Editorials - The Geek Hierarchy

[Geminate]

I found this so-called "Geek Hierarchy" editorial sorely lacking. I mean how can I be a god and the devil at the same time? Yes I am The Geminate but never mind about that. There are literally thousands of categories and tens of thousands of levels and you would need a massive flow chart to encompass it all. I am going to sulk about this all day now...thanks a lot.

[theaccidentalmimo]

Tadao, you're at i-mockery. Besides nerdiness is fun. They have more fun than most normal people- especially when drunk.

Anyway, I'm saying Protoclown only met the scary otaku. Liking anime and not bathing should not be synonimous. Of course, I also fall under the gamer nerd. I go to ren. fests, but I'm not a groupie. (Although if I could get away with it, I would dress that way every day.) So what does that make me? Are dabblers in various forms of nerdiness nerds, or just posers?

[Protoclown]

Xydexx: If you were honestly offended by this, or think that I wrote it simply to "put other geeks down" (odd, considering I fall into about half of these categories), then you evidently take yourself WAY too seriously.

[Xydexx]

Originally Posted by Protoclown

Xydexx: If you were honestly offended by this, or think that I wrote it simply to "put other geeks down" (odd, considering I fall into about half of these categories), then you evidently take yourself WAY too seriously.

Man, what is it with folks who always think I'm "offended" by this and "take myself too seriously"? I mean, yeah, it's true I have no sense of humor (I traded it back in 2001 for some magic beans) but the truth is my attitude when I see stuff like this can be summed up with an exhausted sigh and an eyeroll.

It's like, yeah, okay, you can dump on furries/otaku/sci-fi/whatever folks. Maybe it was funny, y'know, last year. I mean, you know Lore Sjöberg did the whole Geek Hierarchy thing already in 2002, right? Six years ago. I know part of creativity is the art of hiding your sources, but c'mon, man...

Nah. To me, the most offensive thing about people making fun of furries isn't that they're making fun of furries---it's that they seem incapable of coming up with any other jokes. They fancy themselves comedy geniuses when they're just parrotting the same old stuff everyone's heard before. I dunno, maybe they're just new to the internets and it's their way of fitting in. I know being a newbie here means I have to spend time in the spanking machine (yay!), so I'm being a good sport and not taking it personally. Maybe I'll stick around, maybe I won't. I can assure you that has more to do with my priorities than being "offended." It's not like I don't have other things to do, y'know?

Look, I'm certainly not faulting you for trying and you get a gold star for effort. It just seems sites like these are a dime a dozen on the internet these days, and I wish someone would raise the bar already.

In the meantime, I enjoyed my 24-mile ride on my weirdo bike and saw some deer and stuff, thanks for asking.

[Pentegarn]

Originally Posted by Xydexx

Look, I'm certainly not faulting you for trying and you get a gold star for effort. It just seems sites like these are a dime a dozen on the internet these days, and I wish someone would raise the bar already.

Not to tell you how to handle your life, but if you think it is so bad here, why do you keep coming back and posting? If it is truely as unimpressive here as you seem to imply with that statement, why does it matter to you what was said at all? Why bother defending yourself and your lifestyle choices when what was said here is "dime a dozen"? Could it be that maybe deep down, it is in fact impressive to you and your reply is a bullshit attempt to lash out in revenge?

[Xydexx]

Originally Posted by Pentegarn

Not to tell you how to handle your life, but if you think it is so bad here, why do you keep coming back and posting?

Since you asked:
1. Procrastination.
2. Curiosity to see whether y'all can live up Chojin's challenge of preventing the forums from becoming another 4chan/YTMND clone.

I know the mockery thing is what passes for fun around here, but I guess the question I keep asking is: Do you know any other tricks?

If you don't, then how exactly is this place any better than the endless repetition of 4chan/YTMND y'all seem to want to avoid?

Here's an idea... let's turn your question upside down and let you answer it: If you think it's so great here, why should I stay?

It's not that I don't have better things to do (and in fact, I spent the past 48 hours doing More Important Things) so convince me. What makes you and yours so special? Why should I stick around?

Originally Posted by Pentegarn

If it is truely as unimpressive here as you seem to imply with that statement, why does it matter to you what was said at all?

In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter much to me at all. It's academic at best. You're not going to get me riled up by mocking me, because I already expect that's what this site is about. As I said, sites like these are a dime a dozen on the internets, and Chojin (supposedly) wants this place to be more than that, am I right? Or do you think Chojin is just "taking the internet too seriously"?

