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An Oral History of Something Awful

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Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#41

Post by allenz »

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 think that it's reasonable to feel conflicted. The internet is interesting and addictive, especially the social corners. Other commenters have pointed out that SA, HN, FB, etc are potent time sinks--it's all too easy to spend more time than you should. Of course, whether a site is a good use of time isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. It can be productive to skim the news for 10 minutes a day.

It's a good habit to periodically reflect: would I be happier spending more time there, or would I be happier spending more time [working on that side project, with my family, watching a movie, hiking, etc]. Most highly effective people 'waste' their time too, just that they're aware of the decisions they make, and strike a good balance. It's important not to let play get in the way of work, but work isn't the only thing worth living for.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#42

Post by nyolfen »

cloakandswagger wrote: post #27
enraged_camel wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

SA was the first forum I really got involved in and I posted there for years. When I was there I thought it was the pinnacle of comedy; I'd never been exposed to that brand of humor before it, and I thought it was genius. When I look at SA today it just seems juvenile and try-hard. Really, painfully unfunny. I think part of it has to do with the stricter moderation; SA in the early 2000s was 4chan before I knew there…

>When I look at SA today it just seems juvenile and try-hard. Really, painfully unfunny.

this is how trends work. the originators are truly creative and interesting, but over time the paths they forge spread across populations, and inspire increasingly poorly executed knock-offs. eventually it becomes embarrassing for earlier adopters.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#43

Post by shrimp_emoji »

subway wrote: post #4
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.

Spin-off of a spin-off of a spin-off... Edit:Wow, downvotes for making an oblique reference to the fact the SA offshoot torrent sites have disappeared and reappeared under new names a half dozen times in the last decade.

Edit2: Wow, more downvotes for... fades into the beigy haze

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#44

Post by mrbill »

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.

Wow, downvoted and I didn't even give specifics of which offshoot site it was.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#45

Post by ue_ »

compuder wrote: post #25
djsumdog wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voat had a lot of promise, but it's degraded into a cesspool of racism.

Voat had remarkably little promise and followed the standard tragectory of sites designed to clone a site for angry users jumping ship. Moot, founder of 4chan, had some good comments about the phenomenon during his resignation: >To single out 420chan, it’s actually one of the imageboards that I have actually respected over the years. I think that what's kind of defined a lot of image boards, even going back to the fi…

>or a wrestling board

It does now, in the form of /asp/ I think :)

However I don't know how well moot's prediction of fizzling out holds for say 8chan, which has started to very much grow in popularity; granted, having roughly some of the same popular boards as 4chan (except for where moderation doesn't matter, like on NSFW boards) but with some interesting and nice top boards, like /leftypol/ which 4chan would never host.

I remember being on 4chan when the total amount of content currently hosted was listed as 50GB. And I thought it would be going down.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#46

Post by [deleted] »

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.…

[deleted]

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#47

Post by xenadu02 »

The best times were when the internet was rapidly spreading but old people didn't understand how easy it was to fake thing. So many local news broadcasts punked. A lot of those early dot-com memes and hoaxes got their start on SA. It was way too easy back then and a bit more innocent. Goatse'ing a live on-air broadcast is gross but doesn't undermine democracy.

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#49

Post by vasili111 »

cloakandswagger wrote: post #28
mabbo wrote: post #8

Something Awful really set the stage for a lot of what followed in internet culture. "Let's Play" spawned from it. The template of the modern meme. 4chan's culture was really seeded with a lot of people kicked out of SA, which steered it in an interesting direction. But it maintained quality via community, and through a simple $10 barrier. Rules were followed because they were simple and mutually agreed with. I don't…

There are many private forums still out there that are invite-only or have an entry fee, and some of them have communities as large and "healthy" as SA during its hay day

How to find them? Any links or requirements to get links, etc?

Re: An Oral History of Something Awful

#50

Post by swang »

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.

i have no idea why but i remember you from some old efnet channels and SA as well... can't remember what you did though.
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