About

DILFs of Disneyland is an Instagram account which features pictures of attractive men with their children at various Disney-franchised theme parks.

Origin

The Instagram account DILFs of Disneyland^[1] uploaded its first photo on August 19th, 2014. “DILF” is an acronym which originated as the male equivalent of “MILF” (mom I’d like to f**k), a crude yet widely used descriptor for attractive-looking mothers. Within a month, the account had gained over 100,000 followers and uploaded over 50 pictures. Its most liked photo has gained over 8,000 likes.

Spread

On September 16th, the LAist^[2] published a post titled “‘DILFs Of Disneyland’ Is Our Favorite New Instagram Account.” The Instagram account was covered by several websites the following day including Buzzfeed^[3], Refinery29^[4] and EliteDaily.^[5] The account was covered on September 18th, by many sites including Thought Catalog^[7] and Complex.^[8]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“Don’t Do the Thing, I’m Going to Do the Thing” is a popular template for Tumblr posts which summarizes a popular TV show or movie by asserting that the plot is driven primarily by one character doing something he is advised against. This formula can also be worded “(main character name) no,” “(main character name) yes.”

Origin

On May 21st, 2013, Tumblr user sorion^[2] published a text post including the “Don’t Do the Thing, I’m Going to Do the Thing” formula, applying it to the Star Trek franchise. As of September 2014, the post has gained over 40,000 notes.

Spread

On May 26th, Tumblr user hesitant-satan^[2] published a similar Star Trek post using screenshots. As of September 2014, the post has gained over 200 notes.

On August 9th, Tumblr user jordan-the-optimist^[3] published a cartoon depicting Star Trek’s use of the formula. As of September 2014, the post has gained over 100 notes. On January 25th, 2014, reddit user slightlyfunnyposts^[4] posted the image to the r/funny subreddit, as of September 2014, the post has gained over 1,000 points.

On December 28th, 2013, Tumblr user ntlibrary^[5] published a post titled “Harry Potter: A Summary” which reads:

“Everyone: Harry No.
Harry: Harry Yes.”

As of September 2014, the post has gained over 240,000 notes.

On July 15th, 2014, Tumblr user leeeeeeeeeegooooooooolaaaaaaaaas^[6] published a post featuring GIFs from The Hobbit captioned:

“everyone: thORIN NO!

thorin: THORINYES!

As of September 2014, the post has gained over 6,000 notes. On August 11th, Tumblr user captain-foulenough^[7] published a post on Captain American which reads:

“Bucky: Steve NO

Steve: Steve YES

Bucky: sighfurious cursing Bucky also yes"

As of September 2014, the post has gained over 15,000 notes.

On September 19th, Tumblr user suckaflute^[8] published a post using the formula covering multiple fandoms. Within 24 hours the post gained over 100 notes.

Search Interest

External References

Will finish it eventually. Nobody’s paying me so…

About

He Does It For Free is a phrase used to make fun of moderators of a site, who take their job too seriously, despite having no monetary gain from it. Is it often associated with images featuring John Morris from a cartoon show Arthur.

Origin

The earliest known example of the phrase used in this context can be dated back to September 28th, 2013, on 4chan’s /sp/ board^[1].

Spread

Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Sam Spratt is an illustrator known for creating art for Gawker and its other websites, as well as creating a “realistic meme series.” His art often becomes popular and is widely shared on Tumblr.

Online History

Spratt was hired by Gawker media in 2010, shortly after he was granted a BFA in illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design.^[6]

YouTube Channel

Spratt created his self titled YouTube channel^[7] on February 7th, 2011. As of September 2014, the channel has gained over 3,000 subscribers. As of September 2014 the channel’s two most popular videos are “Smoker,” uploaded on February 8th, 2014, which has gained over 38,000 views and ‘Realistic X all the Y Meme’ which was uploaded on February 20th, and has gained over 33, 000 views. Both videos featured screen captured, time lapse videos of Spratt’s digitally illustrating.

