Any topic can and will become divisive on a blog. Even petty issues, like the change of Harry Potter’s release date, aren’t safe from debate. That’s why Eric Smith, proprietor of Geekadelphia.com, is an anomaly in the online nerd community. Rather than capitalize off discontent, he’s supporting his fellow geeks. He blogs about do-it-yourself projects, posts pictures of cakes shaped like video game characters, and organizes geek-centric events, such as the upcoming Iron Man party. Of course, all this philanthropy doesn’t make him any less of a geek: When I tried to secure an in-person interview with him, he insisted we speak over “Gchat” instead.
The Temple News: How did you get your job?
Eric: It was a self-started project by myself and one of my close friends, Tim Quirino. We just wanted a place to ramble about things that interested us and have a site to host whatever silly videos we’d make.
TTN: It seems like Philadelphia has a pretty large and involved blogging community. Was there a desire to be a part of that with Geekadelphia, or was it really just for your own sake?
Eric: Philly’s blogging community is made up of some of the most fun and creative people in the city. One of our writers is trying to do a weekly feature on a Philly blogger. We’re trying to take advantage of our site’s traffic to help out our friends. Everyone should do that.
TTN: How do you think Philly’s geek scene is distinct, if it is at all?
Eric: The Philadelphia geek scene is full of do-it-yourself entrepreneurs who are pretty much all about giving back to the community. The Hacktory, Indy Hall and the iSepta people are awesome examples of that.
TTN: Where do you think the future of the geek community is in Philadelphia?
Eric: I think a lot of it lies with big, community building events. The more these people get together, the bigger the projects seem to become. I mean, it wasn’t too long ago that Philly had its first Ignite event at Johnny Brenda’s. I’m sure plenty of geeks got together because of that.
TTN: Do you think geek is the future? Or are we still an outsider subculture?
Eric: I think geeks are slowly becoming a more accepted presence, sure. Personally, I’d rather see a Shia Labouf movie these days instead of an Arnold Schwarzenegger flick.
TTN: Do you and Tim pay any bills with Geekadelphia? Is there any kind of monetary benefit to being a part of that community?
Eric: Nope, no money whatsoever. We’re going to start selling ads, but right now we only make enough to pay for our hosting.
TTN: So what do you find yourself geeking out to lately?
Eric: Anything in regards to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Sam & Max. I’ve been waiting for those two games forever. Also, any news related to that Outlander movie – that looks so horrible and I can’t wait to see it.
TTN: Dude, I have high hopes for Outlander. I’m really into that kind of awesome, B-movie stuff. I just really like the idea of a group of guys using other people’s money to purposely make bad movies.
Eric: I don’t know, man. It looks like one of those movies that’s going to be so bad, it’s amazing, (i.e. Starship Troopers).
TTN: So what are your plans for the future, aside from crash-landing back on earth to fight an alien?
Eric: Well, we want to start throwing more events, and we’ll be launching a podcast, thanks to Benjamin Gilbert, [a senior journalism major], in the very near future. We also just launched a comic strip.
Garrett Smith can be reached at garrett.smith@temple.edu.
I didn’t think Eric was a nerd haha. He aint that nice ;-), he only gets all my emails from work and uses them for secret projects LOL
“Of course, all this philanthropy doesn’t make him any less of a geek: When I tried to secure an in-person interview with him, he insisted we speak over “Gchat” instead.”
Yep. That’s Eric!
Eric Smith is the best!