It's not a big secret that I've never quite understood the LOLCATS and the whole phenomenon.

But it is a juggernaut. A big, cute, funny speaking juggernaut.

One of the late afternoon sessions gets to the heart of LOL-dom: "LOLCATS: I can HAS a case study?"

In the line-up:

Ryan Iverson and Arija Weddle, (LOLSecretz)

Martin Grondin, (LOLCat Bible)

Stephen Granade (LOLTrek)

Adam Lindsay, (LOLCode)

Ben "Cheez" Huh (I Can Has Cheezburger)

How did something as simple, bizarre and (cute?) become a forest fire-like phenomenon? How do these people do it? Where do the cats come from? Can we MAKES money on it?

The truth is that the people behind some of the popular LOL-sites (the LOL-o-Sphere?) aren't entirely sure themselves, but they know you shouldn't fight it.

"The idea is bigger than you, you are nothing," said Lindsay. "If its is successful you are the midwife, helping it into the world."

That line got more than a few chuckles and groans, but Grande backed him up - "I you try to control it or own a meme you’re going to squash it," he said.

Most of the sites are dependent on submitted photos and captions from users, which can be a good thing and bad thing. It's pure, unfiltered creativity from the masses, but it can also get weird.

Weddle, of the now defunct LOLSecretz, said cat people are the worse, insisting that the cats themselves were sending in their innermost thoughts..and not the owners, of course.

Huh - who is CEO (CEO!) of I Can Has Cheezburger, which now has 8 employees - said they get plenty of hate mail, particularly from cat people who know their kitty has better grammar than any LOLCat.

The best part is, even for the LOL-makers, the experience is just as surreal for them as it is for us. No one expected LOLspeak to take off, or for the enthusiasm around cats to be as big as it is.

"I'm starring at a room of people right now and it's kind of mind blowing," said Iverson.

Keep checking in and don’t forget the Twitter feed.

Also I've got a Flickr stream of ROFLCon up.

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