Something Awful Forums

The forum list, as seen by an unregistered guest.

The Something Awful Forums are a group of general discussion internet message boards which accompany the humour website Something Awful. As of March 2006 the forums have received over 34 million posts by over 70,000 members[1], and remain notably popular despite the unusual feature of charging an initial fee for access[2].

The forums were created in the late nineties by internet businessman Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka, who now makes a living from the message boards by selling advertising to members and offering premium services such as access to archives of old forum posts. They run on a heavily modified version of the vBulletin software. The site, like many other message boards, is primarily frequented by persons between the ages of 15 and 35. Members famously refer to their fellow forumgoers as "goons", a phrase which originated as an insult meant to imply that the members were subservient minions of Kyanka, the site's owner [3].

History

The Something Awful Forums were started in the late 1999 to serve discussion of Something Awful's humor articles. Some major decisions were made early on, such as to keep the forums heavily moderated in order to encourage high-quality posting, and to charge $10 for registration.

The $10 registration fee occurred when a poster known as "TastyArmageddon" became a nuisance to the board members. He would create accounts solely to annoy other posters, some of the more infamous being ones like "TriangleMan", where he would post pictures of triangles or "Magic 8Ball", where he would post pictures of Magic 8 balls. He eventually was creating 62 accounts per day, so the webmaster, Lowtax, decided to charge $10 entry fee just to keep the kid out, as he would be unlikely to pay $10 just to get banned. The plan worked better then he could have guessed. The "idiot filter" helped keep conversations intelligent, and word of mouth spread how great the forums were.

Hurricane Katrina

Something Awful and the forums were down between September 1st and September 5th of 2005 when Hurricane Katrina incapacitated its servers in New Orleans. Although the datacenter remained operational using a diesel generator - police radio streams were run from this building - insufficient bandwidth was available to keep Something Awful online.

During this time, site owner Richard Kyanka redirected the site to a temporary page where he began a charity drive for Red Cross Hurricane Relief fund by accepting donations from forumgoers via Paypal, offering free merchandise as an incentive. After reaching the $20,000 mark in under a day, Paypal locked the account, claiming to have received "more than one report of suspicious behavior" from Kyanka's "buyers". Eventually getting in contact with a customer service representative at Paypal, a furious Kyanka requested that Paypal donate all of the money to the Red Cross. However, he was told that Paypal could only give the money to United Way; Kyanka initially agreed, but after receiving several emails detailing corruption and inefficiency within United Way, he changed his mind and told Paypal to refund all of the money [4]. It should be noted that Paypal did not refund charges on international transactions.

Forums on Something Awful

"The Forums", as they are colloquially referred to by members, have evolved to the point where they are largely separate from the main Something Awful webpage. A common catchphrase on the forums used to be "There's a front page?", implying that the speaker had joined the forums unaware that the main webpage even existed, or joking about the quality of several front page updates (although now usage of this catchphrase, as well as many others, is frowned upon and probationable). Forums on the site can contain sub-forums for more specific forms of discussion.

Main Forums

General Bullshit (GBS) - The most popular forum on Something Awful, GBS is analogous to the "Off Topic" forum of many other internet discussion boards, in that it allows users to start threads on topics not already covered by another forum at the site. Popular features include "Photoshop threads", where a member challenges his fellow forumgoers to create humourous image manipulations based on a theme he sets, and "MSPaint threads" where users draw pictures on a theme using Microsoft Paint in a contest to see who can produce the most amusing image.
- SA's Frontpage / The Daily Dirt Discussion - a sub-forum for discussing articles on the Something Awful home page.
Fuck You and Die (FYAD) - Originally a forum for offensive pictures and flame wars, FYAD has since become a haven for posters who joined the forums when they were still dedicated to mocking internet culture. It is most often still referred to as FYAD, but the title of the forum now changes frequently, usually to a name that mocks a certain user or that is just plain nonsense. Most forum rules do not apply in FYAD, but the catch is that although everything is allowed, not everything is welcome. FYAD regulars can recognize posters who don't fit in, and such people will find themselves ruthlessly flamed and their posts deleted or flooded without explanation. FYAD posters are united in contempt for everything and everyone in GBS, and regulars who have a run of low-quality posts can even be put on the "GBS train," which results in being redirected to GBS every time they try to post in FYAD. Many admins and moderators post in FYAD, partially because they are unlikely to be flamed due to the rules concerning sass, but also because their constant moderation leads them to often share FYAD posters' contempt of parts of the forums. FYAD has its own goldmine and gas chamber for its best and worst threads, known as the FYAD Goldmine and FYAD Dump, respectively.

