Frequently Asked Questions

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
(If you have questions to ask, leave them in comments below. Will probably delete comments when answering the questions though. Keeping things organized and stuff. )

Q: Who are John and Hank?
A: John is the Printz Award-winning author of Looking for Alaska, An abundance of Katherines and the NYT Best Seller Paper Towns. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, with his lovely wife Sarah, his son Henry and his dog Willy. His brother Hank is the brain behind Ecogeek, the web's largest environmental technology blog. Hank lives with his wife, cat and XBox 360 in Missoula, Montana.

Q: What is Brotherhood 2.0?
A: After noticing that their relationship had for years consisted primarily of emails and instant messages, John and Hank swore off all textual communication with each other for 2007. Instead, they made public video blogs back and forth every weekday for the entire year. (They got holidays off.)

Q: What’s a Nerdfighter?
A: Hmm. Watch the videos from February 1st, February 17th, and July 25th. (If you don’t want to watch those videos, then you are probably not a Nerdfighter.)

Q. In your introductory animation, it says “365 Days of Communcation.” Can you not spell or something?
A. We can spell just fine, thanks. The I was left out to remind our viewers: THERE IS NO I IN BROTHERHOOD!

Q. That’s stupid.
A. Okay, we couldn’t make the animation work with the correct spelling. It kept breaking.

Q. The intro says that you were going to have “365 Days” of textless communcation, but you didn't post on weekends? What gives?
A. We get a lot of questions about semantics. It’s almost like all our fans are librarians and editors or something. Anyway, you do not need to post a video blog in order to have textless communication.

Q. Why does John call his wife the Yeti?
A. Watch the video from January 2nd.

Q. What’s the song from the B2.0 intro?
A. It’s Death Cab for Cutie’s “Brothers on a Hotel Bed.”

Q. What is all this crap about In Your Pants?
A. It’s complicated. But it all started with our friend Maureen Johnson. (See January 23rd video)

Q. What equipment do you use?
A. Hank and John used identical Canon Elura 100 camcorders, which their parents bought them on Christmas Eve 2006. They now both use Canon HV30s, the best pro-am Mini-DV camcorder in existence. Hank also owns a Canon WD-H43 Wide Angle lens. The brothers edited their videos in iMovie, but have since switched to Final Cut Express.

Q. What do your parents think about this?
A. “The parents are bemused but supportive.”

Q. What is the "Evil Baby Orphanage" I keep hearing about?
A. This idea came out of the moral dilemma of whether it is ok to kill baby Hitler, who has technically done nothing wrong. Instead, Nerdfighters propose that we time-travel back to take them as babies to a remote location where they are brought up in a nurturing environment and can therefore do no harm.

Q. What does "jokes" or "so jokes" mean?
A. It started in the July 25 video. It basically is replacing cool with jokes which is totally so jokes.

Q. What does DFTBA mean?
A. DFTBA stands for Don't Forget To Be Awesome something we should never forget but nerdfighters have found some other very interesting things is stand for too which Hank expressed in an awesome video.

Q. How do I get in touch with the webmasters or "ningmasters"
A. You can email us at: Ningmasters@gmail.com

Q. A lot of people have been asking "WHO THE EFF IS HANK?!"
A. To be honest we just don't know. We have set up a committee to find out and we'll get back to you on that.

Q. Is one still able to become a Secret Sibling?
A. Yes! All you have to do to become one is post a video response to one of Hank or John's videos (preferably several).

Q. What is a Decepticon?
A. One of the many inside jokes that emerged from Brotherhood 2.0, but generally they are the mortal enemies of Nerdfighters (popular people). The term first came about in Hank's video on July 3rd, 2007.

Q. Why won't John sing anymore?
A. John has written and preformed three songs during 2007, but due to his lack of musical talent gave the Nerdfighters a gift on December 31st, 2007 (the gift of course being that he wouldn't sing anymore).

Q. What does "bedododo" mean and where did it come from?
A. Bedododo was created by Alex Day, a known Nerdfighter, video blogger and musician. Alex first introduced the term in a video he created called, "the Cheer of the Nerdfighters" and although the video has since been deleted the term remains to this day. It is most commonly used as a greeting and/or a way to express happiness.

Q. What's the name of Hank's cat?

A. Cameo

Q. How can hank can eat meat if he is an environmentalist?

A. Although its not exact, this video does a pretty good job of summarizing Hank's view on eating meat.

Q. Isn't Hank green that guy from the little shorts in cyberchase?

A. No. To the best of my knowledge the only television network Hank's ever been on is the Weather Channel.

Q. Where did the nerd fighters hand sign come from?

A.The Short Answer (provided by Nerdfighter Vivian Hernandez): The nerdfighters hand sign is Spock's signature "Live long and prosper" from Star Trek. It's just done on both hands except one, with palms facing inwards.

The Long Answer (provided by Chrissy PokémonMaster Davies): The hand sign is a take-off of the Vulcan Salute, which was used by the Vulcans as a gesture of good will, good manners and awesomeness, meaning "Live Long and Prosper." Lenonard Nimoy (if you want to know more about Spok, google Leonard Nimoy or watch some Original Series Star Trek episodes) played Spock on the original series of Star Trek, and developed the hand gesture based on a Blessing given by Jewish Kohanim. It represents the Hebrew letter Shin, which looks a lot like the hand gesture, and means Almighty God.

Strangely enough, the Nerdfighters gesture is more like the Shin than Nimoy's depiction.