I'm just curious to see if any of y'all are willing to raise the bar.

OTOH, if you're really are this down on furries, why does it matter to you whether or not I think this site is just another 4chan/YTMND clone?

It honestly doesn't matter to me one way or another. Chances are I'm going to get busy with other things Real Soon Now and I'll get gone. The question here is whether you're willing to benefit from the feedback I'm offering while I'm here.

Originally Posted by Pentegarn

Could it be that maybe deep down, it is in fact impressive to you and your reply is a bullshit attempt to lash out in revenge?

Heh. By that logic, your continued attempts to bait me means deep down inside you're just jealous of furries and want to snuggle in a fursuit or something but can't afford to buy one, right? Maybe you want to keep me around because you wish you had a silly squeaky pony for an online avatar. Maybe you want to virtually fondle my horn or something, but are too embarrassed of what your other i-mockery friends will think. Maybe you're secretly wishing I'd lure you over to the dark side and take you away from this frankenstein-like 4chan/YTMND horror of a forum.

Go on, admit it, you think you'd look cute in a chipmunk outfit. Even Tadao admits she wants to be an aye-aye or wombat or jellyfish or something. Maybe you're just afraid to admit to your own secret desires.

[Undead Overlord]

I'm joining an RPG group near Cleveland soon, if anyone would like to join us just let me know.


And one more thing...no furries allowed. Ever. They creep me out

[Dungeonbrownies]

Bane of Zombies
Mar 9th, 2008, 10:45 AM
I'm joining an RPG group near Cleveland soon, if anyone would like to join us just let me know.


And one more thing...no furries allowed. Ever. They creep me out

i once knew a chick who turned out to be a secret furry, but not the kind that aactively goes out for the animals, the kind who wants to be one and wants you to want her for it. needless to say, she was pretty hot ass a catchick and i was ashamed.

[Xydexx]

Some folks say there's nothing lower than the furry geek. I beg to differ. Indeed, the lowest form of geek is the one who feels the need to put down other geeks in order to make themselves feel better.

It's an old story, but I'll tell it again: I once had the fortunate opportunity to have dinner with Trace Beaulieu (Crow T. Robot/Dr. Clayton Forrester of MST3K fame), who was Guest of Honor at a furry convention some years ago. And we asked him what he thought of furries and the idiotic inter-geek snarkery that frequently gets directed at them. Not surprisingly, he said he was disappointed that it goes on. I'm guessing maybe he got enough flak for being a sci-fi fan growing up in Minnesota that he knows what it feels like, so was sad to see sci-fi geeks doing it to others.

Beaulieu's comments were echoed more recently by Mark Evanier, who noted furry fandom "has endured a fair amount of mocking in the past, often from folks who oughta know better, given how their own interests have prompted ridicule from others."

Now, it's not that furries can't take a joke or anything. It's just that the folks who continually put down furries as a way of building themselves up don't seem to realize they aren't all that funny after we've heard it the first hundred times.

In summary, being a geek is cool. Being a geek putting down other geeks is really just lame. Or, as Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing says: "Yay for eccentric humans doing their own thing no matter what fun-crushers may say!"

[executioneer]

man it's not even a type of being a geek, it's more of a sexual orientation

like being an anime fan = pedophilia

[Chojin]

i personally have the heads of three yiffers mounted above my fireplace.

[Xydexx]

Originally Posted by Chojin

i personally have the heads of three yiffers mounted above my fireplace.

Did you catch them out in the woods digging holes and eating berries?

[Undead Overlord]

I think geeks make fun of other geeks to see what it is like to be the people who make fun of geeks. so if a D&D geek(like me) is bullied at work, he'll bully a furry to make himself into the person whom bullied him. It's confusing, and I didn't write that furry comment...by obnoxious cousin did. Please forgive him, he's an asshole.

[Fluke]

Not being funny but geeks as a whole endure a whole lot of mocking and general abuse from everyone. I'm not trying to be some peace and love hippie but we do need geeks at each others necks. You get Star wars fans slagging off the trekkies, the D&D fans stabbing at the LARPers and even the Nerdcore rappers do nothing but hate one another.