Realistic Memes

On July 18th, 2011, Spratt posted a series of realistic looking reaction faces titled “The Art of Internet Memes.” As of September 2014, the post has gained over 3,000 notes.

On August 31st, 2012, The Laughing Squid^[8] published a collection of Spratt’s realistic Angry Bird illustrations.

Media Coverage

On April 20th, 2012, The Daily Dot^[1] published an interview with Spratt, in which he explains his interacts as an artist with the Tumblr community, saying:

“I think Facebook, Twitter, and especially Reddit -- are amazing places to pick up nuggets of news, inspiration, ideas, and so on. But Tumblr, because it is so image-centric, will always be the best for just casually absorbing content--Not even picking out individual things you like, just scrolling and pausing and scrolling and pausing, letting the Web trickle into your brain.”

On September 9th, 2013, Pitchfork^[9] featured a article on Spratt’s artistic process for the cover art he produced for singer Janelle Monae’s album Electric Lady.

Social Media Presence

As of September 2014, Spratt’s Facebook page^[2] has gained over 39,000 followers and his Twitter account^[3] has gained over 13,000 followers. His Instagram account^[4] has gained over 14,000 followers.

Search Interest

External References

Gif Movies, or “Mini Movies”, are movies that are condensed into Gif form . These movies are usually no longer then a few minutes, since the are played in a way were you only see alternating amount of frames. E.g. Every 5th frame or every 10th frame, and so on.

The first Gif movie was actually the whole movie in its entirety, but is extremely small (probably due to size constraints). The movie was Terminator 2 and it was posted on Riddit by the user sardonically

Riddit also has a spot just for gif movies where you and go and watch over 150 movies from around the web, all in one spot. You can also place requests for movies.

Note: This entry is work in process after when the scrapbooker dones

About

Edward Davis “Ed” Wood, Jr. is the film director that he made a cult following films that it was been become a lowest budget that the critics was been considered the worst like Glen or Glenda^[1] and Plan 9 from Outer Space^[2]. After when Ed Wood Died in 1978 in 1980 it was been rewarded to the Golden Turkey Award^[3] for the Worst Director of All Time.

History

W.I.P.

Glen or Glenda

Glen or Glenda^[5] (known as I Changed My Sex!) is an 1953 film that was been directed and play as Glen or Glenda with the help of George Weiss in Screen Classics. After when the film is released it was been gave a negative reviews and it was been considered the worst films ever.

Bride of the Monster

W.I.P.

Plan 9 from Outer Space

Plan 9 from Outer Space^[6] (known as Grave Robbers from Outer Space) is the 1959 film that was become the Bela Lugosi final film after when he died but it was become as one of the worst film of all time that it was become as a cult following.

Ed Wood

W.I.P.

Spread

W.I.P.

Notable Examples

W.I.P.

Search Interest

It is pointless to spam “+1 work” as it’s just spam and does nothing so Help us by applying for editorship

About

8chan is an anonymous image board that gives users permission to create and moderate their own board. The site contains over 1300 imageboards in its own and still expanding. In order for an imageboard to continue being hosted, it needs to get at least one post per 72 hours and the admin logs in once per week.

History

W.I.P, please help

8chan’s Owner : Fredrick Brennan

Fredrick Brennan is a web developer and designer associated with the company Razor Clicks. He is well-known with the anonymous online community with the nickname “HotWheels” due to a disability he has.

Search Interest

References

About

FFXV Car Driving, or sometimes Driving Men, is a photoshop meme in which a cut out of the main character Noctis and party driving a car as seen in the latest trailer of FINALFANTASY XV from Tokyo Game Show 2014.

Origin

On September 19th, 2014, an Anonymous user started a thread on 4chan’s /v/ board by posting a exploitable picture of the group driving and looking at the side, letting them know to have fun with it. Over 400 posts and over 100 images were posted on that day.

Spread

Due to a brand new photoshop meme, it will take time to grow more popularity. However /v/ continues to make new exploitable threads of it until the other reaches a maximum limit. Its spread slowly grows to Reddit and starts a discussing about it.

