Media
How a failed Tumblr convention became one of the most important social media lessons of the 2010s
Editor’s Note: The CNN Original Series “The 2010s” looks back at a turbulent era marked by extraordinary political and social upheaval. New episodes air at 9 p.m. ET/PT Sundays.
CNN
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When the first generations of social media natives are old and gray, they will bounce their grandchildren on their knee and tell them about the old days when Facebook was just for college kids and Twitter wasn’t a place for world-altering political discourse. As their rheumy gazes search the distant past, they’ll recall another titan of that lawless age.
“Then there was Tumblr,” they’ll wheeze. “Man, that place was weird.”
Though the blogging platform is still active, Tumblr’s unquestionable heyday passed in the mid-2010s. It was – and still is – hailed as a crucible of nerd-dom, where young people gather to trade memes, pop culture observations, poems, musings, fan fiction, art, and absurdist jokes to satisfy even the most niche communities. Years of Tumblr discourse have helped shape current structures of entertainment fandoms, social justice language, queer subcultures and all manner of special interests one might see at a comic book convention or Marvel movie premiere.
However, in 2014, its denizens learned a hard lesson when some forward-thinking users thought to gather this amorphous mass of creativity and recreate it in real life.
The result was DashCon, an attempt to bring together Tumblr users from different interests and fandoms for a single event. The idea was similar to the already-popular VidCon, which focuses on YouTube celebrities, or any number of fan conventions around the world that have been going strong for decades.
DashCon would not reach such great heights. It was a legendary failure, plagued by low attendance and mismanagement, summed up in one iconic image of a single, sad child’s ball pit on a hotel convention room floor.
For all its (somewhat hilarious) failures, DashCon immediately became a core parable of our social media lore. It taught us how difficult it is to translate the social media experience into the real world, and that sometimes, even with the best intentions, what happens online should just stay there.
The teenager who started it all
To say DashCon was a failure is a simple fact. Whose failure it was, exactly, is a thornier question. The idea can be traced back to Lochlan O’Neil who was only 17 at the time DashCon took place.
Like so many other Tumblr users, O’Neil was just a nerdy teenager with cool interests looking for other people like her. She started using Tumblr in 2012, and it took her a while to really figure out what the platform was for.
“I saw one of my neighbor’s accounts where she would just post pictures of hipster hairstyles and One Direction members, and I thought ‘What is this even for?’ But my friend assured me it was cool, that you could blog about whatever you wanted,” O’Neil told CNN.
O’Neil, who is now a costume designer and also works at an exotic animal sanctuary, always had an interest in small animal husbandry.
“I started on Tumblr writing traditional blogs about mouse genetics,” she said. “My blog was call ‘Mice are Nice.’”
O’Neil’s Tumblr experience became markedly better once she sussed out what kinds of interests were big on the platform. She had always been a fan of Harry Potter, and had started getting into cosplay, anime and the Avengers – all extremely popular subjects among Tumblr users.
Over time, she even met one of her best friends on the platform after searching content about her hometown.
“I was always kind of an outsider. I didn’t really have the ability to connect with people and I didn’t know why,” she said. “But when I met my best friend, I was like, well, there must be more people like me on Tumblr. There must be more people like her on Tumblr.”
She noticed this pattern a lot: people forming strong bonds with virtual strangers online over things that really mattered to them, things that they didn’t have a network for in their everyday lives.
“I saw these posts and I thought, ‘What if there was a Tumblr convention? What if I made a Tumblr convention? And then all of you could also have friends?’”
Rallying the troops
O’Neil started a Tumblr blog called Tumbl-Con, a launch pad for what would eventually become DashCon, named for a Tumblr user’s main page which is called a dashboard.
Initially, O’Neil was enthusiastic about all of the support and attention. She knew how to get the message out to fellow Tumblr users, and it wasn’t long before people were offering to be on committees for different fandoms, like the British drama series “Sherlock” and the CW series “Supernatural.”
“It’s important to note that, before this, I had only been to two conventions,” she said. “One was a small anime convention. The other was a rabbit breeders convention in Indiana.”
“So that’s what I was imagining when I was imagining this event. Lots of booths for different interests, fun activities, all of that. I was a teenager. Maybe I was stupid, but when people said they were going to help out or attend I trusted them.”
