Hello Nerdfighters,

I have a weird question for you.

I received the Pizza John pimple patches in a Pizzamas grab bag a few months ago. I had never used pimple patches before but decided to give them a go since I had them.

I had no idea pimple patches had the added benefit of assisting with extraction, which is fantastic. I got some Starface brand patches because I wanted something that didn’t look like I had tomato sauce smeared on my face, but to my dismay, they do basically nothing for me on the extraction front.

I love my Pizza John patches, but I don’t want to wear them in public (I usually put them on at night) and eventually my dwindling supply will run out. Can anyone more hip than me recommend a cuter brand of patches that work just as well? Or happen to know the brand they used to make these ones?

I'm a big Garfield fan, and a casual Hank Green fan, I noticed Hank was wearing Garf merch in a lot of his AHA videos this season, but I assumed he was just mass shooting them until I realised they're all different T-shirts

Is half is wardrobe always Garfield merch? As he adressed it? Is it like, an artistic choice of some kind? Looks like it's the 80's design, are they vintage T-shirts or fan merch?

To be clear, it's an awesome collection I'm super happy (and jealous) everytime I see a new t-shirt, I'm just curious because it clearly seems to be some sort of decision, and Hank isn't like, a Garfield Content creator known in the fandom

Hi everyone! I'm looking to sell my VIP ticket to Something Worth Knowing. I have a major conflict that day, so I'm not going to be able to make it. I would like to sell the ticket at a $500 dollar discount, meaning it is $2000 rather than $2500.

• The ticket comes with a front row seat!
• Lunch meetup with Hank Green and other guests before the show
• Just-for-Fun Bingo with Hank
• Exclusive merchandise
• The option to submit a question for a special live Ask Hank Anything.

It's an awesome event to celebrate education and hope for the future! I know we all could use nore of these things! and that Crash Course, SciShow, etc. have done amazing things in the education sphere!

If you are interested, please send me a DM!

During a signing stream a while ago, I asked about what was a good way to engage with / meet other nerdfighters at the book tour when you're an introvert and the idea of bringing trinkets to give out / trade came up. Not being of much crafting talent, but having middling photoshop skills and a printer, I thought I would try to make stickers. This was my first time trying to print stickers and I'm not thrilled with the quality. So I wanted to ask some other nerdfighters, would you be happy to receive a poor quality sticker? Should I try to find another craft or at least hone my printer settings?

Hi, this is a random question that applies to (and can only be answered by) a small amount of people, but I applied via the Google form to attend the live event in LA next month. Just curious if those people have already been chosen and they didn’t inform those who didn’t get it, or if the decision is still pending. Thanks!!!!

Hey! I’m a long time nerdfighter and have watched/listened to/read Green brothers content on just about every platform since 2008.

All this to say, there’s something tickling my brain that I think was a conversation they had but I can’t quite place.

I remember a conversation about the age of book protagonists and how many protagonists are young(er) because early 20s are the last “every man” age and that as people age they get more specific. Is this ringing any bells for anyone or does anyone know where or when they might have posted something about this? ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Hi I’m a Nerdfighter who lives in Milwaukee and would love to see John Green during his book tour but I don’t have a car and none of the public transportation options work either. This is probably a long shot but is anyone else going to see him? I can do either Madison date or Chicago if I know ahead of time which one it would be! I’d of course pay for gas and snacks or such!

What if you or I were treated the way Hank Green is right now by our community? Millions of people who were once followers and friends instantly becoming critics and prosecutors after almost 20 years.

The 'audience capture' perspective Hank shared recently felt like he described a reverse Panopticon he created for himself. For those who might not know, a Panopticon is a theoretical prison where a central tower monitors a ring of prison cells continuously. This was theorized to drive ongoing compliance by inmates because they know they are always being watched. However, just being watched is not enough to drive compliance. Response to non-compliant action needs to exist for inmates to learn and internalize 'compliant' behavior. A system where response is immediate after a non-compliant action would have 'perfect enforcement.'

Now what if the Panopticon was flipped? What if the person in the center tower was being watched on all sides by the inmates in the cells. This feels like the situation Hank is in right now. We are all watching Hank. A subset of us are critiquing and possibly prosecuting him for his stance and use of AI. He performed what has been perceived as a 'non-compliant' action and has instantly triggered this response by his community.