Discussion forums

Ask/Tell - Threads started in this forum fall into two categories, 'Ask' and 'Tell'. 'Ask' threads invite readers to ask their poster questions on an interesting topic, usually one on which this poster is an expert. 'Tell' threads, in contrast, invite forumgoers to answer the thread poster's questions or supply more information on a certain topic. This forum was created after "Ask me about..."/"Tell me about..." question threads became overly popular in GBS, and contains two subforums.
- Goons With Spoons - A forum about cooking. Created due to the glut of threads about cooking started in GBS.
- Elementary Education - A subforum where members may request help with homework, or discuss science and mathematics topics too "nerdy" for GBS.
Post Your Favorite - A place for people to post their favorite items from any given subject: games, movies, funny internet images, jokes, etc. Much like the inspiration for Ask/Tell's creation, Lowtax created PYF as a reaction to the "no-content" threads that were plaguing GBS (and later, the Comedy Gas Chamber) at the time.
- Post Your Request - A subforum created to curb the amount of request threads in GBS. Users post in this forum to make a request for lost information for someone to find for them, usually found on the internet.
Serious Hardware/Software Crap (SH/SC) - A forum for discussing all things computer related. Members of SH/SC regulars have created SHSC.info, a Wiki of general reference material and Applepedia, a Mac-specific Wiki.
- Haus of Tech Support - Deals with home computer software and hardware support issues.
Games - Primarily on the topic of computer and video games, Games frequently includes large, singular threads for the discussion of individual games.
- Guild Servers - A collection of subforums for "Goon guilds" in popular MMORPGs. Here forum members form a pseudo-official Something Awful guild, clan, fleet or similar organization in the game for mutual benefit, or just to play together with like-minded people. These guilds are often quite large, and may have a noticeable impact on less popular game worlds.
- Private Game Servers - Used to coordinate goon-only game servers. Unlike most of Games, this forum cannot be viewed by non-members.
- The Mega64ums - A "dead" forum, originally created to discuss the Mega 64 humorous video.
- Traditional Games - Devoted to traditional pen-and-paper and board games, the vast majority of the threads here are forum-based play-by-post roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Exalted.
Debate and Discussion (D&D) - holds more involved discussions on politics, current events and philosophy. It evolved from the Current Events (CE) forum, which was created for all the threads growing out of the events of September 11, 2001. D&D posters tend to identify strongly as either left-wing or libertarian; conservatives are more likely to be found in other forums. One of the more lurk-heavy forums with strict moderation.
Sports Argument Stadium (SAS) - Discussion of sports.
- Fantasy Island - A subforum covering fantasy sports leagues.
- Poker in the Rear - a subforum dedicated to poker. The forum description reads "POKER IS NOT A SPORT", a joke referencing the claim that since Poker is a game and not a sport, it should be a Games subforum rather than a Sports subforum.
Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse (ADTRW) - anime and manga discussion. The forum's name pokes fun at stereotypes of various taboos featured in anime and manga hentai.
Automotive Insanity (AI) - technical automotive forum for enthusiasts.
The Crackhead Clubhouse (TCC) - a forum for discussion of recreational, medical, and spiritual drug use. No discussion related to buying or selling of illegal drugs is allowed. Only registered users can read this forum.
The Firing Range (TFR) - a forum for the discussion of firearms. The Firing Range saw some controversy in 2005 after members gave advice on guns and ammunition to a forum member who, news reports revealed, later shot a girl and himself. "Kill her, then yourself" is an old Something Awful catchphrase.
Pet Island - A forum for pet-related discussion. Regulars include veterinarians, vet techs, breeders, and well-informed owners.

The Finer Arts

No Music Discussion (NMD) - for discussion of music.
- Musician's Lounge - similar to the Creative Convention, it is used mostly for critiquing and general advice for aspiring musicians. The ML also creates contests for musicians. One of the more popular contests is the ML Massacre, a contest in which each musician contributes about 2 minutes in a twenty minute or so long song.
- Concert Calendar - for announcements and discussions of concerts.
Cinema Discusso - for serious film discussion.
The TV IV - discussion of television programs. TV IV regulars have created The TV IV, a Wiki of television reference material hoping to build a replacement for TV Tome.
Batman's Shameful Secret (BSS) - centered around comic book discussion and other related topics.
Creative Convention - a forum for the more creative members or those who wish to enlist their talents. All manners of art, literature, photography, and even website design can be found within this forum.
- Photoshop Phorum - dedicated to SA's weekly Photoshop Phriday image-manipulation contests.

