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so_long42 ([info]so_long42) wrote in [info]otf_wank,
@ 2009-03-25 01:58:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Wesleyan University Wank
So, there's this group on the campus of Wesleyan University (in CT) called Eclectic. They used to be a fraternity, but went co-ed, and subsequently were forcibly separated from their alumni association when they burned "fuck the alums" into the lawn of their house. They are famous for having sold all of their furniture for cocaine, and also for throwing awesome concerts and large sweaty all-campus dance parties (which themselves are famous for the MDMA present).

Naturally, a place like that is going to cause some problems. Namely, they have been shut down for the semester. The reason this is exciting is because Wesleyan is a very web 2.0 campus, with both an active student run blog (linked above) and a super-active Anonymous Confession Board, the latter of which has a lot to say. A TON. Opinions. Conspiracy theories.
Jokes.

There is of course a segment of campus that is outraged, and a
petition is circulated. Even people who claim to be unassociated have strong pro-Ecletic, anti-student government opinions.
However, people are skeptical that Eclectic is in the right. They remain unconvinced weeks later.

Eventually, outrage dies down and the zeitgeist shifts, so the Sound Co-Op, which provides cheap PA systems and setup for the whole campus (and is populated primarily by Eclectic members), decides that they be boycotting the ENTIRE CAMPUS until Eclectic is served justice (i.e. reopened without consequence). General sentiment is that this is ridiculous and calculated. Meanwhile, there is a lot of very deep-cut Wesleyan handwringing about our reputation as an "activist" status.

ETA: And the petition is now closed due to "spam," ie trolling (no, I'm not concerned that it was anyone here).


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[info]bigbigtruck
2009-03-25 05:00 pm UTC (link)
See, that's the first description I've read that makes sense.

(Disclosure: I work in design, so the phrase "web 2.0" ranks up there with "make it pop" and "just use comic sans" in the rage-inducement category)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]iamnotyourmuse
2009-03-25 05:19 pm UTC (link)
It ranks up there with "agency" for me when it comes to terminology used too often to mean things other than what I think it's supposed to mean. Overusing a term and applying it to everything under the sun just makes it lose all relevant meaning and it drives me nuts.

But used to differentiate user-driven web content from third party web content, it actually has a purpose.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]aliaras
2009-03-25 06:06 pm UTC (link)
Aaaagh, "agency" is so annoying. Best moment ever was when a class of mine was discussing Roman paintings of women from the Iliad, people were throwing around "agency", and my friend pwned them all with basically "that word does not mean what you think it means, stfu, we could be talking about rocks for all anyone cares." And then the class kept using the word. Inappropriately.

Ahem. Sorry for tangent.

(My own full disclosure: I'm at one of those little liberal arts colleges in which some percentage of the student body feels the need to be ~intellectual~)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]iamnotyourmuse
2009-03-25 06:36 pm UTC (link)
I went to a women's liberal arts college and was an English major. I think 2/3 of the senior theses written in my year had the word 'agency' in the subtitles.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]aliaras
2009-03-25 06:38 pm UTC (link)
Fun times.

I'm a studio art major currently working on her art history credits (stupid studio classes at wrong time) So...yeah. It comes up a lot.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]iamnotyourmuse
2009-03-25 06:52 pm UTC (link)
I can imagine. I was so glad my thesis only required me to come into contact with other people's theses two or three times and was otherwise just me and my adviser (who was awesome and never once used that word).

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]aliaras
2009-03-25 07:31 pm UTC (link)
That sounds great. I've considered switching to an Anth-Ling interdisciplinary (no Linguistic Anthropology major, sad), but that wouldn't get me away from the wank. I could study the internets, though!