But the rest of the world will call us geeks no matter what faction we are in or how 'cool' we are on the list. :/

I mean, this article is humour and the people commenting should treat it as such. I take no offense from any of it. (I'm a Furry, music, D&D and video gamer, go me.)

Just my two pennies.

[Undead Overlord]

I agree with Fluke, we nerds need to unite and stop mocking each other. It saddens me to see so many people being blind to the big picture

[executioneer]

Originally Posted by Undead Overlord

I agree with Fluke, we nerds need to unite and stop mocking each other. It saddens me to see so many people being blind to the big picture

bullhonkey

[Xydexx]

Originally Posted by Undead Overlord

I agree with Fluke, we nerds need to unite and stop mocking each other. It saddens me to see so many people being blind to the big picture

Agreed.


A little story:

Back when I was in high school (these were the days when 300 baud modems were all the rage... I suspect I've been online since before many of you were even born) *waves cane* we used to have these things called BBSs. This was in the days before this newfangled internet thing became popular.

Now, being the sort of huge geeks who ran or called BBSs in the first place, one could say we weren't exactly the most popular kids in high school. And a lot of these local BBSs had war boards dedicated to flaming other users for no good reason at all. So after school we'd log on and trade insults with other geeks as a way of making ourselves feel better. (This is kinda why I think the whole trading insults with other geeks online thing is so twenty years ago... I've been there, seen that, yawn and sigh.)

I don't remember what prompted it, but eventually some of us geeks got the idea that there must be more to this online stuff that just flaming each other all the time. So we started to meet each other offline (those of us who lived reasonably close, anyway). And we had fun. A lot more fun than sitting behind our computers flaming each other, certainly.

So that led to more of us getting together offline. And more of us having fun. Geeks who lived further away joined our merry band, and our group continued to grow. Eventually, there were parties. Soon we had a band of about 40-something geeks spanning two counties showing up (40 may not seem like much, but remember, this was before the AOLization of the online world... modems were still very much a geek toy). After making plans online, we descended on local arcades or movie theaters or had picnics in the park and whatever else we could think of. Hiking. Exploring abandoned places. Seeing how many highway cones we could acquire in one evening (and then wondering where we'd like to redirect traffic with them afterward). Our New Year's Eve party lasted three days.

We were geeks, yeah, but we were social. (Demented and sad, but social.)

And what happened to the geeks who still wanted to hang around in front of their computers trading insults? I don't know. They missed out on most of this, I'm afraid, and we were too busy off having fun to notice their absence.



Like all good things, this had to come to an end eventually. In 1988, many of us headed off to college and our merry band was for the most part scattered to the four winds. Some of us still keep in touch here and there.

I guess the point of this story is that it doesn't really matter if you're a gamer geek or an anime geek or a furry geek. We're all geeks, and geeks today have a choice: They can either sit around behind their computer screens flaming other geeks to make themselves feel better, or they can get out and meet their fellow geeks and find out what they, and the real world, has to offer.

Lord Rancer preparing to throw a watermelon off Kensico Dam, circa 1987.

[Tadao]

[Robodie III]

What about Goths and Emos? Or is that for another article?

[Pub Lover]

double bullhonkey

[Xydexx]

Originally Posted by Pub Lover

double bullhonkey

That's an anagram for Unholy Lubed Bloke. Is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?

[mburbank]

Wow, Proto, did you tap a vein or what with this one, huh? I loved the article, but who knew it was such an issue for people?

Incidentally, if the thing you one does is so specific that it's highly unlikely anybody else does it, is one, like a Geek singularity? 'Cause I got this friend, see, whose into some very specific shit.

[Xydexx]

Originally Posted by mburbank

Incidentally, if the thing you one does is so specific that it's highly unlikely anybody else does it, is one, like a Geek singularity? 'Cause I got this friend, see, whose into some very specific shit.

Y'know, I remember the days when I thought I was into some very specific things and there was no way anyone else in the world had the same interests as I did. I was too strange, too bizarre. Nobody could possibly understand. It was just too weird.

Then I stumbled onto the internet and found whole groups of people who were into the same things I was.

So yay for the internet.

[mburbank]

no, like, I'm talking you gotta have this antique walnut press, right? to make Walnut oil, and it's got to be authentic or it won't work. And then there's the whole thing with having someone paint a portrait of you while you do it. And that guy has to take a blood oath never to tell.

[Tadao]

I don't want to hang around 40 geeks. I am one of the beautiful people.