keeping Kevin Rose’s seat warm. It was interesting to see the different perspectives of people like Drew Curtis (Fark) who selects which articles make it, and the Reddit guy whose content is all user decided. A summary of that discussion can be found here.

After they finished up, I switched over to another feed where some guys in Guy Fawkes masks were setting up and running a sound test. Anonymous was about to take the stage, and I wasn’t about to miss that. I talked to some friends on MSN as they finished setting up. They then played one of the anonymous scientology videos for a packed room, and began talking about Anonymous’s efforts to take scientology down. It turned out that that none of the Anon’s on stage were of note, and were merely the first five well articulated guys(and a gal) who raised their hands to talk about the issue in front of a crowd.

One audience member asked a question that I really liked about the difficulties of maintaining credibility for their cause when they call a hateful, homophobic, sexist and downright disgusting board such as 4chan their home. That led into an interesting discussion about different sets of behaviors used when talking to other members of anonymous and when dealing with public. They were also asked what anonymous intends to do when they have defeated scientology and gave a pretty entertaining answer which basically boiled down to returning to their basements and fapping furiously. Definitely another interesting discussion, although I found it ironic that they had 5 people answering questions on behalf of an unorganized mob with numbers in the thousands.

After that there was a little bit of a break before the final panel took the stage in the room where the “INCUBATING THE MINDVIRUS” discussion had taken place earlier. They were still setting up when I tuned in, but I saw a guy being almost surrounded by people who just wanted to meet him. Immediately I knew it was someone interesting. Then it clicked, I had never seen his face before but I knew exactly who I was looking at. It was Randall, of XKCD fame. I checked the schedule on the ROFLcon page, and discovered that I was about to witness their panel on “The internet cult leader.” It didn’t say who the cult leaders would be, so I was in for a surprise. A pleasant surprise if that guy truly was Randall.

They got everything together, and the cult leaders took their seats. Not faces you recognize, but bodies of work every internet geek knows all too well. They introduced them one by one. First was Ryan North, the writer for Dinosaur comics. Secondly they introduced the patron saint of Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays, Randall Munroe of XKCD. And thirdly they introduced the mad scientist who crafted the den of internets antagonists, Moot of 4chan. They discussed the power of their fan bases, the effects their creations had on the world and generally sat there being entertaining.

Cult Leader Panel

I saw some things during this panel which I never thought I would see. I saw the creator of 4chan stand up and do a barrel roll. I then saw an entire room full of audience members stand up and do a barrel roll just because Randall Munroe said so. I saw Moot tell Randall “Your house tonight… Ball pit..” as they pretended to snuggle into one another. I even saw Tron Guy dressed in his Tron suit ask a question from the audience about 4chan users defacing wikipedia articles. You cant make this stuff up. And best of all, I had a question answered by Moot, and discussed by Randall in more detail. That probably needs some more explaining.

Pics or it didn't happen

As an internet convention, they had the place slightly pimped out in technology. One such article of pimpage was an overhead projector which displayed the most popular questions which were being submitted at a webpage online. I submitted the question “Moot, which 4chan meme is your favorite?” It picked up popularity through users voting for it, and soon enough it was the top question. It was asked out loud, and I got my reply streamed to me live. Geekin' aint easy. Here is the summary from the ROFLcon page. It is abridged, but you get the idea.

Me: To Moot: What’s your favorite meme?
4chan: Not Rick Roll! I like the song, but it’s getting old.
XKCD: You need to strike a balance between how early you use the meme, and how many people in your target community are already bored of the joke.
4chan: I like Weegee. It is awesome. Like 5 people know what it is. That’s a good sign.

Did I mention that I love the internet? Because I do. I had my question answered in front of a live audience at MIT by the guy who created one of the most evil websites on the internet, and discussed by probably the best web comic artist out there. And I did it from my bedroom in Canada. The internet never ceases to impress me with its potential for awesomeness. The entire abridged summary of the discussion can be found here.

I have just come to the realization that I have been able to write a fairly lengthy blog talking about things that took place at a convention which I didn't even attend. The world truly is being made smaller and smaller by technology. Imagine the things I could have talked about if I was able to go to the convention myself? I wish I had the means of getting there, but there is always next time. There had better be a next time because I want to go party with the internet.