Most things that go viral actually have a concerted marketing push behind them. I suspect that was the case here. Something about the way people talked about it didn't come across as very genuine.
As someone who attended numerous meetups from the author and saw the vibe among those events, believe me it was as genuine as it can get.
As someone who attended numerous meetups from the author and saw the vibe among those events, believe me it was as genuine as it can get.