Nerdfighteria

"DFTBA" redirects here. For the merchandise company owned by the Green brothers, see DFTBA Records.
The Nerdfighteria logo, designed by Vondell Swain[1]
The previous Nerdfighter logo, a parody of the Aero Fighters logo[2]

Nerdfighteria (/ˌnɜːrdfaɪˈtɛriə/ NURD-fy-TERR-ee-ə) is a mainly online-based community subculture that originated on YouTube in 2007, when the VlogBrothers (John and Hank Green) rose to prominence in the YouTube community. As their popularity grew, so did coverage on Nerdfighteria, whose followers are individually known as Nerdfighters.[3] The term was coined when John saw a copy of the arcade game Aero Fighters and misread the title as Nerd Fighters.[4]

Hank Green describes it as "a community that sprung up around our videos, and basically we just get together and try to do awesome things and have a good time and fight against world suck". He defines "world suck" as "the amount of suck in the world".[5] The Greens established The Foundation to Decrease World Suck, in order to raise funds and launch projects that would help a variety of causes. Nerdfighters believe in fighting world suck, promoting education, freedom of speech and the use of the intellect in modern society.[6] Nerdfighters and the Green brothers have collaborated on many projects such as the charitable drive, Project for Awesome which launched in 2007, and VidCon, the convention focusing on topics surrounding the world of digital media.[7][8] Nerdfighters have been documented by websites such as The Hollywood Reporter, and The Wall Street Journal, with a following estimated to be in the millions.[9][10]

  1. ^ "Nerdfighteria". Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  2. ^ "Nerdfighters". ning.com. Archived from the original on September 1, 2014. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  3. ^ Dean, Michelle (March 13, 2013). "A Note on Nerdfighters". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
  4. ^ Braun, Eric (2015). John Green: Star Author, Vlogbrother, and Nerdfighter - Gateway Biographies. Lerner Publications. pp. 23–24. ISBN 978-1467772617. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference NerdfighterFAQ was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Kligler-Vilenchik, Neta (June 27, 2014). "Nerdfighters: The Online Community Behind the Box-Office Hit". Huffington Post. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  7. ^ Horan, Molly (December 17, 2013). "Project for Awesome Will Remind You to Be Kind". Mashable. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
  8. ^ O'Brien, Kathleen (June 24, 2014). "Author John Green and his Nerdfighters Work for a Friendly Online Atmosphere". NationSwell. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  9. ^ Alter, Alexandra (May 14, 2014). "John Green and His Nerdfighters Are Upending the Summer Blockbuster Model". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
  10. ^ Lewis, Andy (May 1, 2014). "'Fault in Our Stars' Author John Green's Multimedia Empire". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 16, 2014.