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This article is about the website. For FARK, see Fark (disambiguation).
Fark
File:FarkLogo.jpg
Screenshot of the Fark.com main page
Type of site
News Aggregator
OwnerDrew Curtis
URLhttp://www.fark.com/
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired to post (free)

Fark is a community website created by Drew Curtis that allows members to comment on a daily batch of news articles and other items from various websites. As of June 2009 the site boasts approximately four million unique visitors per month, which puts it among the top 100 English language websites. The site receives approximately 2,000 story submissions per day and about 50 of them are displayed on the site.

Founder Drew Curtis says the stories are selected without intentional political bias, but rather tries to run both far-left and far-right articles.[1]

Links are submitted by Fark members (collectively referred to as "Farkers"), which moderators can approve ("greenlight") for posting on either the main page or one of the subsidiary tab pages. All links, whether approved or not, have associated threads where users can comment on the link. Greenlit links can generate upwards of 300,000 page views in one month for the recipient. This can generate such an enormous amount of traffic in a such a short a time that smaller websites are often rendered inoperable due to congestion or simple server failure under load. This is colloquially referred to as the website being "farked" in the Fark.com community.

History

Curtis states that the word "fark" originated either from a chat room euphemism for the word "fuck", or from a drunken misspelling; although he tells people it is the former because it is a "better story that way".[2] He registered Fark.com in September 1997, when a friend mentioned that all the four letter domain names were disappearing.[3] Originally, Fark contained no content except for an image of a squirrel with large testicles. This photograph is that of a Cape Ground Squirrel in Etosha National Park, Namibia, taken by photographer Kevin Shafer working for the Corbis Corporation, ca. 1993.[4]

Since 1993, Curtis had frequently read morning news stories and exchanged them with friends.[5] Although this would later become the inspiration for Fark, Curtis toyed with the idea of starting an online curry recipe database.[3] In 1999, eighteen months after registering the domain name, he launched Fark as a way to share interesting news postings with his friends rather than sending them numerous emails.[6] The first story posted was an article about a fighter pilot who crashed while attempting to moon another fighter pilot.[3]

In Fark's first year it received 50,000 page views and one million the year after.[7] Features such as link submission and forums were added as popularity and participation grew. By January 2008, according to Curtis, the site received an estimated 52 million page views per month from 4 million unique visitors.[6] Fark was officially incorporated in the state of Delaware as, "Fark, Inc.", on January 31, 2008.[8]

While most of the story links on the main page are submitted by users and selected for placement based on merit, there was an incident in August 2004 in which Fark was accused of selling preferential placement of story links on the main page. The accusation stemmed from an exchange between Mahalo.com CEO Jason Calacanis and third party sales employee Gogi Gupta, where Gupta claimed Calacanis could buy an editorial on Fark for $300 to $400.[9] Curtis dismissed the incident as the result of an overenthusiastic salesperson, and subsequently fired Gupta.[10] Gupta worked for a company called Gupta Media and according to Curtis did not have the authority to speak for the company.[10]

On January 17, 2007, Fark launched Fark TV.[11] The first video was a spoof ad for a mock product called "Meth Coffee."[11] In May 2008, Turner Broadcasting announced that it would be folding SuperDeluxe, Fark TV's host site, into the Adult Swim brand, and laying off most of the staff, effectively canceling Fark TV.[12]

On April 25, 2007, a new design for the website was launched with the comment, "Fark site redesign is now live. Hope nothing breaks, we're all out drinking."[13] The new design was initially received with some controversy by many users, mostly due to the change in layout and a seemingly indifferent attitude by site moderators to user impact or feedback. In response, Drew Curtis noted the following reasons for the redesign: "Websites have to evolve over time. Otherwise you end up with a layout anachronism like the Drudge Report. The old design was put into place years ago, over time changes were nailed on to the design like loose shingles on a leaky roof. It was time to reformat and remove a bunch of the clutter while trying to keep the core design intact."[14] The site layout was refined over the next few weeks in accordance with many suggestions.

