Yes, these are real examples, and there are many more, such as the high school student whose status as an online expert in graphic design seriously declined when people learned his age (which shouldn't have meant anything, but apparently did). Over the years I've collected examples of this sort, but today I have no idea where I've tucked them away, and at present I'm not about to go looking for them, and they're probably link-rot by now anyway.

Each of these examples (not including Amazon reviewers who still maintain their status) hails from a period distinctly different than that of today. They, and numerous others like them, are still referred to, perhaps even touted as examples of how the internet is different. But today they belong more in history texts than in explanations of how the internet works. Seeing them as the rule rather than the exception is an exercise in wishful thinking. Today becoming famous via the web is more often the result of doing something so embarrassing that we become a meme than by something positive that we might do.