An Oral History of Something Awful • Hacker News Board

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#31

Post by throwaway13337 » Sat, Apr 15, 2017, 8:39 PM UTC

Scuds wrote: post #13

I have all sorts of conflicted feelings about my time with SA during the Bush years when I was a college student. It was fun, but I think the time I spent there cost me a point or two off my GPA. The people I knew of that went off to the Microsofts, Googles, Apples, and various startups of the world were more focused in their studies and their technical passions and didn't pay too much attention to many of the things…

On the other hand, a lot of successes spawned from something awful forums - e.g. Cards Against Humanity.

When you look back at those successful people everyone so desperately want to be, in tech a least, they often frequent various types of message boards.

Reading forums won't cause you to not be successful in life. Not doing stuff will.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#32

Post by lsadam0 » Sat, Apr 15, 2017, 8:42 PM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #17

philipkglass wrote: post #9

SA was great during the GWB years. The developer forum had really smart and helpful users. The Photoshop challenges produced work that was significantly better than what floats up to r/all today. The political arguments were vicious and pretty smart. The front page could almost always make me laugh. Another brilliant monetization not mentioned in the article: you could pay to customize your own user image and title.…

The SA you describe still exists, and it still has those things you mention. A lot of people (including SA posters) say it's not as good as it used to be, but that may be the same phenomenon HN users complain about when they say HN used to be better back in the day.

I've not logged into my account in a decade. I suspect that SA didn't change, I think we've changed. Getting older sucks.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#33

Post by lsadam0 » Sat, Apr 15, 2017, 8:43 PM UTC

edkennedy wrote: post #26

philipkglass wrote: post #9

SA was great during the GWB years. The developer forum had really smart and helpful users. The Photoshop challenges produced work that was significantly better than what floats up to r/all today. The political arguments were vicious and pretty smart. The front page could almost always make me laugh. Another brilliant monetization not mentioned in the article: you could pay to customize your own user image and title.…

The 9/11 thread was pretty shocking. Two things stuck in my memory from GBS/SA, the "All your base" thread and the 9/11 thread.

But you laughed.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#34

Post by lsadam0 » Sat, Apr 15, 2017, 8:46 PM UTC

Scuds wrote: post #13

I have all sorts of conflicted feelings about my time with SA during the Bush years when I was a college student. It was fun, but I think the time I spent there cost me a point or two off my GPA. The people I knew of that went off to the Microsofts, Googles, Apples, and various startups of the world were more focused in their studies and their technical passions and didn't pay too much attention to many of the things…

"Message boards are not where the 'A' players of the world spend their time."

Effectively posted on a message board. My eyes are rolling out of my fucking head. I spent the GWB years on SA. There were many brilliant people there. Dare I say, they spurred me into learning more. You get what you give.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#35

Post by lsadam0 » Sat, Apr 15, 2017, 8:48 PM UTC

hashhar wrote: post #16

lobo_tuerto wrote: post #7

Wow that site feels slugish on a Core i7 + GTX 970 with 16 gigs of RAM.

I'm amazed. What browser do you use? Firefox is flying by really well (that too on a Core i3 5th gen + NVIDIA 920m with 8GB RAM). This sounds nuts.

My money is on IE. No self respecting, self aware, SA reader ever used INERNAT EXPLRAR.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#36

Post by jschwartzi » Sat, Apr 15, 2017, 9:13 PM UTC

Scuds wrote: post #13

I have all sorts of conflicted feelings about my time with SA during the Bush years when I was a college student. It was fun, but I think the time I spent there cost me a point or two off my GPA. The people I knew of that went off to the Microsofts, Googles, Apples, and various startups of the world were more focused in their studies and their technical passions and didn't pay too much attention to many of the things…

I'll basically never be an A player, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. The world needs B, C, D, E, and F players too.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#37

Post by sdenton4 » Sat, Apr 15, 2017, 9:14 PM UTC

Scuds wrote: post #13

I have all sorts of conflicted feelings about my time with SA during the Bush years when I was a college student. It was fun, but I think the time I spent there cost me a point or two off my GPA. The people I knew of that went off to the Microsofts, Googles, Apples, and various startups of the world were more focused in their studies and their technical passions and didn't pay too much attention to many of the things…

And what of Twitter?

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#38

Post by eltoozero » Sat, Apr 15, 2017, 9:15 PM UTC

mrbill wrote: post #2

I read this about a week ago and it is very well done. I've not logged into SA (I only used the forums) in a couple of years at least, glad to see they're still existing. I still use a torrent site that was a SA spinoff.

You sure? I heard that went down with what.cd?

So I hear.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#39

Post by throwaway13338 » Sat, Apr 15, 2017, 9:15 PM UTC

Scuds wrote: post #13

I have all sorts of conflicted feelings about my time with SA during the Bush years when I was a college student. It was fun, but I think the time I spent there cost me a point or two off my GPA. The people I knew of that went off to the Microsofts, Googles, Apples, and various startups of the world were more focused in their studies and their technical passions and didn't pay too much attention to many of the things…

I also lost a point or two off my GPA playing WoW/EVE, and lurking 4chan. Now I work at Google and life isn't nearly as fun.

Some days I wish I could go back, so cheer up m8.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#40

Post by tenpies » Sat, Apr 15, 2017, 9:34 PM UTC

philipkglass wrote: post #9

SA was great during the GWB years. The developer forum had really smart and helpful users. The Photoshop challenges produced work that was significantly better than what floats up to r/all today. The political arguments were vicious and pretty smart. The front page could almost always make me laugh. Another brilliant monetization not mentioned in the article: you could pay to customize your own user image and title.…

It's also worth noting what an important role the SA file sharing forums had on on SA and the file-sharing scene. Many of today's private file-sharing communities are direct descendants of what began as "No Mp3s" and "Don't Post Porn Here". It was terrible for the SA community, but I'm sure all the bans for "where the filez @" posts were quite good at mitigating server expenses.