In May 2007, Curtis published the book, It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass off Crap as News. The book critically explores the mass media industry and the go-to stories used when there is a lack of hard news to report.[7] The book sold 25,000 copies in its first 12 weeks on the market.[15] Despite its initial strong reception, the book only received mild attention from reviewers. Salon.com gave it a favorable review, although the only major newspaper to review it was the Tucson Citizen, which only gave it a mini-review.[16]

On November 24, 2009, Fark launched a new partnership with USA Today, as they became the exclusive host and sponsor of Fark's Geek Page,[17] a collection of technology-related links. This represents the site's first content partnership with a major media brand; previously, Curtis had signed a sales only deal with Maxim Online. The page shows aggregated technology news headlines from other news sources with USA Today's Tech section branding. It's right column displays technology content from USA Today with video clips and a headline widget of USAToday.com's Tech Live and Game Hunters stories.[18]

Administration

Compared to other popular websites, such as Daily Kos and del.icio.us, Fark is a relatively small operation, run more or less singlehandedly by founder Drew Curtis from his home in Lexington, Kentucky.[19] The site earns revenue from advertising and membership in its TotalFark program.[20] Although Curtis won't release official revenue figures, he estimated that, in 2006, the site earned just under $600,000 per year.[5] Its classifieds section alone generates as much as $40,000 per year.[20] Technology writer Mathew Ingram described Fark as "staggeringly successful" and noted the disparity between Fark's revenue and the amount of press given to sites like Digg.[19] Fark has also spoken about its steady, above average CPMs.

Despite a fairly high revenue, Drew takes a yearly salary of just $60,000.[20] The rest of the money goes to the site's legal "war chest" as well as to pay other expenses such as hosting, website design, and forum moderation.[20] Additionally, Fark has been known to turn down advertising that interrupts the user experience such as pop ups or advertisements with sound.

Curtis has used public relations to drive traffic, including interviews every Friday on TechTV for one to one and a half years (ca. 2002-2003) about the three weirdest tech-oriented stories of the week.[15]

Features

Tags

Submitters can give stories several different tags such as stupid, interesting, obvious, or dumbass. Tags that say photoshop, audioedit or videoedit are used for threads where digital content is edited for a humorous or artistic effect. In addition, the newsflash tag is used for news which is a matter of important breaking news, and an email is sent to the administrators notifying them that someone has submitted a Newsflash.

Due to the large amount of headlines submitted to the site from the state of Florida, and because "so many stupid things happen in Florida, it deserved its own Fark tag," the Florida tag was created at the suggestion of users.[21][22] Similarly, articles discussing Wil Wheaton — a Fark user himself[23] — are given the Wheaton tag and articles discussing Christopher Walken are occasionally given the Walken tag, though Walken has never participated on Fark.

On August 19, 2008, a new fail tag was introduced, to be used for submitted articles where the subject does something ignorant or when a major gaffe occurs.[24]

On December 21, 2009, a new Caturday tag was introduced to in recognition of the caturday meme.[25]

TotalFark

In February 2002, Curtis introduced TotalFark as a subscription service, charging $5 per month.[26] By May 2007 there were an estimated 2000 subscribers, generating $120,000 per year.[20] Subscribers, known collectively as TotalFarkers or TFers, have the privilege of seeing and commenting on all links submitted to the site, as opposed to only those approved for inclusion on the main page.[26] In a typical 24-hour period, TotalFark's main page includes 2,600 links with associated comment threads, whereas Fark's main page includes only 60 to 80 links from among this number.

Subscribers who purchase a 6 or 12 month subscription are also eligible to receive an @ultrafark.com email address. The UltraFark email service is provided through Google's Gmail service.[27]

Farkisms and clichés

See also: Internet meme and List of Internet phenomena

Fark's comment threads are often littered with various Farkisms or clichés. These are essentially in-jokes which either originated on Fark or on other sites (such as 4chan or Something Awful) that have become an integral part of the community culture and used in myriad discussions at the website, regardless of whether they apply to the topic at hand.[28] Several groups of people seem to take a bit more abuse than others on the site, including PETA, Catholic priests, the French, and Duke University, according to Curtis.[29]

