At the internet culture conference ROFLCON in May, the assembled geek digerati were asked during one panel if they were readers of 4chan, the legendary butthole of the internet. A bare smattering of hands went up in the MIT lecture hall.

Web 2.0 Expo this week persuaded that not only was Web 2.0 over, but saying it was over was over. To celebrate other Internet clichés, the 250 — that is to say, the 250 people on the Internet who matter to the 250 — decamped for ROFLcon in Massachusetts. Thank goodness, because some of us had actual work to do.…

ROFLcon, the Internet-in-joke gathering in Cambridge, Mass., has accepted corporate sponsorship — perhaps the most pervasive of all Internet memes. The giveaway bag all attendees received included a can of Brawndo, the faux "thirst mutilator" sports drink from Idiocracy, an obscure dystopian comedy whose popularity…

CAMBRIDGE, MA — There's still hope, future. A full half of the people behind ROFLcon, the world's largest concentration of Internet-inspired pop-culture trends in one room, are female. Or, as they might put it, IRL LULZ 50% XX! As it's now officially impossible to host a tech-related conference without asking, …