Thursday, July 7, 2011

[NEWS] Se7en celebrates with Pyeongchang (and spammers) on coincidental “Seven Day”


July 7 is known as “Seven Day” to fans of Se7en. This year, that day turned out to be a little more significant than usual.

As some of you may know, Pyeongchang, South Korea was announced as the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games after the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s final vote earlier today, after two unsuccessful bids in the past 8 years by the city to host the 2010 and 2014 Games. Coincidentally, the announcement occurred on July 7 in Korea’s timezone, which is “Seven Day”, to mark an event that would occur seven years from now, in 2018. Furthermore, Pyeongchang was even assigned the number seven for voting procedures! Noting the oddities, shortly after the announcement, Se7en himself Tweeted,

“Today is July 7, Se7en Day! For the past 8 years, this day was a celebration only for myself and my Lucky Sevens [referring to his fan club]… But this time, Se7en Day is for the whole country! Pyeongchang! Pyeongchang! Pyeongchang! GO~ KOREA!!! YEAH~”

That’s not the whole story, though. Amidst a mood of national celebration, some netizens noticed the whole coincidence, many rushed over to Se7en Gallery on DCInside, a massive Korean online forum known for its somewhat unique culture, and started mass-spamming the gallery with relevant celebratory messages, effectively paralyzing the subforum’s function. This practice is fairly common within DC’s culture, but Se7en Gallery has a particular reputation for being attacked in this manner whenever netizens find a semi-plausible connection between a big event and the number 7. Fortunately, the spam died down fairly quickly.

Se7en himself, apparently aware of the spamming in his fan gallery, took it in stride: he posted a second Tweet, saying “On July 7, for a Winter Olympics in seven years, voting code #7 Pyeongchang… [so] on Se7en Day, Se7en Gallery is getting absolutely mauled!!! But it’s for a great reason, it’s all right.

The spam is being cleaned up at the moment, and it appears that Se7en Gallers are similarly taking the incident in good humor. A successful Olympic bid, a surprising turn of coincidences, and a netizen stampede: an eventful way for fans to celebrate their star’s significant day, no?

Sources: NewsEn, OfficialSe7en on Twitter, Se7en Gallery on DCInside
credit: hellokpop+luckyse7en on tumblr

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