One particularly notable Farkism involves the acronym UFIA (Unsolicited Finger in the Anus), which became a cliché after an article making the main page misquoted a judge using the line.[30] UFIA was prominently used again in February 2005, when Drew Curtis purchased the naming rights to the Fleet Center (now TD Garden) in Boston, Massachusetts for the single day of February 28, 2005. The consensus choice of Fark's readers was that it should be re-dubbed the "Fark.com UFIA Center." In the end, however, Boston Garden was chosen as the name due to obscenity concerns.[31] In April 2006, a Fark member convinced the Tennessee Department of Transportation to erect an Adopt a Highway sign in the name of UFIA on the two miles of State Route 63 west of the intersection of SR 63 and U.S. Route 25E. The Department required a definition of UFIA, which was explained as, “Uniting Friends in America.”[32]

Another popular Farkism involves KABC-TV Consumer Specialist Ric Romero, which began on October 19, 2005, when he wrote a news story on the "new" internet phenomenon of blogging.[33] The story was then picked up by Fark, where he was ridiculed for posting a story about something that many people did not consider "news" and was actually quite obvious.[34] Over the course of the next several years, he became somewhat of a meme on the site, as Farkers would post links to his stories, along with his photo, and a brief caption stating something obvious that everyone already knew. On December 7, 2009, Drew Curtis discovered his Facebook fan page,[35] which led Ric to ask the Farkers that joined his new Facebook page to donate to the Spark of Love Toy Drive, which subsequently resulted in 582 online donations totaling $13,659.20 (as of December 16, 2009).[36] Romero thanked the Fark community on the news for their donations, and recognized his status as a Farkism, also reporting the "breaking news" that, "Water is Wet."[37]

Photoshop contests

The site features regular Photoshop contests, in which users use a graphical editing program (such as Adobe Photoshop, from which the contest draws its name) to manipulate an image provided by the creator of the contest. The image is usually manipulated for humorous effect, but can also be edited to create an aesthetically-pleasing image or to showcase a poster's image manipulation skill.[38] A similar site, Something Awful, sponsors Photoshop Phriday contests, and there is usually some friendly competition among users of the two sites.[39]

Fark Parties

At periodic intervals throughout the year, Fark Parties are organized, usually in conjunction with the travels of Curtis. The practice began in 1999, when Curtis was doing some database consulting in Spartanburg, South Carolina, staying in a hotel with nothing to do. So he posted a note up on the site asking if anybody who lives in the area wanted to grab a beer to send him an email.[22]

Foobies

In 2006, Curtis launched Foobies as a NSFW (not safe for work) offshoot of Fark. Curtis sells NSFW links through Foobies at a price of $400.[9][40]

Traffic and users

As of June 2009 the site receives approximately four million unique visitors per month,[41] which puts it in the top 100 of English language websites.[42] Fark.com's Alexa rating is 3,170, with the average user spending 5.8 minutes per day on the site and 4,636 sites linking in. 70% of users originate from the United States.[43] The site receives approximately 2,000 story submissions per day from users, and about 50 of them are displayed on the main page of the site, or "green-lighted".[1] Subscribers to the subscription TotalFark service, are able to view all 2,000 submissions per day for a $5 per month fee.[44] There are around 500,000 user accounts on the site (TotalFark and unpaid accounts), although only about 5% actually read comments, and only 1% actually post in the forums.[41] Greenlit links can generate upwards of 300,000 page views in one month for the recipient,[45] which is such an enormous amount of traffic that smaller websites are often "farked," meaning that their servers have crashed.

Normally, in the absence of serious news, comments in the forums on the site tend to be of a more sophomoric nature, consisting primarily of sex jokes and comments about various bodily functions. However, during major events such as the September 11 attacks or the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, usage spikes and the site can actually be seen as a more serious outlet for news.[41] Some users can also contribute greatly to reporting actual events, for instance the citizen journalism of the events during the 2009 Iranian election protests was recognized by several major media outlets.[41][46] In response to this coverage, Drew Curtis placed a green band on the letter "K" in the site's logo at the top of the page, to show support for the Iranian protesters.[47]

In a June 2009 interview, Curtis noticed that almost all traffic coming from the People's Republic of China and India was from spammers, so he blocked both countries from the site.[48]

Publicity

As the site has gained in popularity, Fark has appeared numerous times in popular media outlets. In 2006, Curtis and Fark were featured on the cover of Business 2.0 magazine as part of the feature story about successful websites.[49][50] In 2007 and 2009, Fark was referenced on the game show Jeopardy!, with a category entitled "Fark.com Headlines."[51][52] The site is also frequently used as a humorous source for news by major media outlets such as CNN and Fox News, late night comedy shows like The Daily Show or The Tonight Show, as well as many radio stations.[6][53][54] It is also generally seen as a destination for strange news stories and snarky commentary.[55] Although much to Drew Curtis' dismay, it is very rarely cited as a source for many of these stories.[53]

