Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums (usually abbreviated as the SA Forums) are a set of limited-access highly-modified message boards on the popular humor website Something Awful, with a large userbase (over 57,000, though this includes banned users). The forums are ranked (as of April 2005) by Big-Boards as the seventh most active forum on the Internet, in spite of a registration fee being charged for access. [1]. It runs on a heavily modified version of vBulletin. People who frequent the Something Awful Forums call themselves "SA Goons," or simply "goons." The forums are very strictly moderated. The community is international but mostly comprised of American males in their late teens and early twenties.

While a selection of forums is sometimes available for highly restricted, read-only anonymous browsing, it costs $9.95 to register an account; this money goes directly to the webmaster, Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka, as well as towards hosting costs and payment of the front page writers and other forum administrators. Many other forum features also cost between $5 to $10 each, such as gaining access to the search servers and an archive server, or putting an image and custom text under your or someone else's username.

Main Forums

• General Bullshit (GBS) – similar to any of the "Off Topic" forums found on other message boards on the Web. GBS threads can be started on almost any topic, except those which have other forums dedicated to them. As well as the conglomeration of news and links found on most "Off Topic" boards, GBS is also host to many non-official Photoshop competitions and improvisational joke threads.
• Fuck You and Die (FYAD) – the forum where anything is allowed, save for posting child pornography, bestiality, pornographic images of forum members and openly mocking admins and moderators, the latter of which is nonetheless treated more leniently than on the other forums. Humor is mixed with occasional links to shock sites and shock images. Many of the main site features also are made or written here (The Weekend Web, for example). Much in the same way Something Awful often satirizes the Internet, FYAD often satirizes other Something Awful forums. The actual name of FYAD varies from time to time (examples are "Lowtax's Feisty Mittens" and "All Dolphins Are Sluts"). Despite the renaming, the forum is always referred to as FYAD. This forum should never be assumed work safe. FYAD's slogan is: "FYAD is the cool place to hang out. You can find most of the cool people there. In FYAD you can just chill and do whatever and totally relax. "Take it easy" is the FYAD motto, for example, that's how laid back it is there. Show up if you want to have a good time. Another good reason to show up is if you want to hang out with friends."

A short-lived version of FYAD, called FYAD 2.0, was created and allowed full use of HTML. However, after passwords were stolen using JavaScript, FYAD 2.0 was shut down within one day. FYAD currently contains a subforum known as FYAD Jr., to which members can be relegated as punishment (see below, in the punishment section).

Specific-topic forums

• Serious Hardware/Software Crap (SH/SC) – a forum for self-proclaimed computer experts. Many of the less technically inclined posters come here for computer advice, both for purchases and troubleshooting.
• Games – video games are the chief subject of discussion. Tips, requests, spoilers, and positive/negative reviews are rife. There are subforums devoted to traditional pen-and-paper and board games as well as SA-only game servers.
• Sports Argument Stadium (SAS) – discussion of all popular sports such as wrestling and football.
  • Fantasy Island – covers fantasy sports leagues.
  • Poker in the Rear – a subforum dedicated to the game of poker. The forum description has long read "POKER IS NOT A SPORT" reflecting the wish of some to have this moved from its position as an SAS subforum to a Games subforum.
• SA-Mart – a bazaar where anybody may buy, sell, or trade anything so long as it is legal. Posters may also link to eBay auctions. Feedback about posters' experiences with a particular buyer or seller can be posted in a subforum of SA-Mart. The administrators and moderators disclaim any responsibility for actions between the buyer and seller. Nevertheless, acts of fraud are generally considered the worst thing a user can do on the forums (other than hacking them) and will almost always result in the user being banned permanently.
  • Coupons, Rebates, Freebies, & Great Deals (Coupons) – this subforum of SA-Mart is the place to obtain exactly what the forum's title suggests. It is known for being one of the least active discussion forums.
• 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; traditional conservatives are more likely to be found in GBS.
• The Crackhead Clubhouse (TCC) – a forum for discussion of recreational drugs. No discussion related to buying or selling of illegal drugs is allowed.
• Automotive Insanity (AI) – technical automotive forum for enthusiasts.
• 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.
• Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse (ADTRW) – anime discussion. The forum's name pokes fun at stereotypes of various taboos found in anime and manga hentai.
• The Firing Range (TFR) – a forum specifically for the discussion of firearms.
• The SA Propesting/Fauxtesting Forum – forum for organizing propests/fauxtests. These are "fake protests" which usually make no sense at all.
• Pet Island – pet-related discussion.
• Musician's Lounge – similar to the Creative Convention, it is used mostly for critiquing and general advice for aspiring musicians.
• The TV IV – discussion of television programs.
• Batman's Shameful Secret – centered around comic book discussion and other related topics.
• Cinema Discusso – for serious film discussion.
  • The Film Dump – a forum dedicated only to film reviews (specifically excluding film discussion). Instead of the usual tags, all posts use a 5-star rating system.
• No Music Discussion – for discussion of music.

