blinder's Journal: Slashdot Celebrity

Since there has been a lot of chatter about celebrity floating around lately, I thought I'd take another look at this, in particular the concept of the Slashdot Celebrity. What an interesting thing this is, and I have no opinions one-way or the other. I also am not tuned into the "insiders" of Slashdot. I am, a total outsider, just another nameless faceless cog in the Slashdot Machine(tm).

I won't go into naming names, as I don't have to. Everyone already knows who the celebrities are (see how that works?). I just think its interesting to see how people are elevated to a certain status (I look at journals, number of replies to posts and 3rd party mentions as an indicator of status) within this strange community, which is centered around this completely ridiculous site (I say "ridiculous" because it is really, if you think about it. A bunch of geeks, normal people and everywhere in between gathering in anonymity forming alliances and enemies based on a tiny fractions of information -- but alas, here I am).

The Slashdot celebrity is a mixture of strong opinions, charm and whit and throw in a near obsessive desire to submit post after post, with, what appears to me, little regard in how they are regarded. The dichotomy is fascinating. We (those that are not celebrities) feel as if we know these people, that so much are revealed through their posts, and yet we know almost nothing. We only "know" what we are told, which is NOT TO SAY that I believe anyone here to be a liar! Its just we are given just a tiny fractional glimpse into who these people are, and we, the masses, form our opinions based on this information.

It's amazing to me to think that a site like this, or more correctly, a community like this, there would be celebrities, in that this place is like the anti-celebrity. But, I suppose I shouldn't be too amazed in that humans are, for the most part, the same no matter what we believe. Its human nature to elevate others while degrading others, we are not the same.

So, here we are, mingling with celebrities in our midst hoping we are acknowledged in an attempt to raise our own status. There are those of us who are just content with being nameless and faceless, who enjoy the company and go on to other things during the course of a day. There are those who have a lot to say and say it well and therefore are elevated to celebrity status. There are those who love to work the system to their advantage thus raising their own status.

Where do I fit in? Probably with the first group, sometimes I want to be part of the second, but I'm not fooling anyone.

Well put!

[bethanie]

I've thought something along the same lines, myself. Except that rather than "celebrity," I've been thinking of it as "popularity" -- you know, of the high school sort. Because that's about the level of significance all this stuff has. In any case, Slashdot popularity seems a *lot* easier to earn than any other kind. In my opinion, that lowers its value -- something along the lines of "nothing worth having is ever free". Or something like that. :-)

....Bethanie....

Re:Well put!

[blinder]

yeah, you are absolutely right, it is very high-school-poplarity-contest like. Its like, the geek/nerd squad, who were so low on the social latter in high school have now found a way to counter that, to make up for it. You like to think that the geek culture would have gotten past this but alas, a geek is still human, frail, insecure and completely unable to totally let go of the past.

Hey, I was there, and if there's one thing I have learned, there's a great deal of satisfaction in obscurity, of not being

Re:Well put!

[blinder]

$my_last_post =~ s/latter/ladder/g;