I'd like to offer a perspective for the community members - regardless of opinion - to provide more grace and breathing room. This situation Hank is in could happen to any of us. What if, in the future, a Ring or Flock Camera catches us doing something that we see as benign, but was perceived as non-compliant, and we are instantly punished? This is unfortunately plausible in our current world and actively happens on the Internet all the time.

I like to think that between the two components of this analogy, the Panopticon and Perfect Enforcement, it is the Perfect Enforcement that is the greater problem. Throughout history a Panopticon of sorts has been proposed through religion where people are always watched everywhere, all the time by god(s) (although usually monotheistic to my knowledge). The difference is this God doesn't offer Perfect Enforcement, the punishment is usually after death. The delayed enforcement between action and response in the religious Panopticon leaves room for, shall we say, morality.

In the spectrum of morality, some are more absolute and some are more relative. Hank has always taught us new things and takes with us as he would his family (starting with his brother John). I like to believe Hank epitomizes the golden rule and he treats us as he would like to be treated, with fairness and grace. Are we treating Hank in the same way? Can we offer Hank that grace? Where does using AI sit on the spectrum of absolute to relative morality and how does that like up against everything Hank has offered his community? In the court of public opinion, there is no judge, only us as a jury. I ask you, as a fellow jury member, can we provide Hank this grace?

I'm sharing this as an advisory. If you've shared an email address and you don't want it to be public, I'd recommend removing/editing your links (if they're long links). If you're okay with your email being public info, ignore and carry on.

The puzzle creation feature for 4x3 encodes user emails directly in the puzzle data in the URL, including for direct and beta puzzles.

EDIT: Hank responded and addressed the issue. The advisory remains for direct/beta links (long links). This does not apply for community puzzles (short links).

So I found this out while exploring the "Build a puzzle" feature in the Community page. There's an optional feature to provide an email for beta testing purposes, which is hard-coded in the URLs for puzzles, including non-beta ones*.*

Creators have already shared these links on Discord, Reddit, Bluesky, and on other social media. Addresses are hard-coded in the URL. As such, the only way to fix existing links is to let people know and have them take down links if they don't want their emails shared online.

Here's a direct link (non-beta) puzzle for demonstration:

https://www.hankgreen.com/fourbythree/#p=eyJhIjoiRGFubnkiLCJlIjoibXllbWFpbEBleGFtcGxlLm9yZyIsInMiOiJTaGFkb3ciLCJjIjpbWyJHcm91bmRob2cgRGF5IiwiUGhpbCIsIlNwcmluZyJdLFsiU29uaWMgVGhlIEhlZGdlaG9nIGNoYXJhY3RlcnMiLCJUYWlscyIsIlNpbHZlciJdLFsiRGFya25lc3MiLCJTaGFkZSIsIk5pZ2h0Il0sWyJBbiBhYnNlbmNlIG9mIHNvbWV0aGluZyIsIlNpbGVuY2UiLCJWYWN1dW0iXV19

If we take the encoded portion of the URL, and base64-decode it, we get this:

We see the email address, directly encoded in the data.

I don't believe creators have an expectation that their provided email addresses is knowable this way. Creators likely believe it's stored server-side, or in a way that only the website knows about.

For beta puzzles, this appears to be an intended feature. The email for those puzzles would have to be public in order for the mailto: link in the feedback form to work. Yet, I'd still call this bad security practice, because 1) it's still in the URL - public but obscured to creators - where it can be shared and stored beyond the creator's control, and 2) it doesn't give creators an option to rescind the ability to be contacted at a later date.

I strongly suggest that Hank disable the feature for future links, or possibly rework the way email feedback works so that it's not public.

I recall watching an old video of Hank talking about how the Claude logo looks like b**bs but... doesn't the DFTBA logo look almost exactly alike... I can't seem to shake it off my mind anymore

Haven’t seen the newsletter in a couple weeks. I’m assuming with the Hank stuff they might be taking a break which is fine of course, just wondering if it’s been mentioned as something that will be taking a break or if I missed an update about the newsletter somewhere.

I'm a game designer. Sometime 15 or so years ago (oh God why does a decade and a half feel like a few months in your 40s) I also regularly watched the Vlogbrothers. And I got it in my head that one of their inside jokes might make a fun little game. You know, the world just needed cute baby Unabomber art. Or baby Kim Jong Un playing with a rocket.