Special-purpose forums

• Comedy Goldmine – a repository of the very best threads in all forums but FYAD. Currently the Goldmine goes back to October 2001; the archived Goldmine goes back to when the forums started using vBulletin.
  • FYAD Goldmine – same purpose as the regular goldmine, but for FYAD threads only. Thought to be a parody of the Comedy Goldmine.
• Comedy Gas Chamber – threads that have been deemed unsuitable or not up to standards by the moderators are sent here and have been said to be "gassed".
• The Leper's Colony – formerly known as the Leper Colony. Contained posts by administrators listing the users who had been banned, permabanned, automatically banned (autoban), or put on probation. (Features restricted to moderators and administrators were visible to all users, but instead of simply denying permission the software automatically banned users who used them. This system is informally called "forum Darwinism".) The banning system has recently been upgraded and moved to a special page separate from any of the forums, and this forum has now disappeared. Both the old forum and the special page are interchangeably referred to as The Leper Colony or The Leper's Colon.
• The Forum Archives – threads which have remained dormant for a long time are moved to the Forum Archives, in which these threads are searchable. Accessing the Forum Archives requires the purchase of an Archive Account for $9.95.

Punishment

The Forums have an elaborate system of punishment for violation of its various rules and conventions. These occur on a daily basis, and are given out quite liberally in comparison to other "serious" online fora. All of these punishments can be given out by the forum admins for breaking the forum rules, and are rarely retracted or reduced. The punishments include:

• Probation – a user can be placed on Posting Probation by an admin for any period of time, but usually ranges between six hours and one month. 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 given probation are:
  • Posting replies consisting entirely of a catchphrase or an emoticon. (Certain heavily-used catchphrases such as "Install Linux; Problem solved." have been deemed "annoying" by the administration and are therefore fair game.)
  • [img]-tagging images without the hosting provider's permission; a direct link, 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.
• 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 sass.
  • Repeating probationable offenses, or committing them with heightened severity.
• 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.
• Permaban – An account which is permabanned cannot be re-activated, and any new account registered by a permabanned user is permabanned upon discovery. While permabans usually come from a history of bad or annoying behavior, there are actions which can result in an immediate permaban:
  • Posting child pornography or bestiality images, or links to sites containing them.
  • Tampering with or attempting to damage the forum software or website.
  • Scamming or defrauding users via SA Mart.
• 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 Jr. – An account is restricted from posting in FYAD and confined to posting in the FYAD Jr. subforum ("The short bus circling FYAD.") after posting what is deemed to be unacceptable crap in FYAD. This happens infrequently, and there are only a handful of users in FYAD Jr. at any one time. They are confined there and released at the mercy of the admins.
  • FYAD Banishment – 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. 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. It makes a user's posts and replies invisible to other users of the forums; this is usually to stop users who post a lot with little or no content from being seen. Hellbans are infrequently used.
  • GBS Train – A mechanism introduced by Lowtax in April 2005, GBS Train prevents the ten users with the highest number of deleted FYAD threads from posting in FYAD. It is so named because clicking the "post" or "reply" buttons results in being redirected to GBS.

Culture

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

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."

As the first step of the Lolocaust, Lowtax created a subforum in FYAD 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 with the title "Yiff" on top, a reference to a slang term for intercourse in the furry community. Once all of the forum's furries were identified, they were then permanently relegated to the Furry Concentration Camp, and finally banned, effectively ending the mass proliferation of furry porn in FYAD.

Currently, anti-furryism is seen as old hat, and in general is not acceptable unless intensely humorous. Furries were, at one point, banned or ostracized simply for that reason, but there are now several forum members known to be furries who are generally accepted within the community.

The File Forums

For many years, there were several forums dedicated to the distribution of files, beginning with "Don't Post Porn Here", which dated back to the early days of the forum. Later on, two other forums were added: NMP3s and the BitTorrent Barnyard (in which warez was explicitly disallowed).

Since their creation, it was always strictly forbidden to mention their existence or any information about them to non-members of the Forums, as Lowtax and the other staff believed that anyone who joined only for files had nothing to add to the community. However, many people disregarded this rule 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. The result was a ban, without warning, for asking the SA staff for tech support related to file forums, for requesting without first contributing, or for saying that you had only joined for the files.

This policy was not enough, however, and following an announcement in November 2004, all three file forums were shut down permanently on Midnight, New Year's Day 2005. Along with this came a complete prohibition on distributing copyrighted work anywhere on the forums (it had previously been allowed in ADTRW and BSS) and a policy of banning anyone who asks what happend to the file forums. A while later, 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 and any discussion of file distribution is now extremely unwelcome on the Forums.

Charges

Forum registration is the main paid service provided by Something Awful. As of 2005, this is $9.95. There are also other services which a Something Awful member can buy, including:

• Re-registration of banned accounts ($9.95)
• Custom titles for oneself ($5.00) or for someone else ($9.95)
• Username changes ($7.95)
• Banner ads that link offsite ($49.95)
• Banner ads that link to a specific thread or section of the forums ($7.95)
• Removal of ads ($4.95)
• Change of one's displayed registration date to September 11,2001 ($9.11)
• New emoticons in the smiley list ($19.95)
• Stickied threads in SA-Mart ($5.00 per day)
• "Platinum" account upgrade, which allows private messages, posting polls, attaching images, and searching the forums ($9.95)
• Access to forum archives ($9.95)

External links

• The Something Awful front page
• The Something Awful forums – Note that the forums may be heavily or completely restricted to non-members.