Obsidian Potency 3.0
Fark Party
posted Saturday, 31 March 2007
Two Fridays ago, I went to a Fark party. As you may notice in my links, Fark is an institution that I've been reading for years, and it's a fantastic way to get a lot of news from tons of sources.
But what people who know about Fark often don't realize is that there is a massive online community behind the scenes. They post messages about each article, further lampooning the ridiculous schlock that passes for news in this country, and sponsoring each other for "Totalfark" memberships. Just like any website, the postings range from the sublime to the ridiculous to the downright offensive - but believe it or not, I've actually learned things by reading Fark comments linked to an article. Sometimes you learn too much; for instance, you never want to read threads related to Harry Potter articles, because some fuckers love to spoil things like that.
Anyway, Becks and I went to this Fark party at RFD in Chinatown, mainly because Drew Curtis (founder of Fark) would be there. There are "Fark parties" held all over the world in various locations, which are always posted about on the page. It was a lot more fun that I expected. Were there a lot of nerds? Sure. But I'm not exactly the coolest dude ever. There were also normal people, some cute women (I know, shocking), and everyone was super-friendly. I met a couplee of Georgetown Farkers, and we watched Georgetown take down Vanderbilt in the Sweet 16 in a fantastic game (which would soon be eclipsed by their come-from-behind win against UNC in the Elite 8).
I got to talk to Drew himself for several minutes; we discussed Tsotsi (a South African movie I've been meaning to see), the coming World Cup in South Africa, and a bunch of other things. He was so down-to-earth and humble that I was shocked, and he seemed genuinely honored that so many people had come to his party. He said it gave him a great feeling to know that people gathered like this and made connections because of his site.
When someone asked him what the most important ingredient to Fark's success was, he basically said "I left it alone, let it grow and didn't screw it up by trying to mold it to an image." I took a picture with him, which will probably bee posted once I figure out how to post pics in this (yet another) new version of Blog-City.
But what people who know about Fark often don't realize is that there is a massive online community behind the scenes. They post messages about each article, further lampooning the ridiculous schlock that passes for news in this country, and sponsoring each other for "Totalfark" memberships. Just like any website, the postings range from the sublime to the ridiculous to the downright offensive - but believe it or not, I've actually learned things by reading Fark comments linked to an article. Sometimes you learn too much; for instance, you never want to read threads related to Harry Potter articles, because some fuckers love to spoil things like that.
Anyway, Becks and I went to this Fark party at RFD in Chinatown, mainly because Drew Curtis (founder of Fark) would be there. There are "Fark parties" held all over the world in various locations, which are always posted about on the page. It was a lot more fun that I expected. Were there a lot of nerds? Sure. But I'm not exactly the coolest dude ever. There were also normal people, some cute women (I know, shocking), and everyone was super-friendly. I met a couplee of Georgetown Farkers, and we watched Georgetown take down Vanderbilt in the Sweet 16 in a fantastic game (which would soon be eclipsed by their come-from-behind win against UNC in the Elite 8).
I got to talk to Drew himself for several minutes; we discussed Tsotsi (a South African movie I've been meaning to see), the coming World Cup in South Africa, and a bunch of other things. He was so down-to-earth and humble that I was shocked, and he seemed genuinely honored that so many people had come to his party. He said it gave him a great feeling to know that people gathered like this and made connections because of his site.
When someone asked him what the most important ingredient to Fark's success was, he basically said "I left it alone, let it grow and didn't screw it up by trying to mold it to an image." I took a picture with him, which will probably bee posted once I figure out how to post pics in this (yet another) new version of Blog-City.
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