Adventures in Internetlandia

ohai thar u guise

I was thinking about the possibility of a series of short stories about a main character who is traversing a physical, actual, world called The Internet.

Basically, websites and communities become real nations, and their inhabitants (users) are stereotypes.

For example, 4chan is an anarchic, seedy wasteland with a few good people trying to get by, Facebook is a large and incredibly wealthy world superpower whose privileged citizens know little to nothing of the outside world, and Fanfiction.net is a nation of mad scientists who create monsters.

Also, the LO Lcats are a large diaspora of funny-talking cats, while Anonymous is a worldwide secret organization that, it is whispered, are plotting something big soon.

I want to see if I can call upon everyone's internet lore and flesh out the world a little bit. State all your stereotypes of different web communities here. Do it.

TV Tropes is a Dangerously Genre-Savvy regional power that messes with its neighbors For the Evulz and defeats any reprisal with our near clairvoyant tactics. We also have an uber spy network and a (possibly literally) Magical Database on everyone else.

Deviant ART is a place of artistic intellectuals that holds free speech to be sacred, but it's a Straw Hypocrite and any well-meaning but not absolutely positive criticism of an intellectual or the government is ruthlessly silenced.

You Tube is a cultural exporter that caters exclusively to the Lowest Common Denominator, but a few artists break away from Sturgeon's Law. It has Nazi-like censors of anything vulgar or owned by another artist, but the laws are flimsy and barely enforced, and when they are they're easily subverted or worked around.

edited 17th Jun '11 7:06:55 PM by USAF713

Beware the all-seeing Eyes of the Google-Monster, and its tendrils that root through everything.

Fear the noxious spewings of the Spam-Engines!

I'm inclined to think that, overall, this will be quite a Crapsack World.

The Wiki Union serves as a knowledge broker on whatever you could think of.

Live Journal is a melancholy drama infested place with numerous people desperate to tell you about their lives.

Fur Affinity features uncanny valleyish anthropomorphic people, only to discover they were once actually humans who were twisted into such beings due to their constant obsession and fascination with animals.

AOL is a crumbling former governing body that leaves, in its wake, various upstart groups seeking fame and fortune.

I imagine the people on fan-fiction.Net would also be a female-dominated Lady Land filled with love-lorn young women on top of everything else…

And video-gaming forums in general would be filled with male-dominated fire-breathing proud [[Scrub warrior]] race guys that will fight anyone and everyone over real or imagined slights to their cultures and religions…

Probably table-top gaming forums too, know that I think about it.

...MSPA would serve as a form of Illuminati, with cultists in every forum and place, while file-sharing site like Mega Upload would be worldwide drug cartels! Hmm, this seems to be coming together nicely!

What about the various web browsers? Would they serve as different philosophies? What about internet phenomena like bugs or firewalls?

What about the myraid of webcomics?

Also, what about Massively multiplayer online games?

edited 18th Jun '11 5:12:19 AM by doorhandle

I like the idea of web browsers as different philosophies/religions. Everyone has to have one, they shape how they view the world and some are wildly more popular and powerful than others.

What about sites predominantly in languages other than English? And would the Chinese Firewall be a real structure (or the North Korean Intranet, for that matter)?

World Of Warcraft is an alternate universe one can enter and exit if you find a specfic portal (of which there are many), where you become a fantasy version of yourself. Other MMORPGs are ontological spinoffs of that created by the universe itself, but they failed to replicate WOW's popularity.

Viruses are The Virus, turning their victims into zombies. Firewalls and anti-virus programs are functional magic that invokes Revive Kills Zombie.

The Chinese and Korean blocks are this world's Iron Curtain, behind which hundreds of minor nations have a cold war with those from the west.

My Space is a receeding Vestigial Empire that is slowly being swallowed up by Facebook, but they steal Facebook technology in a desperate attempt to fight back the invading forces.

Twitter is a newly-risen regional power which Facebook uses as a puppet to control more area, but they're rapidly gaining power to challenge Facebook openly for dominance.

Steam and Impulse are international arms dealers that operate entirely above-board. Bit Torrent and Limewire (now defunt, part of backstory) are darker and more loose with standards dealers that also deal in drugs, like the other guy said.

edited 18th Jun '11 7:02:13 AM by USAF713

The pirate bay are actual pirates! Who deal in arms like the other guys, but for vaguely defined anarchist/freedom-loving reasons.

