Thanks for your input.

Andy,

Some situations at SWSW were merely an example of that behavior (and no, that’s not how I experienced the event as a whole, it was a great happening), but what I was going for with this post was people’s behavior on the web as well as how some people fail to interact properly at real life events. You know you’re not one of these and I actually told you that in person in Austin.

I agree that events like SXSW foster a lot of badge name checking. One interpretation is that people are only interested in talking to well known bloggers, and I agree that there were a few people like that. Another (and in my opinion a more accurate) interpretation is that, at a conference full of strangers, it’s easier to talk to somebody who you have a vague connection with, rather than a complete stranger. I tried to be gracious and talk to everybody who talked to me. However it was often easier to talk to somebody who’s name or blog I recongized, as I could say, “Oh, you’re the person that did…” or “you work with…”. It’s has nothing to do with peoples level of fame and everything to do with providing a conversational way in. I’m sorry to hear that was your impression of the event, but it definitely wasn’t my impression.

But more importantly though, I think it’s not always black and white, and we should not forget this point:

* The fact that I’m a famous web designer/developer does not mean that I have an outgoing personality. I shouldn’t be crucified for that, it’s similar to regular folk wanting sports stars to be role models. So when I do become that next famous web designer/chef/rock star/soccer star, and you see me on the streets, and say hello, and I say hello back to you, but I keep walking instead of shooting breeze, don’t think I’m snubbing you. It’s just that I’ve spent so much time in front of my computer that I don’t know how to interact with people anymore, infact I’m afraid of people ;-p

Thank you! I’m happy to hear that we agree!

Then again, I think the web world is no different than the film or rock world. People generally just like to follow the leaders, don’t they?
Anyway, what I wanted to say is: excellent article and I agree all the way

I’m very happy to hear that we’re on the same page about this!

One of the things I love about the industry right now is that the people who are doing the coolest and most innovative work aren’t the ones who get 10,000 pageviews…

Most definitely!

I don’t know about you guys, but I like talking to the people nobody knows at SXSW because they’re the up-and-comers

Yeah, I realized the exact same thing, so in the end I was indeed hanging with the most interesting people.

I don’t know about you guys, but I like talking to the people nobody knows at SXSW because they’re the up-and-comers

Oh, absolutely, it would be naive to believe that it wouldn’t exist at all. My hope/wish is just that people would make the effort of thinking things through before some of their actions.

And yes, the problem lies more with the fan culture than most of the well-known people.

I think, on the one hand, Faruk made some good points earlier, which I won’t repeat, but the fact remains that any community is going to have this sort of problem. Not that we shouldn’t be annoyed about it or try to fight against it, but it seems silly if anyone should try to deny this mentality exists.

I didn’t attend SXSW but I have attended events with well known bloggers, and i’ve seen the action of some other people become pretty embarrassing. In my experience it hasn’t been the famous bloggers with a bad attitude, instead it’s been people who seemed quite normal suddenly being sycophants. It’s pathetic, but there you go. Sorry, I appear to have rambled…

I definitely think you have a valid point.

Stuart,

I know from before that you don’t like all the fanboy movement.

Well, the things at SXSW were just an example, I’m more going for online behavior in this post. There’s a vast difference between how people behave in real life as opposed to writing blog posts, comments etc.

The “well known” people I did meet were totally down to earth and it just felt like a bunch of web developers hanging out rather than feeling like I was lucky to be hob-nobbing with rockstars.

Only once at SXSWi did a couple of people give me the impression that my point of view wasn’t worth listening to, so I just let it ride and didn’t get all worked up about it.

I think something people forget is that we are all just human, whether you are Madonna or a popular web developer and the whole point about something like SXSW is all about meeting up and learning from each other regardless of ’status’ within the community.

Another thing I noticed at SXSW is that people were getting jaded as time went on, so any percieved lack of friendliness could be attributed to too much beer and not enough sleep and water!

Some seem so fake and plastic only interesting in marketing themselves. I’d probably be happier (on a personal level) talking to anyone who has replied to this topic – who isn’t considered famous as one of the megastars.

Yeah, absolutely.

P.J.,

It probably won’t change, but I sincerely wish people would think one step further in their behavior.

Info Guy,

Personally, I haven’t had a bad experience with him; on the contrary, and when we met at SXSW he seemed like a great guy. But then again, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you haven’t, so, if possible, try to work it out.

Jakob,

That’s the best way to get to know people! And absolutely, the web is great and there are lot of people sharing things for free just to help out, so I applaud that.

This post is just about the things/persons that stray from that path.

I think web is on the right track, in that we’re all just posting about stuff that’s cool and stuff we’ve learned. It’s awesome when others benefit from it too.

@Sean: I would agree about the wannabe elitests. This happens a lot on Gaia (community site) where you have the people that are effectively legendary on the site, but then you have the people that want to achieve that “legendary status”. Those wannabe people go out of their way to be elitest in a hope to set themselves apart from the community. They never really achieve that status they seek, but they never leave either. As long as they have a “fan-circle” as we call it, they will get community support no matter what they do. We have yet to find a good way to handle this other than to let things run their course. Eventually the fan-circle thins, and the community moves on.