Several celebrities have also stated that they either checked the website regularly or participated in its discussion forums using an account. Some of these celebrities include: Alan Colmes of Fox News,[56] Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage,[57] science fiction author John Scalzi,[58] and actor Wil Wheaton.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Marcotte, John (December 14, 2003). "Interview: Fark's Drew Curtis". www.badmouth.net. Retrieved June 27, 2009. {{cite news}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ Curtis, Drew. "Fark Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): About Fark". Fark.com. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
  3. ^ a b c Kawasaki, Guy (February 22, 2007). "Panel of Web Community Founders: Utter Defiance of the "Venture Capital" Model". blog.guykawasaki.com/. Retrieved July 5, 2009. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ Shafer, Kevin (ca. 1993). "Cape Ground Squirrel with Large Testicles". Corbis. Retrieved June 27, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b Sloan, Paul (October 2, 2006). "Blogging for Dollars". CNN. Retrieved June 6, 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ a b c Takahashi, Dean (January 1, 2008). "Takahashi: Three who had the right idea at the right time". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  7. ^ a b Curtis, Drew (2007). It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News. Gotham Books. ISBN 978159240366. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
  8. ^ "Fark, Inc. (File Number: 4490837)." State of Delaware. Retrieved on June 12, 2009.
  9. ^ a b Calacanis, Jason (August 2, 2004). "Fark.com sells their editorial, and the loyalty of their users". www.calacanis.com. Retrieved July 4, 2009. {{cite news}}: External link in |publisher= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ a b Terdiman, Daniel (August 6, 2004). "Fark Sells Out. France Surrenders". Wired. Retrieved July 4, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ a b Jardin, Xeni (January 17, 2007). "Fark TV debuts. Meth, asscracks, anthills, good times". Boing Boing. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
  12. ^ Cohen, Joshua (May 7, 2008). "TBS' Super Deluxe to Fold into Adult Swim". www.tilzy.tv. Retrieved June 26, 2009. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ "Fark site redesign is now live. Hope nothing breaks, we're all out drinking". Fark.com. April 25, 2007. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  14. ^ Curtis, Drew (April 26, 2007). "Fark redesign notes and updates from Drew". Fark.com. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  15. ^ a b Bye, Adrian. "Drew Curtis from Fark". Adrian Bye's meetinnovators. Retrieved June 26, 2009. {{cite news}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ Shafer, Jack (October 4, 2007). "Fark Founder Flattens Fourth Estate". Salon.com. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
  17. ^ Curtis, Drew. "Fark.com: Geek links". Fark.com. Retrieved December 22, 2009.
  18. ^ Betancourt, Leah. "Fark, USA Today Deal Demonstrates Aggregation's Value in Link Economy". Poynter Institute. Retrieved December 22, 2009. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ a b Ingram, Matthew (August 22, 2006). "Forget Digg, what about Fark?". matthewingram.com. Retrieved June 12, 2009. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  20. ^ a b c d e "Fark.com: Making Money Off of Goofy News". NPR (All Things Considered). May 7, 2007. Retrieved June 12, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  21. ^ "Florida Seen As 'Fiesta Of Weirdness'". The Tampa Tribune. August 9, 2007. Retrieved July 4, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  22. ^ a b Cridlin, Jay (June 3, 2005). "Gathering to embrace the power of the Fark Side". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved July 4, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  23. ^ a b "Wil Wheaton / Biography". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
  24. ^ "Step 1: Fill dozens of balloons. Step 2: Big countdown with all the participants. Step 3: Submitter gets to use the spiffy new FAIL tag". Fark.com. August 19, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  25. ^ "If you're running out of space to keep dozens of cats in your tiny apartment, don't overlook the storage capacity of your freezer". Fark.com. December 21st, 2009. Retrieved December 21, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ a b Curtis, Drew. "Fark Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): TotalFark Only Questions". Fark.com. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
  27. ^ Curtis, Drew. "Fark Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): UltraFark Email Questions". Fark.com. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
  28. ^ Curtis, Drew. "Fark Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Farkisms". Fark.com. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