Review Dumps

Most forums' threads have a category tag and allow users to rate the threads from 1 to 5 bars, with 1 being "Crap" and 5 being "Gold". However, posts in the Review Dump dispense with this and use a 5-star rating system, where readers rate the item being reviewed rather than the thread itself.

The Film Dump
The Game Dump
The Reading Dump - This forum is closed.
The Music Dump - This forum is closed.

The Community

SA-Mart - A bazaar for buying, selling and trading of goods and services. Users who attempt scams are permanently banned. It includes four subforums.
- SA Mart Positive / Negative Feedback
- SA Mart Announcements / FAQs
- SA Mart Discussion
- Coupons, Rebates, Freebies, & Great Deals
SA Goon Meetings - a forum where SA forum members can organize "goon meets", where members in an area get together. Since the forum primarily attracts new members by word of mouth and appeals mainly to the young adult demographic, members often find their fellow forumgoers to be of a similar age and to enjoy similar things.
- GoonCon Discussion
- Euro GoonCon Discussion

Punishment

The Forums have an elaborate system of punishment for violation of its various rules and conventions[5]. Punishments are meted out "around the clock" by the various moderators of the Something Awful forums. All of these punishments can be given out by the forum admins for breaking the forum rules and are rarely retracted or reduced. Some rules, however, are suspended in FYAD. Punishments include:

Probation - a user can be placed on Posting Probation by an admin for any period of time. Probation usually lasts between six hours and one month, although on occasion "perma-probations" of 100,000 hours (approximately 11 years) have been handed out. 11-year probations are effectively permabans, as registering a new account to get around a probation restriction is bannable or permabannable. A user placed on probation is unable to reply to threads or post new threads but may do anything else normally allowed—including editing his or her existing posts. Examples of offenses usually meriting probation are:
- Posting replies consisting entirely of a catchphrase or an emoticon, or consisting of nothing at all.
- [img]-tagging images without the hosting provider's permission. This is typically referred to as "image leeching." A direct link to an image not hosted by the poster, however, is fine.
- Re-posting a gassed thread without trying to fix what caused it to be gassed.
- Flaming or trolling another user.
- Posting images or links to images or sites that are not work safe anywhere outside of FYAD without labeling them as such.
- Signing a post (as in appending "--username" to the end of a reply) can result in probation, but such harsh punishment is usually preceded by written warnings from mods and fellow members, as well as ridicule within the thread itself.
- Quoting another users posts without adding content (Not applicable in Post Your Favourite).
- A gassed thread is automatically accompanied by a 3-minute probation.

Ban - before Probation was created, the Ban was the most common punishment for breaking the rules. Anything punishable by a probation can still possibly result in a ban. "Ban" is a misnomer, as the user is not barred from re-entering the forums, but merely has to pay $9.95 to either re-activate his or her account or buy a new one. Bans result from offenses like the following:
- Being insubordinate to mods or admins—attacking their actions, ignoring their instruction or reversing their actions. This sort of conduct is also known as mod sass.
- "Invading" (Vandalising) other forums, Wiki articles, blogs, etc. (unless sanctioned by an admin)
- Repeating probationable offenses or committing them with heightened severity.
- Losing the Idiot King contest in FYAD.
- Shared use of an account between two or more people.
- "Snyping" an Administrator's thread- "Snyping" a thread is to attain the first post at the top of a page proceeding the first page (generally the second one) when this happens, an emoticon displaying a smiley using a sniper rifle can be posted. This has become an irritating fad for the forums, and is now a bannable offense, most obviously when used in a moderator or Administrator's thread. In the case of Administrators threads (Specifically ones started by Lowtax) not even FYAD is immune from the ban when used. Some FYAD posters do this anyway to entertain the other posters, regardless of the consequences.

Autoban - a ban given automatically by the server software. The Autoban is triggered when a user who is not a moderator or administrator posts a thread with a tag that is reserved for moderator announcements—the "Hot", "Ban me", and flashing yellow "Attention" tags on most of the forums. Use of these tags is allowed in FYAD and in Private Messages (PMs) between users that have purchased Platinum Accounts.

Permaban - An account which is permabanned cannot be re-activated and any new account registered by a permabanned user is immediately permabanned upon discovery. Permabans may occur as a result of a user:
- Violating one of the variable FYAD customs (such as posting in specially marked permaban threads or violating administrative decrees).
- Seriously annoying the entire forums over a very long time. This is typically preceded by several bans and often a custom title.
- Being associated with known pedophiles, child pornography, or bestiality.
- Tampering with or attempting to damage the forum software or website.
- Scamming or defrauding users via SA Mart.
- Leaking information from Mod-only forums.
- Dying in real life. The reasoning for this is obvious, so that others do not somehow get a hold of the deceased's account and cause drama among the forums. In addition, faking one's death for drama or personal gain will also result in a permaban.

