Not going to VidCon?

[Breepop]

Jory Caron recently made a video + poll asking why, for those that won't be attending, aren't going to VidCon.

I thought this was a rather interesting question, and something I wouldn't mind discussing here on The Moon.

Sooo, why aren't you going?

For me it's a combination of several things:

1. I live over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) away from Los Angeles
2. I don't have anyone to go with (that my parents would approve of me going with, anyway)
3. Money isn't too much of an issue, but it would definitely be more favorable if it was free
1+2+3&4. I feel like it would be insanely difficult to explain to my parents that I need a couple hundred bucks to fly to the other side of the country to meet a bunch of people I know on the Internet (the majority of whom don't actually know me)... by myself.


Annnnd, the thing I thought might be most interesting to discuss:

5. I don't really want to meet YouTubers... I've never wanted to. Then again, I've never really wanted to meet any "famous" people. I'm not even sure I understand why people go so crazy over seeing famous people on the streets or get excited over meet-and-greets. Is it just so you can brag to everyone that you met the person...? Meh, anyway. I've seen footage of YouTube gatherings in the past. Footage from popular YouTubers (the people everyone came to see), and footage from not-so-popular YouTubers (the people who went to do the seeing). While it does seem like both parties have a lot of fun, I'm not sure it's a situation I'd personally find fun. It basically seems like an environment where a bunch of crazed fans stand around trying to get at one or two people. There are very few people put up on this pedestal, while the rest are looking up at them. Ew.

However, with a small environment change, I'd love to meet some of the people I watch on YouTube! A one-on-one (or just a small group of people) thing, where the goal is more to become friends and get to know one another (rather than just OMG SHAKE AS MANY HANDS AS YOU CAN), that'd be fantastic. Orrr, I'd even be okay with it if I already had a group of people I knew at the event, and I could hang out with them (e.g. if a fair amount of people from The Moon were going to VidCon, and we all planned to hang out)... and then we could go say hello to a popular YouTuber or two in the meantime. Or, even, if a popular YouTuber actually knew who I was, I'd be interested in meeting them (e.g. I'd be fine with meeting Dan in a gathering environment; It'd be the same as meeting any other online friend).

But yeah. YouTube gatherings sound horribly boring if there is no one there that is familiar with you. You can of course make friends there, but when you have a couple hundred other people also trying to be friends with the person you're trying to make friends with... uhh... no. Thanks, but no thanks.

Am I alone in this? XD


P.S. I'm not talking about VidCon above as much as I am YouTube gatherings in general. VidCon has a lot of presentation things that sound really, really cool. I'd love to go to those. But then there are a bunch of time slots set aside for "Meet Ups," focused on one or two people... barf.

P.S.S. I would have put this in polls, but I'm more interested in the debate aspect I introduced above than I am in the results of the poll... so yeah.

[Speckley]

It's the money.
Yes, I live in California, and I could technically drive there in about 8/9 hours... but I would have to pay for all the travel expenses (gas, food, hotel/motel room...). That's not something I can easily do with the job I have now.

I would love to go, though. Not really to meet the famous YouTubers, but to meet some of the people whom I've met online. I'm much more interested in meeting those people than I am Internet celebrities. (Besides that, I get super nervous when I'm meeting someone I admire for the first time.)

[chelseeyuh]

I used to want to go to YouTube gatherings, but that's kinda changed as I've moved from a passive viewer to being sorta kinda involved in the community. I would definitely rather meet people that I've met on the internet instead of just random YouTubers that I watch.
I'm mostly not going to VidCon because I don't think it's worth is for the cost. If it weren't so expensive, I would love to go. I like YouTube, and I would like to hear YouTubers talk about YouTube and whatever else they have to talk about. But I can watch online at home, so.. yeah.. And it could be cool to meet/say you met YouTubers, but I'm so socially awkward that I wouldn't even have a real conversation with any of them anyway >.<
And I kinda wish I were going because some people from spotm are going, and it would be cool to meet them. I think that's my biggest disappointment with not going.

[Joey]

1. Too young. I wouldt be allowed by my parents to fly to califonia by myself, and since Dan didn't offer to take me, I was stuck.
2. Too far. Not that money is an issue, it's just my parents wouldn't like me going to a distant place at age 14.

