
I Was Internet-Famous - kawera
http://nymag.com/following/2015/12/10-viral-sensations-on-life-after-internet-fame.html
======
roadbeats
I remember my father talking about Internet Mahir when I was kid. We were so
curious how a random guy from our hometown became so famous, and got the key
of the internet. Internet Mahir contributed to my life that way. My father
began buying magazines about computers, those magazines would give lots of CDs
that we hold and ask "what do they do with this?". Then my father went to
Istanbul for funeral of my uncle, and came back with a desk, designed for
computers. We didn't have a computer but there was the desk. A few years
later, we bought a computer, and internet connection to our home. First
website we visited was "ikissyou.com" and then I was trying to make one for me
and my brother. Thanks to Internet Mahir, I have a job now.

------
danso
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hCdtUxnOG8)

\- Aleksey Vayner, who posted a video resume titled, "Impossible is Nothing",
and then later committed suicide: [http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/aleksey-
vayner-death-video](http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/aleksey-vayner-death-
video)

\- Guy Goma, who was at the BBC to interview for an IT job, but was mistaken
for another guy (with the name "Guy") who was scheduled to give a tech pundit
interview, and so had to improvise answers relating to an Apple pundit
dispute. He ended up not getting the IT job but got a bit famous anyway:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5evS-
ApSNQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5evS-ApSNQ)

\- This was one of the first times when YouTube, as a platform, really blew me
away: this mystery guitarist who rocked out to Pachelbel's Canon:
[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5725826](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5725826)

\- One more music-famous-meme: the drummer is at the wrong gig...always brings
a huge laugh to me, and got this guy some nice gigs, including an appearance
on The Office:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E)

~~~
comrh
It's also kind of dark to learn the stories behind / life after these. It
really ruins a lot people's lives.

------
a1k0n
Tay Zonday's response is hilarious. "It is hard to create Derrida’s fracture
in the repetition of power structures when the loins of civil society log
every person’s digital utterance."

~~~
munificent
Hilarious? I thought it was fantastically thoughtful, insightful and witty.

~~~
a1k0n
It is all of those things. The language is just a bit overwrought.

~~~
munificent
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
other styles can't, and it's just a fun obstacle course for the reader's
language center.

~~~
wodenokoto
That comment is in no way 6th grade level writing.

I think calling clear and understandable writing for "anti-intellectual" is
the stupidest thing I have heard in a long time.

I agree with your sentiment that writings rich in vocabulary can be a "fun
obstacle course" but if you have an actual message you want to convey, it is
usually not a good idea to hide it behind an obstacle course.

~~~
sangnoir
> I think calling clear and understandable writing for "anti-intellectual" is
> the stupidest thing I have heard in a long time.

"Clear and understandable" to who? Communication in general, and writing in
particular, usually has a target audience. If your audience can grok[1] it, go
for it!

As an extreme example, you cannot write a "clear and understandable" PhD
thesis in Linguistics while avoiding five-dollar words (to borrow the term).

I think XKCD's "up-goer five" is a suitable counter argument against words
that are too simple to clearly communicate complex ideas succinctly. Jargon
has its place in language.

1\. Meta-excercise: attempt to use the word 'grok' in casual conversation with
a non-techie.

~~~
wodenokoto
> I think XKCD's "up-goer five" is a suitable counter argument against words
> that are too simple to clearly communicate complex ideas succinctly. Jargon
> has its place in language.

Are you saying up-goer five is a good example of simple word usage or a bad
example?

Anyway, parent poster is talking about how we should add rare and hard-to-
understand words to make reading a more mentally challenging exercise as
opposed to using words that describes the subject matter clearly and
concisely, using the simplest words and phrasings that can adequately convey
your message.

Your "extreme example" is abused by thousands and thousands of academics as an
excuse for poor, hard to read and hard to understand academic writing. You can
in fact write clear and concisely in a phd thesis. But since the author
assumes the reader has a large background knowledge in the field, it will
still not be accessible to the average reader.

~~~
sangnoir
> Are you saying up-goer five is a good example of simple word usage or a bad
> example?