In the middle of the planning process, O’Neil had to step away from Tumblr for a few weeks while her family made a cross-country move. When she came back, the idea had ballooned without her – there was a dedicated LLC involved; plans had been made for a date and location. What had started as her idea had swiftly outgrown the powers of a single teenager.
The con goes down
DashCon 2014 took place July 11 through 13 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel in Schaumburg, Illinois. Even though the finances and logistics of the event were being managed by others, O’Neil still headed up marketing efforts, and was on hand when the convention got underway.
The ways in which DashCon fell apart are well documented by internet historians, and were fodder for pop culture blogs for weeks after the fact. Reported attendance was only in the hundreds, a mere fraction of the estimated crowd. Special guests and vendors either canceled or were not properly secured in the first place. At one point, O’Neil said she and others were locked out of her hotel room, along with other DashCon guests, because the hotel bills hadn’t been paid by the event’s organizers.
“It was terrifying. I was hungry and scared,” O’Neil recalled. At one point on the second day of the event, organizers gave O’Neil a paper bag and asked her to approach the con’s remaining guests to ask for donations to make up the roughly $17,000 they said they needed to keep the con afloat.
And then, there was the issue of the ball pit.
One of O’Neil’s original ideas, when hope was high and life worth living, was to have a giant ball pit at the event. Everyone loves a ball pit, and it felt right for DashCon’s vibe. (“Ball pits are also great enrichment for ferrets,” she added.) The con’s organizers assured her she would get her wish.
As the underripe fruit of her Tumblr imagination withered around her, improperly tended by people beyond her age and experience, the confused 17-year-old sought out that one last consolation. It was a sad affair: A single, shallow blue kiddie pool with colorful balls rolling over its lumpy edges.
“I thought, ‘At least I have my ball pit.” So I went to a Taco Bell, I got some chips and nacho cheese. I came back and I found the ball pit, and it did not feel real,” O’Neil said.
“You know how sometimes you feel like you’re in a dream? It was this, but it was horrifying. A nightmare. And I just kind of sat in it and ate my cheese.”
More than the larger issues of mismanagement, more than the disappointed few hundred Tumblr users who showed up to the con, and the thousands more who watched the event break down in real time online, the ball pit of dissociation became the enduring emblem of DashCon: something fun and full of promise, now deflated and alone on the floor of a convention room in Schaumberg, Illinois.
However, it wasn’t all bad. If you’re nerdy, or really into animal husbandry, or write 100,000-word romantic epics about Harry Potter in your free time, you’re bound to feel a little deflated and alone sometimes. You learn to not let it diminish the joy of your pursuits. O’Neil said everyone she actually met at the convention was lovely and friendly and had the kind of spirit that inspired her to conceive of DashCon in the first place.
“I always felt like Tumblr was a place where I could really be myself,” O’Neil said. “There are people that are always posting weird things. But then it makes you feel like maybe you too can be a little weird.”
The big lessons
The failure of Dashcon wasn’t all memes and jokes about ball pits. There were serious questions in the aftermath about financial issues, and O’Neil said she was the target of pointed criticism from Tumblr users. She said she even received death threats over her perceived role in the event.
“I think first of all, this was the first kind of convention of its kind. It was one of the first times people on social media, as far as I know, decided to have a convention just for themselves, by themselves. When we began, nobody was professional. Nobody knew what they were doing. They were just enthusiastic and excited.”
“I was also literally a minor,” she added.
O’Neil doesn’t use Tumblr nearly as often anymore. Tumblr’s influence peaked around 2014. Around the same time, it underwent a series of ownership changes, and the platform never regained its initial level of social relevance.
Still, for better or worse, DashCon and O’Neil’s involvement in it are forever cemented in the annals of internet culture. There’s the worse, of course: O’Neil, now 26, is still wary about revealing her identity and location when she attends cosplay conventions or speaks on panels. She learned, in short and traumatizing order, how big of a gap there is between a dream and a functioning reality.
The better is, well, better. O’Neil is still friends with people she met at the event. She said people still send her cosplays of the infamous ball pit, almost 10 years later. It’s just another sign of how deep the event has etched itself in peoples’ memories; not in a place of derision, but in a place of absurd, almost disbelieving fondness.
“It was a terrible convention,” she said. “But it wasn’t the first terrible convention, and it won’t be the last. As we move forward in the future, people are always going to have big, creative ideas. They’re going to get excited, and they may not know their own capacity. And when that happens, others are going to say, ‘Don’t you remember DashCon?’”
