February 15, 2004

Wil Wheaton is a Dick. Link points to an Alternet article which is more about Orkut than about Wesley Crusher. Find Wil's response here.
posted by the_bone 20 years ago
  • i can't blame him for not adding people he doesn't know personally as i imagine his friends list would become insanely huge. if he just ignores messages then they'll jam up his orkut inbox so he does the honest thing and says no. big deal. disclaimer: i'm not a wil wheaton fan, have no feelings about him one way or the other. that aside, orkut is a pretty routine ervice and offers nothing new or innovative in terms of networking or making online friends. the best thing about it is reading the demented testimonials mefites leave each other. funny stuff, yup.
  • Wil Wheaton is a Dick. Yes, but Wesley Crusher is a god. /sarcasm
  • What I liked about it is Wheaton sent back an honest response free of cant and knee-jerk defensiveness. He said, simply, "That hurt me, I didn't like it, Please don't do it again, I'm sure it isn't personal but if it is contact me so I can make it better". The writer's response was candid and contrite, and both parties walked away feeling satisfied. No flaming, no drama. I'd like to see that more OFTEN. Our Moms and Dads were right: Good Manners is the Lube for the Wheels of Civilisation. Or something.
  • heh. "lube".
  • (happy v-day Forky!)
  • no ones invited me to orkut , i hate you all.
  • I have pretty much the same reaction as this guy: I don't get it. You expose yourself to the internet, and join something like orkut, and call yourself a dick, and are shocked someone took a light hearted rib at you. The whole "it might hurt my chances at a pilot" thing shocked me. Not to be mean, but cry me a river, eh. Seriously dude. I am so not buying the Wil Wheaton Tshirt now... Posted by: Mike on February 15, 2004 04:47 AM Really. Grow up, Wil. And sarge, check your inbox.
  • languagehat-- I took his "pilot" gambit as light-hearted self-deprecation in an attempt to de-fuse the situation by showing he could make fun of himself...
  • I don't know. That article doen't mention that he calls himself a dick. So if someone who was thinking about hiring him sees it, it is possible that they might not get the joke and decide not to hire him. So I didn't think it was whining. Paranoid, perhaps.
  • Tempest in a teapot, but it is Sunday afternoon and I'm bored: No casting director I've ever met (and I've been dealing with them as a professional actor for 30 years now) is going to have the following thought process: 1) "I'd like to hire that Wil Wheaton fellow." 2) "Uh-oh. After copious research I found that someone called him a dick on the net." 3) "That obviously changes everything! I've got millions invested in this project and that one person convinced me--That boy is no good. Get me Corey Feldman on the horn instead!" It was a (very subtle, not too funny to anyone outside of the biz) joke. Good lord, why does everybody hate this boy so much?
  • it's ok sgt.serenity, nobody invited me to Orkut either. *sniff* Dizzy, you're making perfect sense to me. I don't see what the fuss is about, she said she was kidding.
  • Dizzy: I'm glad you had some free time and boredom -- that was hilarious. Not that your last question was necessarily aimed at me, but just to be clear: I have nothing against Wil, he seems like a great guy and I've never understood the people who hate the actor because of a character he played. Grow up, foolish hu-mans! But in this particular case, he's being a whiner. Like "Mike" said: come on, you call yourself a dick in your profile and then get all bent out of shape because someone uses it? If you can't take even that extremely moderate amount of heat (I don't think anyone could read the Alternate article and think the author really disliked the guy), stay the hell out of the internet. And all he had to do to avoid the perception of snootily picking a few special people to be his "friends" (as if the term means anything on orkut anyway!) is to say, in place of "this means I probably won't add many people as friends," "this means I won't add people as friends." See what a difference? Delete two words, and nobody will have a right to take offense. "Sure, he's not adding me as a friend -- but that's because he doesn't add *anybody* as a friend! That's cool, I understand that!" As it is, it's natural to feel "oh, *I*'m not good enough to be his friend!" Live and learn, Wil.
  • L-Hat: Agreed. Sounds reasonable, and your concise example swayed me. I'm still bored. Wanna play checkers?
  • I don't get those "network" services like Friendster and Orkut...what, exactly, are they supposed to DO? Is there any value at all to joining them?
  • that "article" sounds much more like a liveJournal post than anything else.
  • bananas for languagehat!