External References

^[1]Reddit – Final Fantasy XV Sidequest

About

“Mighty Lips” is a Photoshop meme, which originated from oddly styled lips originating from an old Sonic the Hedgehog comic book. These “Mighty Lips” would replace the mouths of the original images the meme would photoshop, leading to comical results. It has since circulated across mostly the Sonic fandom in Tumblr. While usually used on Sonic related images, on occasion the meme was used on other non-Sonic related images.

Origin

In 1993, Archie Comics released a comic book series starring the video game icon Sonic the Hedgehog. “Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog” currently holds the record as longest running comic book series based on a video game.^[1] However, around the early and middle era of the comic’s run, it had different artists on board the series, some of which ranged from decent to bizarre. Some of the artwork would range from overly cartoonish to Rob Liefeld levels of forced realism.^[2] Luckily, newer issues now have a more consistency and came with an appealing art style, which is closer to the cartoonish art style of the video game series itself. But by coincidence, one early comic art stood out the most.

Spread

The odd art styles of the early issues would later be collected in a Tumblr blog called “A Moment of Archie Sonic.” ^[3] It used to receive many scans of old Archie Sonic panels showcasing these artwork. On 2012, the above panel was posted on the blog, with the mod of the blog noticing the way the lips were drawn on the red cartoon armadillo on the left named “Mighty” ^[4]

At first, it became an in-joke for the blog, but it soon spread from the blog to the rest of the Archie Sonic fandom, when more Archie Sonic panels were photoshopped with Mighty’s oddly drawn lips. Soon, “Mighty Lips” (named after the character and as a pun) became a popular image macro meme within the Archie Sonic fandom on Tumblr, to the point where it even trickled down to other Sonic related images. ^[5]

Notable Examples

External References

ABOUT:

Special snowflakes is a term to refer to people who whine about deserving special treatment.

ORIGIN:

Originally taken from a line in “Fight Club,” where Brad Pitts character says, “You are NOT unique and special snowflakes!”

SPREAD:

The term became popular in forum posts to criticize people who get their feelings hurt easily, demand special treatment or ask for certain comments be taken down. (Often comments calling them special snowflakes.)

AUTHORSUNITEDBATTLEAGAINSTAMAZON

The term has come to increasingly refer to the demands of Douglas Preston, and his group Authors United, that Amazon give special treatment to traditionally published writers since writing books is a special activity.

Clay Shirky on the demands by special snowflakes: https://medium.com/@cshirky/publishing-and-reading-6a80139d13cc

JA Konrath says writers are not special snowflakes: http://jakonrath.blogspot.ca/2014/09/nonsense-united.html

Roxana Robinson flips out that she isn’t a special snowflake: http://bloom.bg/1ybSQfG via @BloombergTV

About

“Yo-Kai Exercise Number One” (Japanese: ようかい体操第一, Yōkai Taisō Dai-Ichi) is a song for a Japanese role-playing video game Yo-Kai Watch^[1] produced by LEVEL 5. Since the TV anime series for the title started in 2014, this song has been a popular subject for singing/dancing covers and a well-used musical resource for MAD videos on the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND).

Origin

The song “Yo-kai Exercise Number One” was originally made for a promotional video for the 1st title of Yo-Kai Watch released for Nintendo 3DS on July 11th, 2013. Then, the TV anime series for Yo-Kai Watch started in January of the following year and the song was used for the ending theme in the first 24 episodes. This anime ending version was sung by a Japanese idol group Dream 5.^[2] For the main target ages of the title, this song featured simple melody lines and danceable choreographies.

Left: 2013 official promotinal video | Right: Dream 5 Dance edition

Spread

This catchy song succeeded to earn a much popularity among kids along with the title itself which became a big social phenomenon in Japan.

