Nerdfighter Secrets . com

[Jennifer Williams]

I found the website Nerdfighter secrets through Kristina talking about the picture calling her an asshole, and I looked through a couple pages and instantly disliked it, feeling like it was just people complaining who didn't really understand Nerdfighteria. But then I kept going back to look at pictures people have referenced, and it's now half five int he morning and I can't stop reading them. I feel like loads of the secrets are what I feel too, and what Nerdfighters must feel without really thinking about how they do.

Even though I am what most people think nerdfighters should be, I feel like a bad nerdfigther sometimes. I love Star Trek and Star Wars and always have, I have been watching Dr Who since the reboot a few years ago and love 9, 10 nd 11 equaly for different reaons. I own an origional life size Darlek made by the same people who made them for the TV show. I have always been smart and rejected by people because of that in school, been outcast and unable to accept who I was before Nerdfighteria. I drove five hours on no sleep to meet John Green and tell him how Nerdfighteria changed my life.

But I feel like I don't belong because I only found it last year. That I want to know the 'famous' Nerdfighters personally so much, because I just feel like I would get a long so well with them, but they're like the popular people in school that they're put in a pedestal and suddenly unreachable. I hate how they're all so pretty when even though I no longer hate my body, I know I'm not a pretty person. I hate how I hated Harry Potter until last year, and how I never wanted the Hogwarts acceptance letter when I was eleven because I want it so much now I'm, 16.

And I feel bad about it, but I know I'm still a Nerdfighter, that Nerdfighteria made me truly happy for the first time since I was eight years old, that Nerdfighters are the most accepting and wonderful people, that John and Hank changed my life by starting this community. And all the Nerdfighters out there who don't feel like real Nerdfighters becase you don't like the Ning, or you drink, or are popular, or not smart or don't like dr who or John's books or are too shy to talk to anyone online. You're not alone, and that's what Nerdfighter Secrets does, it gives Nerdfighters a place to vent anonymously, and I understand that now, and love it for what it is.

And if you're one of those Nerdfighters without Nerdfighter friends, who's too shy to talk to anyone or feel like you're not a true Nerdfighter, you are. I'd love to be friends with you, no matter who or where you are, no matter how smart you are or what you look like, because even though I have a few IRL Nerdfighter friends, I honestly believe that I will never have enough, because each Nerdfighter is their own brand of awesome, and I'd you can never have too much awesome in your life.

I can't help but feel like people are failing to imagine Nerdfighteria completely though, like Q with Margo. We put our community on this pedestal, and when people are judgmental here, or ignorant or stupid we realize we aren't perfect as a community and it hurts, but we have to work past that. We have to remember why we all became Nerdfighters in the first place. We did it because we are made of Awesome, and want to decrease World Suck.

And if any of you are like me, too nervous to put yourself out there online, to talk to any Nerdfighters but want Nerdfighter friends, you can talk to me. I can honestly say there is nothing I would want more than to hear from just one shy Nerdfighter because of this, to make friends with them, and maybe just make them feel more accepted in our wonderful community.

Signed,
Jennt x

PS: A link to the website I'm talkign about in case you aren't familiar - http://nerdfightersecrets.com/

[Charlotte]

Thank you for reading my post, Kenny! I honestly didn't expect anyone but Jennt to read it! Haha

 

I can see how my post could have come across as trying to suggest that Harry Potter and Dr Who is distracting us from our "true" purpose, but all I meant by the comment was that you shouldn't feel any less of nerdfighter because you aren't a fan of those kind of things and whilst they are a big part of Nerdfighteria, it should not form the basis of what our community is about.

 

Your second point, I agree with. "Courage" was the wrong word to use there. But it is debatable. I wasn't trying to say that they were courageous for saying something rude and insulting anonymously, I was just explaining how anonymity can give people a sense of courage because they know they won't get backlash from it. Of course, this is not actual courage, it's internet courage; fake courage. I've said courage way too much now.

 

I also read your post, but didn't really feel the need to comment as I agreed with it. Particularly when you said: "to think that Nerdfighters cannot produce the occasional fail post would be imagine us too simply". That was a good way of putting it.

[Kenny (TOK)]

I would disagree with two things Charlotte, and both are just semantics.  When you say that, "being a nerdfighter should be purely about wanting to fight WorldSuck and being made of awesome, rather than being a fan of Dr Who or Harry Potter and all the other nerdy things," it sounds, to me, like being a Dr Who or Harry Potter fan is distracting us from our "true" purpose.  On further thought I decided that you probably meant that we should accept that Dr Who and Harry Potter are among the things that make us out of awesome, and we shouldn't make them end goals of Nerdfighteria.

 

Secondly, you say that, "anonymity is also what gives people courage to say awful things about people like Kristina."  I disagree that "courage" is the correct word.  If they were to say those things without anonymity, that I might consider courage, still horribly rude, but at least courageous.  To say such things behind the protection of anonymity speaks only of cowardance to me.  If they wish to vent in private to their friends, or their journal, about people they disdain, that is their business, but to do so in a public forum where the remarks could, and in this case did, make their way to their targets attention seems like an attack from an opponent that you have no chance to engage.  Sound military strategy perhaps, but not courage.  Again, I would imagine our disagreements here to be mostly semantics.

