All's quiet on the web

With the exception of the Youtube music awards that took place this weekend, the internet is rather quiet when it comes to updates and new happening on the communities that I am a part of. Phillip DeFranco is still reporting the news, the Vlogbrothers are still being awesome and fighting world suck, and Natalie Tran still hasn't made lamingtons for her community, although she is updating her channel regularly, which is surprising. So moving away from the internet, we go to other exciting Nerd News. Ender's Game came out this weekend, and despite only receiving a 60 percent rating on rottentomatoes.com (a website that grades movies from user's votes and from professional critics votes) I actually found the movie extremely enjoyable. However, I read the book when I was a child and as many reviews have stated, it is hard for people to follow if they haven't read the book, which I can see as being true. Thor: The Dark World comes out in a few days here, and I am excited to see that. It look amazing compared to it's first movie, which in my opinion, fell very flat. Also in a relatively new franchise, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is coming out within the month, but I'll talk more about that when it actually comes out.

Rwby, and projects like it!

As an update to last week, Phillip DeFranco's new channel is sucessfully taking off, and has, as promised, really brought the community into Youtube. However, this week, I am going to shift my focus from YouTube and take a look at another community driven website known as RoosterTeeth. This website, like many of the things that I follow, got it's start on YouTube, with one of their earliest creations, the comedy-sketch-esque compilation of Red Vs. Blue. Which is based around characters they created from the then-popular game Halo in 2003. RoosterTeeth has grown since then, getting their own merchandise, much like forhumanpeoples.com, and creating more content thanks to the involvement of their fans. Their newest project is one that I have come to love, and is successfully taking off. The Show Rwby. Rwby is the story of Ruby Rose, a girl who wants to become a Huntress in a world filled with the evil creatures of Grimm. It is a spin off of the old Grimm Brothers' stories and so far has gained a small cult following including myself, and a few of my friends. Plus thousands of regulars on the RoosterTeeth website. Rwby is animated, written, and voiced by members of RoosterTeeth, and is on it's 14th episode of the first season.

DeFranco's Nation

This past week Phillip DeFranco launched another section of Youtube called ForHumanPeople. This new site is going to be an interactive collaboration between the Youtube community and the people at DeFranco Inc. Who run the For Human People website. I have already discussed these kind of Youtubers before, so I won't go into too much detail, but so far, like his earlier release of SourceFed Nerd, the website is taking off quite well even though there is only once episode so far. In other news, Hank Green, one half of the Vlogbrothers is continuing his Streamy and Emmy winning blog series Lizzy Bennet Diaries with another one of Jane Austin's books. This round will be the book Emma. The web series, which is titled Emma Approved, will tell the story of Emma through a new media that is relatable to today's teenagers. So it is a big week for the internet. Oh, and in a moment of celebrity gossip, Phililp DeFranco is going to be a father! So, on top of his recent proposal and someone from the Nation giving his father a kidney because of Phillip DeFranco Sr.'s PKD, he is having another big week full of good surprises.

Online Campaigns

This week’s blog will be dedicated to sites like indigogo.com and kickstarter.com. These sites have become more popular in the recent years. Only a few years ago, it was an uncommon and frowned upon notion to try and take money from any of the viewers of Youtube, or readers of your blogs. Now however, with the help of these sites countless people have started to take full advantage of this opportunity. From Smosh and Tobuscus using the money to make a video game to PewDiePie using the money to help water.org, these two websites are gaining their own niche within the internet world. One of the more famous pushes for these websites was the recent campaign to have a Veronica Mars movie, which was successful and is underway in the filming. There is something to be said from the fans having a new control over what happens in their fandoms by donating money, and it is an interesting social experiment to see exactly what they will pay for. Although I like the idea of the Veronica Mars movie, even though I was not an original fan of the television series, it does have me wondering how people can just throw their money at campaigns to fund these people who already make a lot of money. It makes me wonder what is going to happen to the independent artists, like NotLiterally on Youtube who use the money because they could not get the support any other way, whereas some of the bigger stars of Hollywood are using these sites almost to bribe fans into paying for something they’ve been asking for. 

A week without internet

            This last week marks the first week in a long time that I was unable to join the online communities that I am a part of. My computer was sent into a shop for repairs and I was unable to access the internet for more than a few minutes at a time. It was a long week, but it really showed me both how much I am dependent on the internet—something that I might want to look into changing—and that the communities I am a part of move on without me but don’t necessarily leave me behind. Because of their nature, I was easily able to catch up with what was happening online and even join into some of the conversations that were happening still, because of the very nature of the community. The conversation is ongoing. They don’t just end after the video is posted, they continue on, for days, weeks, and sometimes even years as people form new opinions or get into the communities for the first time. There are still people who are talking about Vlogbrother videos from 2007 when they first happened. The communities I am a part of are long lasting, even if the topics seem to be  geared toward an instant-gratification generation, the fact that people are taking part to go back and revisit old conversations and start new debates and discussions show that the online world is not only making our world smaller, but also pulling us together and keeping us connected with the past, present, and future of what we have come to expect. 

Today I would like to talk a little bit more about what I will discuss in this blog. Most of what I will talk about will consist of what is happening in the online communities on Youtube, and the daily occurrences in my life. I first joined the communities nearly five years ago. I started with a youtuber named CommunityChannel, or Natalie Tran. She is from Australia and updates weekly (sometimes) comedy sketches. This led me to one of the main vloggers I watch Phillip DeFranco. He started off the same way that CommunityChannel did with video sketches, but now he runs a news channel on youtube that can be found here. He also started a clothing company called forhumanpeoples.com. Phillip DeFranco decided to use his life to making a news channel that is sleek and short. He delivers the same amount of news as the Television in half the time, and covers more of the world news. In the last year, he started a new section of Youtube called SourceFed, which like the Philip DeFranco show, covers news and other happenings of the world. My point behind all of this, is that the online community over the past few years has really exploded and this blog will be dedicated to both an overview and an explanation of how Youtube has changed the world in the past few years, and how it will continue to change the world in years to come as it changes the world and how we communicate through the use of the internet. 

A day in the life of a Nerdfighting college student.

As this is my first post for this class, I would like to cover a few of the basic facts that will one day come in handy as I trek through this online writing quest. My name is Carrie Palmer, I am an English major with a Professional Writing minor, and I still don't know what I am going to do with my life, but more on that later. Moving on, I should probably tell you what a nerdfighter is, considering that to most, it may sound like a funny term to hear or see written down in a blog. Nerdfighters are, to put it blatantly by one of the co-founders of the community, John Green “not composed of cells and tissue, but instead made entirely of awesome”. In other words, we are just people who like a variety of things that others might find and classify as “nerdy” like Doctor Who, Classic Literature, and punctuation. Oh. We also go out of our way to decrease World Suck. It occurs to me now, that I may have a bit too vocabulary to explain. Luckily for me, John Green, and his brother Hank Green have made a wonderful video that goes over everything I may not have time to cover to fully explain. A link can be found here. I have classified myself as a nerdfighter since around 2008 and have watched the community grow. I have always enjoyed being a part of it and plan to continue to make it more a part of my life, using not only this blog, but joining some of the charities and groups sponsored by the nerdfighters and funded by their cause, which I will discuss in later blogs.