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]iamnotyourmuse
2009-03-25 07:32 pm UTC (link)
Alas, there is wank all around. Think one could legitimately write a thesis on internet wank?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]aliaras
2009-03-25 07:42 pm UTC (link)
This is pretty much why I want to go into anth-ling! (is it dumb to pick a major for the thesis? I'm not that excited about a studio thesis at all.) While I'd end up writing on the linguistic side of things a bit more, I'm interested in how fandom culture has linguistic aspects as well, which enable the full range of snark and passive-aggressiveness and joy that leads to wank. I want to say there's a dialect, but I can't remember my intro class well enough to say that with confidence.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]iamnotyourmuse
2009-03-25 07:45 pm UTC (link)
I remember once trying to decide if netspeak constituted a dialect or a register and I honestly can't remember what I decided. It's been years since I took any linguistics.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]luthe, 2009-03-26 07:44 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]adevyish, 2009-03-26 09:17 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]iamnotyourmuse, 2009-03-26 01:08 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]blue_penguin, 2009-03-26 05:14 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]miss_padfoot, 2009-03-27 06:39 am UTC

[info]luthe
2009-03-26 07:42 am UTC (link)
One of the BMC anthro majors I know wrote her thesis on World of Warcraft. She got to use cat macros in it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]iamnotyourmuse, 2009-03-26 01:08 pm UTC
Spinning off into tangent land
[info]fruce
2009-03-26 08:27 am UTC (link)
Ooh, I've had one of those, too. Except it was a discussion of the portrayal of religion in literature- specifically, The Handmaid's Tale. The class was using "resistance" and "transgression" in ways that would probably make anyone with a basic understanding of social theories (or the power to contemplate what you're saying before you say it) shrivel up inside.

(Ditto the disclosure, except ~intellectual~ is frequently overlaid with ~activist~.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]keleri
2009-03-25 05:57 pm UTC (link)
DIE COMIC SANS DIE DIE DIE

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]adevyish
2009-03-25 06:10 pm UTC (link)
Have some stickers.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]doomsday
2009-03-26 07:24 am UTC (link)
NOT SO FAST, RANSOM!

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]vzg
2009-03-28 01:55 pm UTC (link)
That was awesome.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]hallidae
2009-03-25 06:50 pm UTC (link)
Comic Sans and Helvetica. RAWR.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]ecchaniz0r
2009-03-26 01:07 pm UTC (link)
Helvetica I can stand in small doses.

SMALL doses.

Comic sans, though, never fails to make my eye twitch.

(I used to chat regularly with someone who used it as her default AIM font and once baww'ed to me about how it was mean to make fun of it and people who used it... I was the wrong person to go to for sympathy, being a slight typography dork and etc.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]hallidae
2009-03-26 06:51 pm UTC (link)
My graphic design profs hated the both of them, and at the beginning of every single assignment, would warn that if anyone used Comic Sans or Helvetica for their projects, that would be an automatic ten points off the assignment grade. And they weren't bluffing.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]felinephoenix
2009-03-28 01:58 am UTC (link)
I actually like Helvetica.

(Well, more like the documentary about it made me appreciate it.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]vzg
2009-03-28 01:45 pm UTC (link)
But Helvetica is the PERFECT FONT for Lassiter and Juliet's police weaponry presentation!

And you know when Lassiter is really mad because he goes all upper case on you.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]slwatson
2009-03-29 01:07 am UTC (link)
Helvetica's still perfectly acceptable in some contexts. Just really depends on how it's used. For that matter, good ole TNR is too.

/whips off her printer/designer hat

But Comic Sans is the pits.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]athersgeo
2009-04-01 10:21 am UTC (link)
I have no problem with Helvetica (apart from the part where I don't think most people SEE it as Helvetica these days and actually see Arial or Verdana) but I was once paid (thus couldn't really turn it down) to write a site that used Comic Sans as the main font.

I felt deeply unclean for weeks afterward...

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]felinephoenix
2009-03-28 01:56 am UTC (link)
Hi, I also work in design and I feel your pain. I try to think of Web 2.0 in terms of what it does for users, though, not a certain look.

mostly because I've started to hate that "Web 2.0" look SO MUCH

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]vzg
2009-03-28 01:44 pm UTC (link)
...People actually want comic sans? Really? D: D: D:

(Reply to this)(Parent)


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