in which a good person is kind

My son Ryan was home from college all week for Spring Break, and I kept expecting him to grab one of my logged-into-Twitter devices to tell the world how awesome I think he is. (I pretend to get all mad, but I secretly love it when he does this.)

Today, he went back to school, and I went out to meet a friend for lunch. We left the house at the same time, and when I got back and logged into Twitter, I saw this:

Who’s the greatest? Ryan. He’s the greatest. Someone should make a website named RyanWheatonEqualsGreatest.com. 

My first thought was, “I’m so glad he did that.” My second thought was, “Oh fuck. Some dick is going to buy that domain and do something horrible with it.”

Ryan is tremendously kind, and isn't the sort who would think "I better not do this, because someone may do something really terrible with it," but I've been around the block and through the wringer a few times, so I put the URL into Chrome, and steeled myself for the worst … but instead I saw that someone had indeed bought it, and made it go to the post he made on Twitter from my account.

I’m really lucky for a lot of reasons, but I’m especially grateful to interact with people on the Internet who are, for the most part, good people. I don’t know who bought RyanWheatonEqualsGreatest.com (whois is all protected and anonymized and locked and stuff), but whoever did it is a good person.

If you’re reading this, Person Who Bought RyanWheatonEqualsGreatest.com And Didn’t Do Something Cruel With It, please get in touch with me; I’d like to give you something awesome as a thank you.

64 thoughts on “in which a good person is kind”

  5. I haven’t been on this site in a really long time. I wanted to post something, but not really sure where I can make a general comment, so I’m just going to tag along this post of comments. I did read it because I wanted to post on a more whimiscal post. Like I said, I haven’t read this blog in a long time and I cannot believe Ryan is in college. Whoa. In any case, here’s my general comment that has nothing to do with this post:
    You should be on Dancing with the Stars. I’m skimming through it and see that Ralph Macchio is on it and he reminded me of you. Wil Wheaton for Dancing with the Stars 2012 Season 13. Whowhee.

  6. New corollaries to the Internet F*ckwad Theory-
    Internet Awesomeness Theory:
    Geek/Nerd + Anonymity + Audience = Awesomeness
    Internet Geek Awesomeness Catalyst Theory:
    Geeky/Nerd + Anon. + Audience + Geeky Awesomeness = Urge to keep it going
    Thus the success of Child’s Play.

  8. I feel the very same way about my son, Phillip. He’s brilliant, considerate, funny, and becoming a far better man than I – although he would disagree. I understand the pride you feel. It makes your heart swell to the point of tears.
    Life’s blessings can seem few, but they pale in comparison to the joy and pride in watching one’s child(ren) grow, flourish, succeed, and become someone others look up to and admire.
    BTW – I love your cameos on BBT!

  12. It’s amazing how such a simple nice gesture can send ripples of goodwill through humankind. Way to go Brian!
    Wheaton’s First Law: Don’t be a dick. (See Brain Middleton) 😉

  13. Hey Wil – great story!.
    It reminded me a little of when I got your autograph last year at PAX Prime. We had a friend who couldn’t make it there, and so (based on something funny he said the night before) I had asked you to sign something for him with a sort of sassy statement. Now to me, it’s totally harmless and would have provided a good laugh for us later on. However, you paused and adjusted the message to be more playful and less “problematic” should it posted publicly later on. (“OMG, you won’t believe what Wil Wheaton wrote!”) It caught me a little off-guard at the moment, but I completely understood what you were doing and why. However, it had never occured to me at that time that someone would do something less than honorable with the comment. I have the pleasure of living in relative anonymity and don’t often have to worry about how someone might misuse something I said or wrote. It’s a little sad that for folks such as yourself have to be constantly wary for potential d*ckitry due to your celebrity status and you can’t always cut loose and relax like you might like to. I’m glad that this had a positive outcome due to the power of the awesome fans out there.
    Cheers to you (and Ryan) and the fan who bought that website ~

  14. Mister, nice people deserve a beer. There’s one waiting for you in Copenhagen, Denmark, if you ever come by — along with a guided tour of the town.

Comments are closed.

Related Posts

Recent Posts