  29. ^ Why, Joel (December 1, 2003). "Interview with Drew Curtis, FARKin' Genius". www.newmoanyeah.com. Retrieved July 5, 2009. {{cite news}}: External link in |publisher= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  30. ^ "Judge determines unsolicited finger in anus is crude, but not criminal". Fark.com. March 12, 2004. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
  31. ^ Wallace, Kelly (February 18, 2005). "Georgia Lawmakers Weigh in on Childhood Obesity; Fancy Freebies; Boston's FleetCenter Auctioned Single-Day Naming Rights on eBay". CNN. Retrieved July 5, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  32. ^ "It's official. A two-mile stretch of Tennessee highway has been adopted by "Drew Curtis' TotalFark UFIA." Link goes to a photo of the sign". Fark.com. April 3, 2006. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
  33. ^ Romero, Ric (October 18, 2005). "Your Opinions Online". KABC-TV. Retrieved December 22, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  34. ^ "Reporter discovers latest crazes: "Blogging" and "The Charleston"". Fark.com. October 19, 2005. Retrieved December 22, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  35. ^ Curtis, Drew (December 7, 2009). "Hey Rick you didn't seem to have enough fans so I suggested you to every Farker I know on FB. You rock man. Your biggest fan..." Facebook. Retrieved December 22, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  36. ^ Romero, Ric (December 16, 2009). "Donate Toys in Los Angeles". Facebook. Retrieved December 22, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Text "17th Annual 'Spark of Love' Toy Drive." ignored (help)
  37. ^ Romero, Ric (December 11, 2009). "Ric Romero thanks FARK.com for Donations". Facebook. Retrieved December 22, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  38. ^ "Fark Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Photoshop Contests". Fark.com. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  39. ^ "Photoshop Phriday". Something Awful. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  40. ^ Curtis, Drew. "Fark Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): About Fark (What is Foobies?)". Fark.com. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  41. ^ a b c d McBride, Kelly (June 22, 2009). "Archived Chat: Frat House Meets Debate Club When It's News and It's Fark". The Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  42. ^ Silcoff, Mireille. "LYPA Rising Stars". Lexington Weekly. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  43. ^ "Alexa information for Fark.com". Alexa Internet. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  44. ^ "TotalFark Signup". Fark.com. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  45. ^ Allsopp, Glen (June 16, 2008). "Definitive Guide to Fark and Getting Mass Traffic". www.pluginhq.com. Retrieved June 27, 2009. {{cite news}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  46. ^ "Farker Tatsuma gets props from journalists for his work on covering the brouhaha in Iran". Fark.com. June 20, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  47. ^ "FARK goes green for Iran". Anonymous Iran. June 18, 2009. Retrieved July 5, 2009. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  48. ^ "Interview with the Genius Behind Fark, Drew Curtis". www.insidethewebb.com. June 29, 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2009. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  49. ^ "Blogging for Big Bucks". CNN. August 22, 2006. Retrieved June 26, 2009. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  50. ^ Gross, James (August 23, 2006). "Business 2.0 Cover Story". www.jamesgross.com. Retrieved 2009-06-26. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  51. ^ "Show #5331 - Monday, November 12, 2007". Jeopardy Archive. November 12, 2007. Retrieved June 26, 2009. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  52. ^ "Show #5605 - Friday, January 9, 2009". Jeopardy Archive. January 9, 2009. Retrieved June 26, 2009. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  53. ^ a b Cullen, Lynn (March 15, 2007). "Interview with Drew Curtis on the Lynn Cullen Show". AM860: Lynn Cullen Show. Retrieved June 27, 2009. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  54. ^ "Is Fox farking with Fark?". Digital Magazine. August 19, 2007. Retrieved June 27, 2009. {{cite news}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  55. ^ Sabatino, Anne (April 1, 2008). "What the FARK?". www.smileypete.com. Retrieved June 27, 2009. {{cite news}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  56. ^ "Alan's Favorite Web Links". Fox News. April 2, 2007. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
  57. ^ "Mythbusters Top Ten List: 10 Sites Adam Visits Daily". Discovery Channel. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
  58. ^ Scalzi, John (June 12, 2008). "FARK Heatsink Entry". www.scalzi.com. Retrieved June 26, 2009. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
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