There is only one portal to the World of Warcraft, and it is tightly controlled by the Mighty Wardens!

Though there are plenty of people trying to sneak in and whatnot.

I don't know so much about web browsers. All I know are Safari (my choice), Firefox (my other choice), Internet Explorer, and Chrome.

Encyclopedia Dramatica was originally a part of the Wikimedia Union, where their pranks, obscenity, and extremism were suppressed. However, the Dramaticans (as they came to be known), led by Sherrod "Girlvinyl" De Grippo, managed to shake off the WU's restrictions and declared ED its own separate nation-state. However, for De Grippo to achieve her goals of freedom to say whatever the fucking hell you fucking want to fucking say or so fucking help me I will fucking fuck your fucking mom, she unfortunately won the attention of extremists and trolls and other shady characters to back her up.

Even though other nations condemned her use of such detestable groups and accused her of being a spy for Anonymous, ED managed to carve out its own niche as a military state with a... unique code of conduct, and they became feared for their ruthless "raids" of My Space, You Tube, Live Journal, Deviant ART, themselves, and, of course, the Wikimedia Union. However, they had an extremely strong presence of terrorists that led to fear and strife in the community. De Grippo has finally began to purge all the trolls and has also renamed the nation Oh Internet (OI), and many denizens were outraged at what could possibly lead to a takeover by the Cheezburger Network.

edited 21st Jun '11 6:37:29 PM by LilPaladinSuzy

Microsoft Windows and the Mac OS (whatever it's called, idk) are world religions. The browsers are denominations.

Internet Explorer is Orthodox Windows, practiced only by old people, and the church itself is made up of zealots who treat any criticism as personal attacks and who are always a few steps behind changing cultural moores.

Firefox is the most popular religion (they worship a flaming fox from space), a very stylish yet functional faith that tries its best to keep up with the younger generations without alienating long-time worshippers. It's slowly losing its base to the newer denominations, however.

Mac is an ancient religion which recently recieved a huge resurgence in popularity. It's newest denomination, Safari, is rapidly gaining followers, and the religion as a whole is very attractive and New Age-y, although few of the Old Guard will bother with it. It's multimedia corporate arm, "iTunes," is unbelievably popular with the bleeting sheep masses, but the more savvy citizens know it for the freedom-choking front of the Church of Happyology that it is.

Chrome is the new comer, and though it started as its own religion it is often treated as a new denomination of Mac OS. It is closer to the Church of Happyology, but its backers may just be [1]s... if they're not selling their flock's information to the highest bidder, that is.

Opera is a formerly-popular religion that has fallen out of favor, and now exists as an analogue to Satanic cults, oft-misunderstood and known by its Vocal Minority. (This is the browser for a lot of non-iPhone smartphones, and used to be a decently popular web browser... though I think it basically died.)

Correct me if my approximations of roles sounds off, I'm not an expert on browsers and demographics, I'm just guessing...

Well, for whatever it's worth, I was thinking along much the same lines. Although I was kinda thinking of Chrome as the state religion of the Google Empire, myself.

Yes, but surely Linux will be a world religion too (albeit perhaps a small and fundamentalist one)?

Linux and Unix and all them are Wicca, or at least the equivalent. We can have jokes about confusing Opera and Linux worshippers, XD. And I like the State Religion of the Google Empire idea; it's just a suspiciously similar faith to Safari (Internet Explorer is Orthodox Judiasm to Firefox's Christianity, while Safari is Islam. Not in terms of function, but in terms of demographics...)

Linux worshippers go around patiently explaining that their religion really isn't that complicated, it's just very misunderstood. No one listens.

Google is an Eldritch Abomination, and Chrome is its Lovecraftian cult.

One that keeps assuring us it isn't evil.

It's a very charming Eldritch Abomination though; even some people who know better can't help liking it. More of a Nyarlathotep than a Cthulhu, really.

I guess I should be saying, "Google flaghn!"

Also, Julian Assange is a wanted criminal who runs the Wikileaks organization, but the Wikimedia Union wants nothing to do with him...

Necrrbump because I love this.

I'm thinking that TV Tropes would have some sort of Lotus-Eater Machine (representing Wiki Walks and life-ruining).

edited 20th Apr '15 3:28:56 PM by SmartGirl333