Questions We Are Frequently Asked
Q. Who are you?
A. Hank and John Green have been brothers for more than twenty-six years. Hank is an
ecogeek, writer, and web designer who lives in Montana. John is a writer (her wrote the novels
Looking for Alaska and
An Abundance of Katherines) who lives in New York City.
Q. What is Brotherhood 2.0?
A. After noticing that their relationship had been for years consisted primarily of emails and instant messages, John and Hank swore off all textual communication with each other for 2007. Instead, we are making public video blogs back and forth every weekday for the entire year. (We get holidays off.)
Q. What happens if you fail to update on your appointed date?
A. The person who fails to update will be punished. Punishments are suggested by viewers, and then the actual punishment is chosen for the sinner by his brother. Other infractions can also result in punishment. The first punishment was chosen by Hank for John: On February 5th, John waxed his chin.
Q. What’s the deadline for each day?
A. Midnight eastern time.
Q. Are you still allowed to call each other on the phone?
A. Yes, although Hank and John don’t really like the phone and hardly ever call each other about anything other than the video blog. One of the things we’re trying to do here is to make our siblinghood transparent and public to the extent that it’s practical.
Q. Isn’t it textual communication when you comment on each other’s vlogs?
A. Not really. We’re participating as viewers just like all the other viewers. It would be textual communication if, say, John left a comment saying, “Great video. By the way, you need to call Mom and Dad.” But it’s not direct textual communication to say, “It was funny when Hank rode the bulldog.”
Q. In your introductory animation, it says “365 Days of Communcation.” Can you not spell or something?
A. We can spell just fine, thanks. We left the I out to remind our viewers: THERE IS NO I IN BROTHERHOOD.
Q. That’s stupid.
A. Okay, we couldn’t make the animation work with the correct spelling. It kept breaking.
Q. The intro says that you are going to have “365 Days” of textless communication, but you don’t post on weekends? What gives?
A. We get a lot of questions about semantics. It’s almost like all our fans are librarians and editors or something. Anyway, you do not need to post a video blog in order to have textless communication.
Q. Why does John call his wife the Yeti?
A. Watch the video from January 2nd.
Q. What’s the song from the intro?
A. It’s Death Cab for Cutie’s “Brothers on a Hotel Bed.”
Q. What is all this crap about In Your Pants?
A. It’s complicated. But it all started with
our friend Maureen.
Q. Why does the audio not sync well on some of the early videos?
A. We didn’t know what the hell we were doing.
Q. What equipment do you use?
A. Hank and John own identical Canon Elura 100 camcorders, which their parents bought them on Christmas Eve 2006. They both edit their videos in imovie.
Q. Is this a hoax?
A. No.
Q. What do your parents think about this?
A. As Dad said in comments, “The parents are bemused but supportive.” This nicely captures their feeling toward us generally.
If you have other questions, post them in comments and we'll answer.