In addition to this, this song became to a popular subject for tributes and parodies on NND in the summer of 2014. There were 2 remarkable videos that led to a substantial increase in popularity of the song on NND. One was a cute dancing cover posted to both NND and YouTube by a famous niconico dancer Manako (まなこ) on August 12th.^[3] This girl was an ex-member of DANCEROID^[4], a dance unit formed by famous female niconico dancers and officially supported by niconico and Japanese major music company AVEX. The other was a Z-Kai CommercialMAD called “Z-Kai Watch” posted on August 16th. Each of them had earned over half-million or one million page views within its first month. And the amount of tribute/parody videos for this song had increased to over 1000 in the following month.^[5]

Niconico Z会ウォッチ
Left: Manako’s dancing cover | Right: Z-Kai Watch

Various Examples

Dancing Covers

Niconico 「ようかい体操第一」歌って踊ってみた。タイ焼き屋Niconico 【全部俺らで】ようかい体操第一【やってみた】
Niconico 【彩羽真矢】妖怪体操第一【踊ってみた】
Left: Attack on TitanCosplay | Right: Former Takarasienne^[6] Maya Ayabane

MAD Videos

Niconico 修造ウォッチNiconico 気違ウォッチ
Left: Shuzo Matsuoka | Right: Chargeman Ken!
Niconico 粉砕ウォッチNiconico ののむら体操第一
Left: Toei Spider-Man | Right: Ryutaro Nonomura’s Crying Appology

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.

About

Sam Pepper is a YouTuber best known for his video prank series. He came under criticism after he conducted a proported prank which involved pinching women without their consent.

Online History

Social Media Presence

(Article is a work in progress, help is greatly appreciated, and i’ll do my best to work on this at least once a week)

About

Corpse Party (コープスパーティー Kōpusu Pātī) is a Japanese series of survival horror games made for PC-9801, PC, PSP, and PS Vita. The story revolves around a group of teenagers who preform a ritual called Sachiko Ever After, but the ritual drops them into a parallel universe where a school called Heavenly Host, which was demolished in the 1960’s, still exists, is haunted, and is surrounded by endless forest. If you die in the school, there is no Heaven, no Nirvana, you shall simply feel the pain of death forever.

Origins

The series started as a horror RPG called Corpse-Party on the PC-98 platform, the combat is notably similar to the gameplay of the Mother series, a comparison is below.

Earthbound

Corpse-Party

About

Reptilians or Reptilian Humanoids are a purported species of shape-shifting aliens with reptile-like characteristics who occupy positions of power on Earth and manipulate humanity for their own benefit, often associated with conspiracies about the Illuminati.

Origin

The exact origin of conspiracy theories regarding reptilian humanoids is unknown. Professor of political science at Syracuse University Michael Barkun, the idea may have been inspired by stories written by pulp fiction author Robert E. Howard, including his 1929 story “The Shadow Kingdom” which contained references to anthropomorphic snake people. In 1967, Nebraska-based police officer Herbert Schirmer claimed to have been abducted by reptilian humanoid aliens.

David Icke’s Babylonian Brotherhood

In 1999, author David Icke released a book titled The Biggest Secret, which argued that the descendants of reptilian aliens from the Draco constellations were inhabiting Earth as a group known as the “Babylonian Brotherhood” and had taken key positions of power in human governance.

Spread

On July 16th, 2007, YouTuber Archangel Systems uploaded a video titled “Reptile Woman – UFO Reptilian / Demon Morphing,” featuring footage of a woman purportedly shape shifting on camera (shown below). In the following eight years, the video accumulated more than 3.7 million views and 2,600 comments.

On February 24th, 2011, comedian Louis C.K. a clip from his appearance on the Opie & Anthony Show in which he accuses former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld of being a reptilian (shown below).

On February 29th, Redditor iLickChildren posted the Wikipedia entry on reptilians to the /r/todayilearned^[2] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 850 votes (82% upvoted) prior to being archived. On March 16th, 2013, YouTuber Teotl Nahualli uploaded a video titled “Obama’s Alien Reptilian Bodyguard,” featuring low-resolution footage of a man in a suit at a 2012 AIPAC Conference, claiming he appeared to be a shape shifting reptilian humanoid (shown below). In the first two years, the video gained over 1.53 million views.

Search Interest

External References

“This is my jam”, “that’s my jam” or “my jam”, is a phrase people use when hearing a song they really like.