Former President Donald Trump is on the brink of a significant financial decision that could have far-reaching implications for both his personal wealth and the future of his fledgling social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). As the lockup period on his shares in TMTG, which owns Truth Social, nears its end, Trump could soon be free to sell his substantial stake in the company. However, the potential payday, which makes up a large portion of his net worth, comes with considerable risks for Trump and his supporters.
Trump’s stake in TMTG comprises nearly 59% of the company, amounting to 114,750,000 shares. As of now, this holding is valued at approximately $2.6 billion. These shares are currently under a lockup agreement, a common feature of initial public offerings (IPOs), designed to prevent company insiders from immediately selling their shares and potentially destabilizing the stock. The lockup, which began after TMTG’s merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), is set to expire on September 25, though it could end earlier if certain conditions are met.
Should Trump decide to sell his shares after the lockup expires, the market could respond in unpredictable ways. The sale of a substantial number of shares by a major stakeholder like Trump could flood the market, potentially driving down the stock price. Daniel Bradley, a finance professor at the University of South Florida, suggests that the market might react negatively to such a large sale, particularly if there aren’t enough buyers to absorb the supply. This could lead to a sharp decline in the stock’s value, impacting both Trump’s personal wealth and the company’s market standing.
Moreover, Trump’s involvement in Truth Social has been a key driver of investor interest. The platform, marketed as a free speech alternative to mainstream social media, has attracted a loyal user base largely due to Trump’s presence. If Trump were to sell his stake, it might signal a lack of confidence in the company, potentially shaking investor confidence and further depressing the stock price.
Trump’s decision is also influenced by his ongoing legal battles, which have already cost him over $100 million in legal fees. Selling his shares could provide a significant financial boost, helping him cover these mounting expenses. However, this move could also have political ramifications, especially as he continues his bid for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential race.
Trump Media’s success is closely tied to Trump’s political fortunes. The company’s stock has shown volatility in response to developments in the presidential race, with Trump’s chances of winning having a direct impact on the stock’s value. If Trump sells his stake, it could be interpreted as a lack of confidence in his own political future, potentially undermining both his campaign and the company’s prospects.
Truth Social, the flagship product of TMTG, has faced challenges in generating traffic and advertising revenue, especially compared to established social media giants like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. Despite this, the company’s valuation has remained high, fueled by investor speculation on Trump’s political future. If Trump remains in the race and manages to secure the presidency, the value of his shares could increase. Conversely, any missteps on the campaign trail could have the opposite effect, further destabilizing the stock.
As the lockup period comes to an end, Trump faces a critical decision that could shape the future of both his personal finances and Truth Social. Whether he chooses to hold onto his shares or cash out, the outcome will likely have significant consequences for the company, its investors, and Trump’s political aspirations.
Cochise County, AZ — Law enforcement officials in Arizona have apprehended Ronald Lee Syvrud, a 66-year-old resident of Cochise County, after a manhunt was launched following alleged death threats he made against former President Donald Trump. The threats reportedly surfaced in social media posts over the past two weeks, as Trump visited the US-Mexico border in Cochise County on Thursday.
Syvrud, who hails from Benson, Arizona, located about 50 miles southeast of Tucson, was captured by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday afternoon. The Sheriff’s Office confirmed his arrest, stating, “This subject has been taken into custody without incident.”
In addition to the alleged threats against Trump, Syvrud is wanted for multiple offences, including failure to register as a sex offender. He also faces several warrants in both Wisconsin and Arizona, including charges for driving under the influence and a felony hit-and-run.
The timing of the arrest coincided with Trump’s visit to Cochise County, where he toured the US-Mexico border. During his visit, Trump addressed the ongoing border issues and criticized his political rival, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, for what he described as lax immigration policies. When asked by reporters about the ongoing manhunt for Syvrud, Trump responded, “No, I have not heard that, but I am not that surprised and the reason is because I want to do things that are very bad for the bad guys.”
This incident marks the latest in a series of threats against political figures during the current election cycle. Just earlier this month, a 66-year-old Virginia man was arrested on suspicion of making death threats against Vice President Kamala Harris and other public officials.