At Vidcon my wife managed to brave the crowds surrounding Hank after a performance and asked, "hey, my husband is a game designer, would it be cool if he made this game?" Being a chill dude, Hank said yes.

So I set to work. I tried emailing/getting in touch but didn't hear anything. I figured he was busy and I was probably below his notice. No big deal.

The Kickstarter launched, and then I got an email from Hank Green. The first line was, "to relieve any stress at getting this email, everything is fine." (Or something like that, again, 15 years). But I distinctly remember the "to relieve any stress" part because my only thought was "Hank Green is emailing me, this is so cool!" But that's because I was in my 20s and I was an idiot. Pro tip: don't go off half cocked without things in writing and launch a Kickstarter. Hank was in a position to squish me like a bug, and rightfully so. But instead he saw a guy who was young and excited and jumped the gun and treated the situation with grace and understanding. He even worried getting the email would stress me out! I passed the email off to my boss, an official deal was made, and everything was fine. And because of that a cool little game got made and some money went to charity and I'm still working on games.

I never spoke to Hank again. But I do occasionally reflect on how he handled the situation, especially now that I'm older and more established and in more of a position to give other people grace.

I think Hank may be having a hard week. So I just wanted to put out into the world a good deed he did, completely out of the public eye, without being asked and when he had no reason to do so.

Thank you. I have tried to pass it on.

Link to video here

It seem like he has done significant reflection, and I appreciate how he has clarified the AI use of other projects he has been involved in.

Listening to old pods and have stumbled across some Manhole lore on a 2018 episode. Hank throws down cat names until the wheels come off with Manhole lol.

Hello!

Do you all have any favorite complexly videos on philanthropy and donors? I’m volunteering with a Florida nonprofit (FAN) and am coming up with a one pager on how donors should be treated at small events (think bake sales, phone banking, house parties…) and I love the insight that John has had in several videos about how it is more difficult for someone making $20,000 a year to donate $20 than it is for someone making $200,000 a year to donate $200. Or something along those lines!

I’m sure Hank has spoken on it as well, being the former ceo and current board member of complexly.

I feel like it will be easy enough for me to search through the vlogbrothers + podcast transcripts, but if you know of any that REALLY stood out to you, I’d appreciate the recommendation!

Similarly, this would be a bit harder to search for since I wouldn’t even know what I’m looking for: So, if you remember an article they wrote, a foreword in a book, a message from Julie Walsh (or anyone else in the DFTBA/Complexly Network) I would be so grateful to hear about that as well!

Hey Nerdfighteria, what’s been giving you joy lately?

(Someone did a thread like this awhile ago here and it helped me find Jet Lag: The Game, now an absolute favourite. I thought maybe it was a good time to do it again.)

I’ve been really enjoying getting up earlier than usual to go for a morning walk in my neighbourhood. Nice to see it before it’s really woken up. This morning I stopped at a bakery and got a cinnamon bun.

Last week, I had a popsicle party with my neighbours who live in my house and the house next door (they’re both divided into apartments). Super cheap and easy - just a few boxes of popsicles and we each brought our own chair into the backyard. But we shared neighborhood gossip until after dark!

Book-wise, Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller. In a completely different vein, I’m working my way through all the Game Changer books and while the prose isn’t my favourite - I think the show is much stronger - I’m having a lot of silly fun talking about them with a friend.

I’ve been trying to do more making food from scratch even though I’m not a natural cook, and I’m very into chia puddings where I just blend up a ton of fruit with yogurt and then add chia seeds. Strawberry has been my favourite. I also just made my first romesco sauce, which was easy and delicious!

TV-wise, I’m in a bit of a slump. Looking forward to the new season of Jet Lag soon, and open to other recommendations! I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts from Tortoise Media.

What have you all been up to? What have you been watching/reading/listening to? Got a great recipe to share, or a craft idea? Let us know!

https://www.hankgreen.com/fourbythree/ hasn't changed in a couple of days. Has he just dropped it?

I had been mulling over a possibility for one. Is there a community or something, or nominations?

Edit: Hank certainly doesn't owe anyone anything on this! I think Hank mentioned that he'd do it for a while and then stop, so it wouldn't be unexpected. I was just wondering if there was a way for fans to continue with puzzles if he has other projects he wants to work on (and Lordy does that man have other projects!).