ORIGIN
Not much is know on the origin of this saying but is believed to have started in the late 70s early 80s. Even thought it was once only used for music, it is now acceptable to be used for anything one really enjoys, as seen in the beginning of the Key and Peele episode.

SPREAD
The phrase has been used in many movies, TV and songs over the years and is popular to use on Vine. Some other shows include The Regular Show, Key and Peele and The Lego Movie.

VARIATIONS
There is also another variation where people use the term literally. Like comedian Bo Burnham.

Overview

Jasmine Tridevil’s Breast Implant refers to a possible hoax in which Florida-based massage therapist Alisha Hessler (a.k.a. Jasmine Tridevil) claimed to have undergone surgery to implant a third breast in the center of her chest. The purported motivation for the surgery was to appear less attractive to men and to launch a reality television show.

Background

On August 10th, 2014, Hessler uploaded a video to YouTube titled “3 Breasted Woman” in which she dances while wearing a revealing bikini (shown below). In the first two weeks, the video gained over 2.3 million views and 1,200 comments.

Notable Developments

On August 11th, 2014, Hessler launched a Facebook^[1] page and uploaded a photograph of herself in which she appears to have a third breast in the center of her chest (shown below).

On August 13th, Hessler created the @JasmineTridevil^[3] Twitter feed, which garnered upwards of 7,000 followers in the next two weeks. On September 9th, Hessler uploaded a video in which she answered frequently asked questions, revealing that she got the surgery to make herself unattractive to men (shown below).

On September 15th, Hessler tweeted^[4] a photograph of herself, which accumulated more than 590 retweets and 350 favorites.

On September 22nd, Hessler was interviewed on the Florida radio show The News Junkie, during which she claimed to have called over 50 doctors until she found one that was willing to perform the surgery for $20,000. She also revealed that she hoped to become a reality television star and had hired a film crew follow her around.

On September 22nd, Something Awful^[2] Forums member Drink Cheerwine submitted a forum post highlighting photos of Tridevil. On the same day, BuzzFeed^[6] published an article about Hessler’s implant story.

Hoax Speculation

On September 22nd, 2014, the hoax debunking website Snopes listed Hessler’s surgery as a hoax, pointing out several inconsistencies in her story. On September 23rd, The Daily Dot published an article quoting board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Matthew Schulman, who stated that he “would be happy to go on record claiming that this is a falsified story and essentially not possible.”

Search Interest

External References

Overview

He For She is a feminist campaign launched by the UN supported by Emma Watson. After giving a speech on the campaign and feminism, she faced a backlash from users on 4chan.

Background

On August 18th, 2014, actress Emma Watson sent out a tweet which included the hastag #heforshe. Within a month the tweet was retweeted over 27,000 times and the hashtag^[4] was tweeted out over 160,000 times.

On September 20th, Watson gave a speech^[1] at the UN, in her capacity as the Goodwill ambassador for UN Women, to announce the launching of the He For She campaign. She explained the campaign, saying:

“I want men to take up this mantle. So their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too – reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more true and complete version of themselves.”

On September 21st, YouTuber normaljean2^[2] uploaded a video of Watson’s speech, within 48 hours the video gained over 2.5 million views.

Notable Developments

4chan

On September 22nd, a 4chan user created a website called “EmmaYouAreNext”^[6] which features a picture of Watson and a countdown clock,^[5] which seems to imply Watson will be the next celebrity to have her nude photos leaked by 4chan when the countdown ends.

Users also introduced^[9] the hashtag #RIPEmmaWatson^[10] to create a Watson death hoax. Within a week the hashtag was tweeted out over 500 times.

On September 23rd, The New Statesman^[11] published an open letter to Watson titled “Dear Emma Watson, it’s great that you’ve come out as a feminist. Here’s what to expect,” which explains:

“All I can say Emma, is: fuck them. It makes me furious that these men, these boys, are attempting to grind you down, in the same way that similar men have tirelessly attempted to grind down the emergence of our gender as a viable political threat for generations now. Fuck them. I know that you will not let them stop you, just as we other feminists will not let it stop us.”