Media
Trump Media & Technology Group Faces Declining Stock Amid Financial Struggles and Increased Competition
Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock has taken a significant hit, dropping more than 11% this week following a disappointing earnings report and the return of former U.S. President Donald Trump to the rival social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. This decline is part of a broader downward trend for the parent company of Truth Social, with the stock plummeting nearly 43% since mid-July. Despite the sharp decline, some investors remain unfazed, expressing continued optimism for the company’s financial future or standing by their investment as a show of political support for Trump.
One such investor, Todd Schlanger, an interior designer from West Palm Beach, explained his commitment to the stock, stating, “I’m a Republican, so I supported him. When I found out about the stock, I got involved because I support the company and believe in free speech.” Schlanger, who owns around 1,000 shares, is a regular user of Truth Social and is excited about the company’s future, particularly its plans to expand its streaming services. He believes Truth Social has the potential to be as strong as Facebook or X, despite the stock’s recent struggles.
However, Truth Social’s stock performance is deeply tied to Trump’s political influence and the company’s ability to generate sustainable revenue, which has proven challenging. An earnings report released last Friday showed the company lost over $16 million in the three-month period ending in June. Revenue dropped by 30%, down to approximately $836,000 compared to $1.2 million during the same period last year.
In response to the earnings report, Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes emphasized the company’s strong cash position, highlighting $344 million in cash reserves and no debt. He also reiterated the company’s commitment to free speech, stating, “From the beginning, it was our intention to make Truth Social an impenetrable beachhead of free speech, and by taking extraordinary steps to minimize our reliance on Big Tech, that is exactly what we are doing.”
Despite these assurances, investors reacted negatively to the quarterly report, leading to a steep drop in stock price. The situation was further complicated by Trump’s return to X, where he posted for the first time in a year. Trump’s exclusivity agreement with Trump Media & Technology Group mandates that he posts personal content first on Truth Social. However, he is allowed to make politically related posts on other social media platforms, which he did earlier this week, potentially drawing users away from Truth Social.
For investors like Teri Lynn Roberson, who purchased shares near the company’s peak after it went public in March, the decline in stock value has been disheartening. However, Roberson remains unbothered by the poor performance, saying her investment was more about supporting Trump than making money. “I’m way at a loss, but I am OK with that. I am just watching it for fun,” Roberson said, adding that she sees Trump’s return to X as a positive move that could expand his reach beyond Truth Social’s “echo chamber.”
The stock’s performance holds significant financial implications for Trump himself, as he owns a 65% stake in Trump Media & Technology Group. According to Fortune, this stake represents a substantial portion of his net worth, which could be vulnerable if the company continues to struggle financially.
Analysts have described Truth Social as a “meme stock,” similar to companies like GameStop and AMC that saw their stock prices driven by ideological investments rather than business fundamentals. Tyler Richey, an analyst at Sevens Report Research, noted that the stock has ebbed and flowed based on sentiment toward Trump. He pointed out that the recent decline coincided with the rise of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, which may have dampened perceptions of Trump’s 2024 election prospects.
Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida, offered a grim long-term outlook for Truth Social, suggesting that the stock would likely remain volatile, but with an overall downward trend. “What’s lacking for the true believer in the company story is, ‘OK, where is the business strategy that will be generating revenue?'” Ritter said, highlighting the company’s struggle to produce a sustainable business model.
Still, for some investors, like Michael Rogers, a masonry company owner in North Carolina, their support for Trump Media & Technology Group is unwavering. Rogers, who owns over 10,000 shares, said he invested in the company both as a show of support for Trump and because of his belief in the company’s financial future. Despite concerns about the company’s revenue challenges, Rogers expressed confidence in the business, stating, “I’m in it for the long haul.”
Not all investors are as confident. Mitchell Standley, who made a significant return on his investment earlier this year by capitalizing on the hype surrounding Trump Media’s planned merger with Digital World Acquisition Corporation, has since moved on. “It was basically just a pump and dump,” Standley told ABC News. “I knew that once they merged, all of his supporters were going to dump a bunch of money into it and buy it up.” Now, Standley is staying away from the company, citing the lack of business fundamentals as the reason for his exit.
Truth Social’s future remains uncertain as it continues to struggle with financial losses and faces stiff competition from established social media platforms. While its user base and investor sentiment are bolstered by Trump’s political following, the company’s long-term viability will depend on its ability to create a sustainable revenue stream and maintain relevance in a crowded digital landscape.
As the company seeks to stabilize, the question remains whether its appeal to Trump’s supporters can translate into financial success or whether it will remain a volatile stock driven more by ideology than business fundamentals.
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