Webupon

 Fark.com is an asylum run by the inmates, and the internet is a better place for it. The Fark site is a virtual corkboard where visitors can post links to stories found on other sites across the World Wide Web. In a manner of minutes, a visitor can drink his fill of news and notes from around the world, tinged with the signature Fark sense of humor.                                     

 The headlines and tags for the news stories are as much an entity as the stories themselves. Many headlines poke fun at an already bizarre story, such as the recent headline with the ‘Obvious’ tag: “Germany’s ‘Naked Hiker’ allowed to serve his sentence nude because prison clothes depress him, inconvenience his cellmate.”                                            

Other headlines point out the irony and opportunity for humor that the news writers missed in their own work, such as the ‘silly’ tagged headline before the Democratic National Convention: “Democrats bicker over how hard to hit McCain, fail to consult the Vietcong.”                                                                                                                              

What is remarkable about Fark is the faithful following it has amassed since its conception in 2000, which allows for the site to overflow with stories from around the world. The submitters make Fark a watering hole for those looking for drips and drops of note around the web. News Flashes, submitted by quick-fingered visitors bring stories with a quickness that CNN must envy. (Note: CNN pages are the number one submitted pages on Fark. Number two: Fox News.) There is an important revelation in these news flashes. Submitters come across breaking news in another media form or website and their immediate reaction is “I have to Fark this!” Yes, the website is now a verb known by webphiles. Every day Fark receives over 2,000 news submissions from its readership.        

Drew Curtis, the mad scientist of Fark, calls his site a “news aggregator and an edited social networking news site.” Along with the link boards, whose topics range from notnews/business/sports/geek/showbiz/politics/music/video, there are forums and chats buzzing with activity. The site was born of word of mouth. That is, once Curtis finally got around to doing something with the site. Curtis bought the site in 1997, and for the next two years, all those who stumbled across the site got was a picture of a squirrel displaying his large testicles. After friends encouraged him, Curtis launched the news aggregate site and word of mouth quickly spread to internet buzz. In its first year Fark received 50,000 page views. The second year it received a million.                                                                                

The bottom line of Fark.com is that if its out on the web, you can find it at Fark. And if you didn’t know it existed, you can find that at Fark too

As the banner says, it’s not news, its fark.