Search Interest

External References

About

ASFR (alternative sexuality fetish robots or sometimes adult sexuality fetish robots) refers to the community of people who are sexually attracted to humanoid robots, which can also include people dressed as robots. Those in the community sometimes refer to themselves as technosexuals.

Origin

The first instance of the sexualzation of a humanoid robot in pop culture was found in the 1927 film Metropolis, which featured a sexualized robot called Maria.

One of the first mentions of ASFR, came on August 27th, 2003, from p-synd^[4] which posted an article titled “The Technosexuality, Pygmalionist and Mind Control Fetish FAQ 3.0.”

Spread

On December 3rd, 2005, About^[5] published a definition of ASFR describing it as:

“For some people it is about a sexual attraction to a robot (usually one that looks and acts like a human). For many it’s an interest in the intersection of human and robot, and lots of fetishists create images which merge real people with mechanics and circuitry.”

On December 23rd, Urban Dictionary^[2] user Stonesmooth submitted an entry for ASRF which defined it as:

“To be sexually attracted to robots. To fantasize about men or women being turned into robots. The term also includes the transformation of ones partner (or fantasy) into any solid surface material, I.E., Stone, marble, mannequins, plastic, metal, statues, artwork. "

On March 21st, 2006, YouTuber Violet Blue^[6] uploaded a video titled “ASFR” described as a brief documentary on the fetish. As of September 2014, the video has gained over 36,000 views.

On March 17th, 2009, SteamCommunity^[7] created an ASFR community forum. On October 30th, 2011, the Tumblr blog robotdoll-asfr^[9] was created.

As of September 2014, there are over 2,000 pieces of fan art tagged ASFR on DeviantArt.^[3] As of September 2014, the ASFR Wikia^[8] has gained over 200 pages.

Notable Examples

External References

About

Lankyposting, also known as HE, refers to the practice of posting images of Lanky Kong, a character from the 1999 video game Donkey Kong 64. The practice itself began as a way of satirizing fan hype for potential playable characters in the Super Smash Brothers series by requesting that the supporting character should be included on the roster of the fourth installment.

Origin

On January 10th, 2007, YouTuber ChangeDeGuerra uploaded the “Donkey Kong Rap” taken from the opening of the 1999 Nintendo 64 platform game Donkey Kong 64. During the rap, each character from the game is introduced with several verses describing their attributes and his abilities, often starting with the word “He,” including the orangutan Lanky Kong (shown below).

He has no style, he has no grace.
This Kong has a funny face.
He can handstand when he needs to,
And stretch his arms out, just for you.
Inflate himself just like a balloon.
This crazy Kong just digs this tune!

Spread

On December 26th, 2010, Roblox^[8] user hipeep created a Lanky Kong badge, which featured lyrics from the “Donkey Kong Rap” in the description.

On March 28th, 2012, League of Legends Forums^[10] member MrFinigen created a thread titled “He Has No Style” about Lanky Kong. On February 16th, 2013, GameFAQS Forums^[9] member MalucciMD submitted a post titled “Anyone think Lanky Kong would be a fun playable character?”, to which user Hejiru replied “But he has no style.” On August 5th, 2014, the original poster (OP) of a Super Smash Brothers general discussion topic on the /vg/^[1] (Video Game Generals) board on 4chan jokingly included Lanky Kong as one of the officially announced newcomers in spite of no such announcement taking place.^[1] Following the thread’s creation, some users began to ironically support the notion that Lanky Kong should be a playable character. On August 8th, a post dedicated to Lanky Kong was created by “I Will Namefag Until Lanky Is Confirmed,” which contained the lyric “He has no style” from the “Donkey Kong Rap.”^[2]

On August 14th, a 4chan^[3] user coined the term “Lankyposting” in a thread about the video game character. On September 6th, Tumblr^[7] user nicocw posted a photoshopped image of Lanky Kong in front of an inspirational quote background reciting his verse in the “Donkey Kong Rap,” which gained over 4,500 notes in three weeks (shown below).