I am completely dead serious about what I'm going to say next. I want to plan a 2011 summer gathering in Lincoln. Okay yes it's super nice for me but think about it.
1. We have a load of parks to have it in, and there is one in particular that I am thinking of. It would be 100 percent free.
2. It's smack dab in the middle of the country. Yes it might be more expensive to fly into, but it would make up for it being free.
3. We have plenty of hotels, and it's small enough that it dosent take along time to get to the event.
4. It could be half conference and half gathering. You can choose what you want to do and what you do not.
5. There is alot to see, and amazing places to eat.
6. The people are awesome.

[krzych32]

1. I don't care
2. its the other coast, maybe I would go if it was a part of this whole "youtube community" but I am not.
3. Bree is not going to be there

[leviroseman]

im 13.nuff said

[newschooled]

I wanna go sooooo bad! 'Xept it means I gotta fly a few thousand miles...Which I can't afford anyways.Well, that, and now you need a passport to go from Canada to the States...Which would take 4 months to get anyways. Ugh. SOMEDAY!!!

[Rob]

No job = no money. Literally the only thing holding me back.

I just like meeting people who share my interests. Whether their famous in some form or not never mattered to me. I'm with Erin and Chelsea about meeting the internet people rather than the big folks would be cooler. And I'm with Bree on being baffled by folks who go insane over celebrities.

Damn, this makes me want some kind of SPOTM-ly gathering ASAP. Haha. Damn my financial situation.

[Philosoraptor]

two reasons:

• I live on the opposite side of the country, so driving there would take days. I'd have to fly, which is an issue because
  

  1. I have very little money, and
  2. because I'm still legally a minor and the vast majority of hotels do not take kindly to minors renting rooms, I might not actually have anywhere to sleep once I got there.

  
  
• My parents are fairly unaware of the majority of the internet, and to explain VidCon I'd need to first explain the idea of YouTube and video blogging and socially collaborative online content in general, and I don't entirely know how receptive they would be to the idea.
  

I'm hoping VidCon is successful enough to warrant VidCon 2011 and so on. I'd be more likely to be able to attend one in a year or two.


Also, relevant to the discussion:

I don't view YouTube celebrities as anything like Pop Culture celebrities. Especially not the kind of YouTube celebrities coming to VidCon.
Most if not all of the presenters at VidCon operate collaborative, social, interactive video projects and are very involved and in-tune with their subscribers and commenters. They present themselves as real people, and interact with their followers on a person-to-person level.

For example, I've been following the vlogbrothers since the Brotherhood 2.0 project in 2007. I've been a very active participant in the Nerdfighter community for years now. I met John in person last October, and it was a very nice experience. He absolutely doesn't present himself as a celebrity figure, he's just a regular guy who, through his presence online, I've come to know as a person.

VidCon will be filled with presenters who I've known for years (some one-sidedly, some who I have established friendships with) through the internet, and I would love to meet them in person.

Note that this doesn't apply to all youtube stars, but the content producers appearing at vidcon are absolutely worth meeting for me.

If it were a bunch of noncollaborative, big-budget users like collegehumor or something, that'd be a lot less worth the time and money.

[penguinpalsrkewl]

Why am I not going to vidcon? Well, I wanted to go to vidcon and meet all these amazing people. No, I'm not talking about the famous ones where I have little chance of actually meeting them while feeling personally welcomed by them and befriending them (like Bree said) (although that would be nice). But I'd meet... fellow pogotribers, people I've met at nerdfighter gatherings... and make new friends and all that.

And you know.. I live in San Diego.. and you know... that's only about an hour and a half drive up to LA. And well.. I've been asking and beggin my parents to hurry up and buy the tickets for the longest time. Until one night they surprised me with the news that I have to go to a wedding that weekend. So.. I'm going to a wedding in two days. But my mom wanted me to spend more time in HK with family and friends so we kinda left on my last day of school, and I barely got to say bye to my lovely senior friends -__- On top of that, I don't even know the people getting married. You know, crazy distantly related asian families. She's like... my mom's aunts cousins daughter or something.

I've also been missing out on a lot of other stuff back in Cali. Like, every year, switchfoot comes back to their hometown and does a free benefit concert at the beach, and this year OKgo was gonna be there. And I was freakin... here in HK listening to adults talk for 3 hours at the restaurant.

I mean I like shopping and all and buying lotsa really cute stuff here. But man. I'm missing out on so much back in SD/Cali.


Srsly though. I was looking forward to seeing Ze Frank.

[bombmaniac]

why is this not in the polls or general discussion thread?