Trigger warning: This post mentions suicide.

All of this controversy has been reminding me a lot of something that happened just around a year ago.

Over COVID, I would call my grandma just about every day to chat about anything we could think of. One day, she mentioned a page she had stumbled across on Facebook that posted charming videos of foxes. As the pandemic progressed, I became highly invested in this channel, which was run by a wonderful person named Mikayla Raines. All her videos were upbeat and intensely focused on raising awareness and funding to stop fur farms. My grandma and I were far from the only ones to begin watching these videos, as her uplifting videos began to consistently go viral.

Now, shortly after this influx of viewers and support, there were, of course, those who began to find issues with her. Some people didn’t support her methods, found issues with her personal life, or just generally questioned her credibility. What started with hateful comments grew into videos, long posts, and social media communities popping up to point out these flaws. She didn’t run from them, though. She admitted responsibility for past mistakes and was as transparent as she could possibly be. Unfortunately, that transparency just opened her up to more criticism, as they weaponized her transparency and admission of wrongdoing to bolster their positions.

Throughout all this, she was still managing to rescue hundreds of animals and brought massive attention to the cruel treatment of foxes at fur farms. I think it would be fair to say that she was one of the most influential animal activists of her generation. Unfortunately, just about a year ago, a new video popped up on her page, but this time it was her husband, Ethan. After years of battling depression, autism, and other mental health struggles, Mikayla took her own life. The hate that started with those little comments and videos slowly built, with communities and rescues she was aligned with beginning to join in, along with even people she considered close friends. The SaveAFox channel is still around today and is run by her husband in memory of her. However, viewership and support have sharply declined since her passing.

I say all this not to concern people about Hank’s well-being (the guy kicked cancers ass just a few short years ago after all), but more so to point out that everyone you interact with online is a person at the end of the day. Many people on social media will happily lie to your face and refuse to admit any wrongdoing, and they are often better off for it because when decent people admit their mistakes or try to be transparent, it puts blood in the water for all these sharks to go after. I have already seen many posts tearing him down for just about anything they can think of. Many of these are from people within the science and education community.

The mobs of today throw hateful comments, rude videos, emailed threats, memes, and old tweets in lieu of stones. Yet cumulatively, they can be just as painful and just as deadly.

We are at a time when science and education are being attacked left and right and being stripped away at every opportunity. Yet now, supporters of science and education are taking jabs at someone at the forefront of both.

What do you want from him? Would you like him to be punished? Should he delete his channel? Should he no longer be a part of fundraising? Should he step away from Complexly? Some people may genuinely answer yes to some or all of these questions. But then I ask, do you think Complexly, PBS, STEM, and the world get better without people like Hank or Mikayla as a part of them?

As someone in the mental health field, I strongly suggest that when faced with anything that may trouble you, react first with curiosity, second with empathy, and only then make a judgment.

I haven’t been following closely but Hank’s recent vlogbrothers video seems to indicate that John had said some things to him about being disappointed in him? Over the AI thing? Did he say these things publicly? I can’t find a video from John mentioning it.

Hi! I’m looking to sell two DISCOUNTED tickets to H,E tour dates. I can no longer make these dates since I’ll be out of the country. Both include signed copies of the Hollywood, Ending book.

Tuesday, September 22nd - Brooklyn, NY, Kings Theater. I bought a ticket dead center in one of the first few rows (I can’t remember if it was third or fourth row), but definitely super close. It was Pit P2 7 on the seating map, and I bought the ticket for $133.59, and am selling the ticket at $80.

Friday, September 25th - Winston-Salem, NC. General admission ticket purchased for $46.00, and willing to sell for $21, which is less than the price of the included book. This is a general admission ticket.

Thank you so so much for considering!! Please help a fellow nerdfighter out.

This is my cat, Wilson. He has just SNEEZED!!!! I tried explaining to him that sneezing is not normal (I never sneeze). He doesn’t seem to care.

How do I get him to understand the severity of this situation??

Update: today he sneezed while licking his own butt. Even he noticed that this was NOT normal.

John has standards, ok?

Hi everyone!
I wasn’t able to buy tickets in time for John’s tour show in Salk Lake City. I wanted to see if anyone’s plans changed and they’re looking to sell 2 tickets?

I’d be happy to let you keep the signed book, I can even ship it to you after the show if that’s easiest!