On September 8th, Redditor HEHASNO launched the /r/HEmeme^[4] subreddit for examples of Lanky Kong photoshops. a subreddit for Lankyposting was created.^[4] On September 19th, the /HE/ 8chan^[5] board was established for posts related to the meme.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Hyperinflation in Gaia Online began in August 2013 after the release of items known as “gold generators” several months after Gary Schofield became CEO of Gaia Interactive, the company that runs Gaia.

Background

Gaia Online is an anime-themed social networking, gaming and discussion forum site. Members of the site’s community are known as Gaians and each is represented on the site by an avatar that can be customized with different skin tones, facial characteristics, hair style, gender, race and clothing. Through their avatars, members can interact with each others in Gaia Towns, Rally, and other Flash spaces, some of which have been created for paid sponsors. The site contains a variety of different subforums, including boards for general discussion, news, lifestyle, role-playing, entertainment, games and art.

Users receive “Gaia Gold” that can be used to purchase items on the site by posting and replying on the message boards, browsing the site and playing games. “Gaia Cash” is a virtual currency introduced in 2007 that can be purchased for $0.01 each. Users can buy items with both gold and cash at virtual shops on the site and can trade among each other in a virtual marketplace.

Prior state of Gaia Online’s virtual economy

For much of the time, Gaia Online’s virtual economy remained stable due to the efforts of previous managements. Craig Sherman, Gaia Interactive’s CEO from 2007-10, said that “Up to 99 percent of the experience online is free at Gaia.”^[1] At the 2007 Virtual Goods Summit, he continues to emphasize that everyone starts out fair^[2].

In August 2007, due to growing concerns over inflation in the virtual economy^[3], Gaia hired economists Michael Boskin and Saar Golde, (later known to Gaia as Sagger-AT3), to help on managing the economy^[4] (which, at that time, Boskin has judged as healthy). Golde introduced a 2% tax on all marketplace transactions^[5] and stopped inflation from going out of control twice during his tenure^[6]. David Jesse, Gaia’s former Vice President on Product Management & Business Analytics revealed in the 2009 Virtual Goods Summit some of the methods they used to manage inflation^[7], which included arguments against the sale of Gaia Gold. Mike Sego, the succeeding CEO, was also concerned about inflation, as he was among the speakers at the 2010 Engage Expo on the topic of managing virtual economies and avoiding currency devaluation^[8].

Gaia Online’s economic stability encouraged users to save up gold for the items they want. Gaia user M o l d y Lunchboxx (better known nowadays as Boxxy), for example, quested to have an Emo Bag (one of the site’s monthly collectible items), which was worth 350,000 Gaia Gold in January 2008^[9]. And in her first video, she said that she considers herself poor for never having 100,000^[10]. Over the years, the price of said item fluctuated widely, but at manageable levels.

Early gold generators

Gaia Online had sold gold generators (items that gives its purchasers randomly-generated amounts of gold) several years earlier, beginning in April 29, 2008 with the gold generator named “Bag of Win”^[11]. Gaia staff member Panagrammic admitted in a journal entry that selling the Bag of Win indefinitely would hurt the economy^[12], and Sagger-AT3 revealed that he initially disliked the Bag of Win but approved the sale of said item as an experiment^[13]. Two more gold generators were released in 2008: “Bag of Win 2” (July 30)^[14] and “Gold Gold Revolution Wheel” (December 24)^[15]. For the next four years, Gaia didn’t sell additional gold generators.

Schofield’s early days in Gaia

In March 2013, Gaia Online appointed Gary Schofield as its new CEO^[16]. One of the first things Schofield did is to terminate several staff members^[17], among them Panagrammic^[18], who closely worked with Sagger-AT3 on maintaining the virtual economy. On June 18, Gaia’s staff confirmed that they’re working on an 18+ sister site^[19]. And days later, Gaia Online began the Summer Sale^[20], where the Angelic Halo, the site’s first collectible item, was sold at the equivalent price of $999^[21] despite statements against sale of past collectibles several years ago^[22].