 

Sorry if this seems to unnecessarily pick apart your comment.  I am sad that most of what I am saying is disagreement, but you have such a long comment, I read the whole thing, and those two comments are most of what I disagreed with at all, so I hope that is something positive!

[Charlotte]

Just read this now (way too late but whatever) and felt the need to comment because it is so beautiful.

 

I strongly believe that being a nerdfighter should be purely about wanting to fight WorldSuck and being made of awesome, rather than being a fan of Dr Who or Harry Potter and all the other nerdy things. In reality, it's hard to have such a large community and not form some kind of guidelines as to who can join and we seem to have formed these guidelines based on being smart and enjoying nerdy things. But, really, it shouldn't matter about all that. Nerdfighteria is open to anyone who wishes to join and the n00bs are no less of nerdfighters than Hank and John themselves.

 

I think nerdfighter secrets is exactly what it says on the tin. They're secrets, that nerdfighters feel the desire to express through some sort of medium other than the ning and youtube etc, where they can get backlash from it. Nerdfighter secrets is so outspoken and honest because it is anonymous and I think that is brilliant. But anonymity is also what gives people courage to say awful things about people like Kristina, which is basically just trolling and I cannot respect that. However, it also keeps us humble and reminds us that nerdfighters are not perfect; they are human, and should not feel the need to only express positive opinions just because negative opinions are counter-productive. A negative opinion is equally important to a positivie one.

 

Also, what you said about the famous youtubers being put on a pedestal. No-one can deny that they are almost unreachable unless you are a prominent nerdfighter but it can't be helped - I mean, with thousands and thousands of subscribers it is virtually impossible to connect with all of them. You and I are both guilty of "fangirling" over them, let's be honest. But what I realised properly for the first time the other day, when I was watching John Green on blogTV, is that he is no more of a nerdfighter than us. Sure, he helped to set the whole thing off, but it would have never happened without this entire community, and each one of us is responsible for "creating" nerdfighteria. He is not a celebrity. He is not famous. And he's not the father of nerdfighteria. He's just part of it.

 

That concludes my lengthy reply to your lengthy post. It's half 1 in the morning so I hope it makes sense.

 

Love you, Charlit.

 

p.s COME ONLINE

 

 

[ThisisTasha S]

I find, that even though nerdfighter secrets can be quite depressing at times, it also gives people the chance to vent, reach out, and see that they are not alone.
Sure, there are more positive ways of doing so, like Nerdfighter Connections, but, if you think about it, there are many teenagers around here, like me, who feel the need to vent from time to time, so, as long as they don't get absorbed in the dispair, let them vent, I think.

[Jennifer Williams]

For some reason it isn't letting me reply to you guys, or maybe I'm just a ning noob who doesn't know how to work this place, but anyways.

@Kenny (TOK) : I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees things like this, I was worried I'd written a load of rubbish because it was late, but apparently I managed to make a bit of sense. I also agree with what you say about them being unable to support each of us, and I feel like it's quite sad that it has become that we feel like we can't connect with the lower level Nerdfighters as well as the famous ones. And I agree with you about NS posting ^_^.

@AVeryIronicGoose : I agree, though I feel that most of the comments on there are just people who want to get something out, and that there a few nasty comments, just the occasional ones where people call the big Nerdfighters names, which annoy me. I do agree on your views about new Nerdfighters though, and how unfortunate that would be.

@Spannyka : And it's a sad but true fact that in a community as big as ours there will be some people who need to be reassured they belong because they don't quite fit the norm, though I agree it makes be sort of sad that it happens.

[Kenny (TOK)]

You have been watching for longer than I have, so I suppose I'll just have to put you up on your own pedestal. I wrote a blog a while back about the asymmetry in the Nerdfighter economy of personal energy. Or, to put it coherrently, there are 300,000 Nerdfighters and 30 "famous" Nerdfighters, so even if they want to affirm and support each of us individually, and I'll bet they would like to, they cannot devote the emotion to us that we each devote to them. My suggested seems to be the same as yours, affirm each other within the NF community (but don't stop enjoying VB videos of course).

So yes, I have felt almost exactly as you do, with regards to famous Nerdfighter lovin' (I am just too nerdy and too arrogant to question my qualifications ;) ). I think this is a great post!

I also agree with what you say about NF Secrets, some of them really seem full of fail, but a lot capture the joy or angst of being a Nerdfighter, and to think that Nerdfighters cannot produce the occasional fail post would be imagine us too simply. Though I do think NF Secrets should post with more discernment.

[A Very Ironic Goose]

I'm not a fan of nerdfighter secrets, because it seems kind of like an outlet for the most negative 1% of our community to bash it from the inside. Imagine if a new nerdfighter stumbled onto that website before the ning. They'd be gone right away.
And although if you want to be a nerdfighter, you are one, there are still some things that should come with wanted to be a nerdfighter. The way i see it, the defining characteristic of a nerdfighter is that they don't explicitally make the world suck more. That's the only thing that i see in commun between everyone i consider to be a nerdfighter.

[Spannyka]

It's sad that it has come to this when John and Hank have said if you want to be a nerdfighter you are one. No perquisites.