Humorous - sometimes the admins place humorous restrictions on a forum user for being annoying. This can include being banished from FYAD or being locked into one of the forums (usually FYAD or GBS, but occasionally another, such as Coupons). Another common punishment is "titling", in which a mod gives a user a humiliating avatar and title.
- FYAD Banishment - Before the practice was abolished, FYAD would hold a weekly vote in which each user (who must have posted in FYAD recently) posts the name of one other user. Whoever got the most votes was locked out of FYAD permanently. This was similar to the ancient Athenian practice of ostracism. On September 14th, 2004, Lowtax abolished FYAD Banishments and unbanished all 120 users who had received the treatment.
- Hellban - Unlike a standard ban, a hellban is not announced to anyone, not even the user being hellbanned. Hellbanning makes the posts and replies of this user invisible to other users of the forums save mods and admins. However, everything appears normal to the user. The usual intention behind hellbans is to hide the posts of users who make frequent posts with little or no content. Hellbans are seldom administered. It is said that the concept of a hellban is that the user would wonder why no matter what they said, no one ever would listen. The resulting paranoia would send them crazy. To hell, so to speak. Interestingly enough, the postcount of a thread will increase when a hellbanned user posts in it, and the thread will be bumped. However, if a thread is bumped from the 2nd or 3rd page of a forum by a hellbanned user (called a "hellbump") that user will be permabanned. Lowtax has stated that hellbans are not handed out any more due to the strain they put on the server.
- Ban-Me Mode - A user placed into ban-me mode is able to do everything on the forums as usual such as reply to threads, but they cannot make new threads without being banned. All of their post icons turn into the "Ban Me" icon, meaning that if they were to make a new thread, the "autoban" would kick in, banning them from the forums. As of December 19, 2005 ban-me mode no longer exists.
- GBS Train - A mechanism introduced by Lowtax in April 2005, GBS Train prevents the ten users with the highest number of beecocked (deleted) FYAD threads from posting in FYAD. It is so named because clicking the "post" or "reply" buttons results in being redirected to GBS.
- Long Probation - Particularly obnoxious users will occasionally be put on probation for an extremely long time, usually 100,000 hours (approximately 11 years). Because circumventing probation is itself a bannable offence, this is analogous to a permaban. They are often used as a joke and cancelled in a week or month.
- Custom User Titles - Given out, albeit rarely, to users that post something memorably stupid. Usually consists of red text in all capital letters saying "ASK ME ABOUT X" where x is whatever they said, an insult to the length of their genitalia, or a sarcastic remark. Since custom titles for other users may be purchased by anyone with a valid credit card, this punishment may be given by anyone, not just mods and admins. Some examples are "ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT" and "I WILL ASSUREDLY ARGUE ABOUT SOMETHING STUPID WITH YOU BECAUSE I AM AN iPRETENTIOUS iFAGGOT WHO IS ALWAYS iRIGHT". If you vote an admin or moderator thread a 1 without giving a reason, you will be given a large red title proclaiming you are a "STUPID DICK." This is the most common red title.
- World's Greatest Poster Award - A special custom title containing a very large table-breaking GIF of a blue ribbon accompanied by the text "World's Greatest Poster". This award is given to new users who don't understand the forums at all who post something so monumentally stupid and rulebreaking that it usually results in a permaban.

Culture

The SA forums have their own special culture. One large component of it is a widespread detestation of furries [6].

Anti-furryism and the Comedy Lolocaust

Long ago, the posting of "furry" porn, or depictions of anthropomorphic animals committing sexual acts, was not against the forum rules in FYAD. When this happened, the poster was usually rebuked if they did not include a warning in the thread's subject text, and perhaps had their preference in pornography mocked.

As time progressed, furry threads continued to be posted, mostly if not solely in FYAD. As FYAD is not intended to have any rules, the posters were not stopped, though they were taunted endlessly by the other members of FYAD. Lowtax one day decided, however, that furry porn would no longer be allowed in FYAD, setting in motion a chain of events later to be known as the "Comedy Lolocaust", a reference to the Holocaust of World War II.

As the first step of the Lolocaust, Lowtax created a subforum of "The Goddamn Shithouse" (a place where some FYAD-goers got their own forums and became IK (moderators) of them) dedicated to the posting of furry porn, called "The Furry Concentration Camp." This kept all furry threads out of FYAD and in one central location. The denizens of this subforum, along with any others proven to have furry tendencies, were then given custom titles of a large yellow star (a reference to the yellow badges worn by Jews) with the title "Yiff" on top, a reference to a slang term for sexual intercourse in the furry community. Once all of the forum's furries were identified, they were then permanently relegated to the Furry Concentration Camp.

