Geeks Blog

Where Geeks Rule

The Rise of the Geek

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Geek culture has recently seen a massive surge in popularity, owed largely to its being embraced by people who, just a few years ago, would never have been associated with anything nerdy. The parameters of what qualifies as nerdy have expanded considerably, and media that caters to an audience of geeks is treated seriously.

Though geek culture has had past moments of being cool, it was rare to find it being wholly endorsed by people who did not consider themselves geeks. In the ’90s, television shows like The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer explored comic book-friendly themes and featured attractive characters who, for a time drew non-geeks into their fan bases. Unfortunately, the deep mythologies that die-hard fans love drove away a good number of those casual viewers. Something similar happened with Lost a decade later; non-geek fans fell by the wayside as it became more and more apparent that the show was really about time travel. [Read more…]

Is Geek Culture a Boys’ Club? These Women Don’t Think So

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It wasn’t so long ago that geek culture was synonymous with a boys’ club made up of sex-starved, socially inept basement dwellers who gathered in the back rooms of comic book stores or arcades. They were bullied and mocked, left on the outskirts of society where they formed communities where they could take shelter and share in their obsessions. How the tables have turned. Geek culture has been pushed into the mainstream, and the women who have always been part of the scene are stepping into the spotlight and working to retire those old, tired stereotypes. Female geeks and gamers of all stripes are stepping out and staking their claim despite the often misogynistic and sexist backlash that’s long been endemic in the community. [Read more…]

4 Signs Your Blog is Asking for a Penalty

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For the most part, only search engine optimization (SEO) specialists know about Google penalties, but that shouldn’t be the case. If your website or blog practices “black hat tricks” (tricks that falsely improve your search engine result rankings), Google’s algorithms are almost always capable of catching them at some point. If they do, and it’s deemed intentional, then you can get slapped with a Google penalty. In the worst cases, this removes your site from that search engine’s results completely.

There are many ways to avoid a penalty, but they all have to do with avoiding black hat tricks. Unfortunately, many unsuspecting bloggers hire a “black hat” SEO agency unaware that the tactics being used are illegal. Other times, a newbie developer practices these tricks themselves, not knowing that they’re “illegal.” Here are some of the biggest black hat strategies to avoid: [Read more…]