A bad example (because of the resulting verbosity and inexactness). It's an
example of how simple words are inadequate to explain complex ideas
_succinctly_

> You can in fact write clear and concisely in a phd thesis

You ignored the rest of my sentence. I did not say [you cannot write a "clear
and understandable" PhD thesis]. I said [you cannot write a "clear and
understandable" PhD thesis in Linguistics _while avoiding five-dollar words_ ]

> But since the author assumes the reader has a large background knowledge in
> the field, it will still not be accessible to the average reader

Who exactly is the "average reader" of academic writing?

It sounds to me like you are making a blanket statement: "jargon is bad". I am
saying jargon provides useful ways of expression.

~~~
ectoplasm
There's a nice table with $5 and $.5 words here:

[https://www.prismnet.com/~hcexres/style/pompous_words.html](https://www.prismnet.com/~hcexres/style/pompous_words.html)

First time encountering the expression for me. It's not about jargon, as far
as I can tell.

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

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

~~~
michaelcampbell
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.

~~~
nevster
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/](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.

~~~
nevster
Huh - published by Seth Godin

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-The-Internet-White-
Pages-1994/...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-The-Internet-White-
Pages-1994/dp/1568843003)

------
mynameishere
I wonder what happened to the "don't tase me" guy who apparently intersected
with the "leave Britney alone" guy.

[http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2007/10/06/](http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2007/10/06/)

~~~
mirimir
[http://www.theandrewmeyer.com/](http://www.theandrewmeyer.com/)

Thanks to Andrew, I discovered Greg Palast's _Armed Madhouse_ :)

------
kelukelugames
I fumble for words when talking to family and friends. Can't imagine the
mistakes I'd make on national TV.

------
dmd
I was Usenet-infamous in 1993 (I ended up in the NET.LEGENDS file at age 14).
It led to my first great job and my second (current) marriage.

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
Oh hey I remember seeing you in AFC...

------
tasdev
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.

~~~
coldtea
> _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.

~~~
tasdev
Completely agree on both parts. The people targeting her were socially inept
from what she could work out but really creepy all the same. She had a
computer in her room and parents with little understanding of technology.

------
riebschlager
Does anyone else wonder if the concept of "internet famousness" has a finite
shelf life? At least at the level that these people experienced?

The internet engine seems to be cranking through memes faster and faster.
Sure, a video might get several million views, but the very next week, those
millions of people are already on to the next thing.

It just seems to me like our collective memory is getting shorter and shorter
and the fallout from internet famousness might start shrinking, if it hasn't
already.

~~~
cba9
I don't see any evidence that the cycle has gotten faster. There were plenty
of mayfly wonders on YouTube years and years ago, and the Internet had its
memes well before. It doesn't look much different to me over the past decade,
(Have aggregators like Fark, YTMD, SomethingAwful, 4chan, really sped up? The
list is so long:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_phenomena](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_phenomena)
If we looked at knowyourmeme.com's lists and the Google search histories, I
don't think we would see much of a speedup. Memes would still be born and die
on similar timescales.)

------
clamprecht
I wanted to see the Numa Numa Romanian guy's story.

~~~
lotharbot
I wanted to see Star Wars Kid too.

~~~
elinchrome
That one is heartbreaking [http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/10-years-later-
the-star-w...](http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/10-years-later-the-star-
wars-kid-speaks-out/)

~~~
mirimir
Yes. But he seems to be doing well now, turning the shame into good works.
That's admirable. Kinda like old Luke :)

------
edpichler
Interesting that most of these videos didn't get viral here in Brazil.

------
6stringmerc
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!

------
sarciszewski
I really hope I never become internet famous, for better or worse. :\

~~~
mwhuang2
It just seems like trouble. I like to keep a low profile and minimize the
drama in my life.

------
mirimir
I also wonder about all the rickroll stuff. The stuff that most of us don't
mention in public. Mostly it was anonymous. Some probably featured actors. But
there were some seriously messed up people.

------
Animats
Never heard of any of those people.

~~~
gnrme
It's probably a good thing to have made it this far without hearing about
these people.