The Camp stayed open for a number of weeks, and while furries couldn't leave the forum, others could come in. The Furry Concentration Camp was soon riddled with threads mocking furries in every way, shape and form. However, when these threads began to die down, the furries who could only post in the Camp soon began to congregate with each other, and only with each other. It became a complete community in itself.

Eventually, the "final solution" (see Hitler's Final Solution) of the Lolocaust was set into place, and the denizens of the Camp were finally banned, effectively ending the mass proliferation of furry porn in FYAD. Currently, anti-furryism is seen as old, and in general is not acceptable unless intensely humorous. Furries are still subjected to waves of banning, but there are now several forum members known to be furries who are generally accepted within the community.

Like many forums trends, the hatred of furries has fallen out of fashion. It is considered passé by most forums veterans and anti-furry threads are usually created by new members in an effort to fit in.

The File Forums

For many years, there were several forums dedicated to the distribution of files. The first was Don't Post Porn Here (DPPH), a sub-forum which dated back to the early days of the forum. Later, two other forums were added: No MP3s (NMP3s) and the BitTorrent Barnyard (BTB) (in which pirated software was explicitly disallowed, although almost any other form of media, legal or illegal was allowed to be shared).

Since their creation, it was always strictly forbidden to mention their existence or any information about them to non-members of the Forums. Lowtax and others believed that anyone who joined only for files had nothing to add to the community. However, many people disregarded this policy and invited people to join the Forums for the sole purpose of downloading files.

In the second half of 2004, Lowtax announced a zero tolerance policy for violation of file forum rules. Users who asked the SA staff for tech support related to file forums, requested files without first contributing, or indicated they had only joined to gain access to the file forums were banned without a warning.

This policy was not enough, however. Following an announcement in November, 2004, all three file forums were shut down permanently on Midnight, New Year's Day 2005. Additionally, a complete prohibition on distributing copyrighted work anywhere on the forums was levied (it had previously been allowed in ADTRW and BSS) and a policy of banning anyone who asked what happened to the file forums. Shortly thereafter, No Music Discussion and Cinema Discusso were created to fill a gap left by the absence of NMP3s and BTB, which had previously been used for music and movie discussion.

The File Forums no longer exist on Something Awful and any discussion of file distribution is now extremely unwelcome on the Forums. However, a BitTorrent tracker hosted on alluvion.org has been set up to enable (legal) BitTorrent downloads for members of the Forums. For example, self-created MP3s released for critique in the Musician's Lounge are allowed to be posted provided that the poster provides bandwidth.

Fauxtests

Beginning early in 2005, "fauxtests", or essentially fake protests, became popular within the SA community, and were held in various countries around the world. Examples of fauxtests include two that were conducted in the downtown core of Toronto. The first was a fauxtest related to banning small dogs in the city, an indirect jab at the province's controversial ban on pit bulls. The second involved three factions of "fauxtesters" arguing with each other over the superiority of rock, paper, or scissors. This was done while following a legitimate anti-war protest in the low thousands. The highlight of the second fauxtest was when the fauxtesters stopped the actual protest by forming a line in the street that blocked the anti-war march's path. They shouted 'rock, paper, scissors' for roughly 45 seconds before dispersing, leaving the anti-war crowd in a state of amused confusion. Forum members asked about the reasoning behind disrupting the anti-war protest for the most part commented on the inherent ineffectiveness of such protests, which by that point had been happening with relative frequency in the Toronto downtown core (to say nothing of other areas) for more than two years with little acknowledgement from the Bush administration.

Other countries in which SA Goons carried out fauxtests include the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

There used to be a Fauxtests and Propests forum in "The Community" section of the forums, but that has been deleted due to lack of use.

Charity activities

The Something Awful forums has performed many charitable acts in the six years of its existence. These activities include buying armor for deployed soldiers long before they were equipped by the U.S. Army, helping to sponsor an expensive kidney surgery, donating thousands of dollars in toys to the Ronald McDonald House, and donating ~$30,000 in less than 13 hours in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005.

External links

The Something Awful front page
The Something Awful forums - Note that at times the forums may be heavily or completely restricted for non-members, however they currently are not.
TeamBarry.com - A blog written by radium, Something Awful's main coder. The focus is on the writing of a new framework for the forums.
A more detailed description at WikiFur of Something Awful's interaction with the furry fandom, from the fandom's point of view.
Free download of a video in which Lowtax explains some of the early history of Something Awful and its forums