By July, anonymously-written reviews of Gaia Interactive from Glassdoors.com were posted in the forums for the first time^[23], and the users became aware of the discontent among Gaia’s current and former employees. And in August 15, Josh “L0cke” Gainsbrugh, one of the site’s founders, announced his departure through his journal, citing that “Gaia has a new direction” and that he “will not be included in that adventure”^[24].

Highlights

First release of Flynn’s Booty

In August 22, 2013, Gaia released a gold generator named “Flynn’s Booty”^[25]. In the accompanying FAQ, the staff said that “it is not predicted to have any long-term negative effect on the economy”^[26]. By September 16, Flynn’s Booty was offered to those who would buy at least $5 worth of Gaia Cash^[27]. By September 26, Flynn’s Booty returned in the cash shop.^[28] Thirty minutes after the announcement, users started gathering evidence to prove that Flynn’s Booty is the biggest source of inflation in the site^[29].

In September 19, Jason Loia, the COO of Gaia Interactive, made a presentation about gamification^[30] for Manos Accelerator, a mentorship program for Latino entrepreneurs^[31]. One of the slides displays Flynn’s Booty as an example, while another elaborates on the application of Skinner’s Box to games. By October 6, pictures of Loia’s presentation began circulating within Gaia’s forums^[32], and users were angered over being compared to lab rats and began seeing the management as the ones responsible for the hyperinflation. Rosann “Ling” Yip, another founder, announced her resignation shortly^[33], leaving Derek “Lanzer” Liu as the last remaining founder.

Users were already demanding the discontinuation of Flynn’s Booty^[34] and the termination of both Schofield^[35] and Loia^[36], and the discovery of Loia’s presentation fueled the users’ efforts even further. The staff responded through discontinuing the weekly “Ask the Admins” threads^[37] where users can submit questions for the staff to answer; removing from public view the profile of Flynn, the non-playing character associated with Flynn’s Booty; deleting threads and posts that mentioned the names of Schofield and Loia^[38]; and banning those who insist on posting those names. To circumvent censorship, users began giving Schofield nicknames like “Goldemort”^[39] and “he-who-must-not-be-named”^[40].

As a result, some users have left Gaia and went to other avatar-based forum sites where they shared their grievances over the site’s operation^{[41][42][43][44]}, while others resorted to vandalizing Gary Schofield’s Crunchbase entry.

Subsequent gold generators and unannounced rules update

Despite the mass uproar and departures over the continued sale of Flynn’s Booty, the staff said in a statement released on November that “there are a large number of users who do like these items”^[45]. By December, Gaia’s Terms of Service was updated without prior notice. In comparison to the previous version^[46], the newly-amended version^[47] contained provisions against disparaging, ridiculing, and scorning Gaia employees and officers [Sec. 4a] and posting personal information (such as names) of Gaia employees [Sec. 4q]. In addition, an amendment was added to allow Gaia to shut down the site without any warning [Sec. 3]. At the same time, gold generators began receiving other names like “Divinity’s Reach”^[48] and “Santa’s Super Sack”^[49]. Succeeding gold generators were released with different names and increasing amounts of gold payouts.

Months after constantly-releasing gold generating items, some users were alerted that they were approaching the gold limit^[50] of 2,147,483,647 gold and that they were increasing the limit^[51] to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 gold^[52]. Shortly, new gold generators, starting with “Make It Pour”, started offering amounts beyond the previous limit^[53]. In the 2014 FanimeCon, the staff said that they consider the marketplace as healthy due to increased activity^[54].

Book mention

On May 9, 2014, the MIT Press published a book by Vili Lehdonvirta and Edward Castronova entitled “Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis”, where the virtual economy of Gaia Online is specifically cited as an example of hyperinflation:

…New users in the online community Gaia Online were complaining that they didn’t have enough virtual currency to afford the items traded on Gaia’s user-to-user marketplace. The publisher heard the complaints and responded by giving the users more currency. But all this meant was there was now even more currency competing for the same number of items, driving goods prices even higher. New users were left almost as disappointed as before.^[55]

External References