[click3tyclick]

Jul 7, 2010 19:41:03 GMT -5 Breepop said:

P.S.S. I would have put this in polls, but I'm more interested in the debate aspect I introduced above than I am in the results of the poll... so yeah.

[Shaken Earth]

I would go, but it's too far away, I don't have enough money, and I'm too young (13).

[Breepop]

I guess you guys have more online friends than I do attending gatherings. XD I only know like 3 or 4 (and that's including Dan and Danielle, sooo...) people going to VidCon. I'll say I know maybe 5 or 6 people that have attended gatherings in the past? And that's just knowing... I only have any real desire to meet one of the people.

Yeah. I guess I would see gatherings in a different light if a lot more friends were attending them. But right now, YouTube gatherings seem like a way to meet famous YouTubers, not have a jolly ol' time with Internet friends.

*shrug*

[Joey]

Jul 8, 2010 11:02:04 GMT -5 Breepop said:

I guess you guys have more online friends than I do attending gatherings. XD I only know like 3 or 4 (and that's including Dan and Danielle, sooo...) people going to VidCon. I'll say I know maybe 5 or 6 people that have attended gatherings in the past? And that's just knowing... I only have any real desire to meet one of the people.

Yeah. I guess I would see gatherings in a different light if a lot more friends were attending them. But right now, YouTube gatherings seem like a way to meet famous YouTubers, not have a jolly ol' time with Internet friends.

*shrug*

Pogotribe gathering-summer 2011. June 12th-13 Lincoln Nebraska. Free of charge. how does that sound Bree? You would meet all these people that you know from online.

[Breepop]

Jul 8, 2010 11:26:48 GMT -5 Joey said:

Pogotribe gathering-summer 2011. June 12th-13 Lincoln Nebraska. Free of charge. how does that sound Bree? You would meet all these people that you know from online.

Sounds like a long shot. Who knows what I'll be doing in a year, or if I'll still be around and part of the Tribe...

And Lincoln isn't a good place for a gathering, sorry to burst your bubble. Yes, it's in the center of the country... unfortunately, NO ONE LIVES IN THE CENTER OF THE COUNTRY. XD Plus, it'd be cool to do non-gathering things. I don't want to be stuck in some boring city in the middle of Nebraska on a vacation... I'd rather be in New York or LA.

Also, not to be a downer, but I don't really consider many people on The Moon friends... comes with being the hardass, active admin, I guess.

[Philosoraptor]

We need to get with the nerdfighters and plan some sort of multi-denominational meetup on the east coast somewhere. We'll just get everybody. The pogo tribe, the nerdfighters, the beard-lovers, the arandanauts, the nerimon...sters.

[Joey]

Jul 8, 2010 11:57:54 GMT -5 Breepop said:

Jul 8, 2010 11:26:48 GMT -5 Joey said:

Pogotribe gathering-summer 2011. June 12th-13 Lincoln Nebraska. Free of charge. how does that sound Bree? You would meet all these people that you know from online.

Sounds like a long shot. Who knows what I'll be doing in a year, or if I'll still be around and part of the Tribe...

And Lincoln isn't a good place for a gathering, sorry to burst your bubble. Yes, it's in the center of the country... unfortunately, NO ONE LIVES IN THE CENTER OF THE COUNTRY. XD Plus, it'd be cool to do non-gathering things. I don't want to be stuck in some boring city in the middle of Nebraska on a vacation... I'd rather be in New York or LA.

Also, not to be a downer, but I don't really consider many people on The Moon friends... comes with being the hardass, active admin, I guess.

There are lots to do here. Don't go bashing my city. Come here, and then tell me there is nothing to do. There is enough to not get bored, and small enough to have time to get to it all.

[Linus]

Uh... well, I live in Sweden, so there's like for example the Atlantic in the way, for starters xP
And... I didn't have the time or the money this summer. Sad, generic, but true =)

I would've wanted to attend, though.

[Breepop]

Jul 8, 2010 12:43:25 GMT -5 Joey said:

There are lots to do here. Don't go bashing my city. Come here, and then tell me there is nothing to do. There is enough to not get bored, and small enough to have time to get to it all.

I'm sure there are lots of things to do there.

...Doesn't change the fact that I'd rather vacation in New York, LA, Chicago, etcetc. There are lots of things to do everywhere, and I'd rather do lots of things in not-Nebraska. XD

I'm just sayin'! No need to get defensive.