Anyone remember this creative trolling site?

Mr. Fed · Post by **Mr. Fed** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:58 pm

About two years ago I remember seeing a site with a great premise. The people who ran the site wrote deliberately inaccurate and obtuse reviews of certain popular culture that tended to draw rabid fans: Star Wars and Lord of the Rings movies, certain computer games, etc. For instance, they wrote a review of Fellowship of the ring that referred to the Nazgul as "bog wraiths", misstated the number of rings, made foolish objections to plot points, etc. They got these reviews posted on other sites.

Then they published the frothing emails they got, each one with a commentary and a picture representing their impression of the sender.

It was mean-spirited, devious, and all-around hilarious, and a great take on the lack of perspective demonstrated by netziens.

Anyone remember what it was called, or have a link to it?

The Preacher · Post by **The Preacher** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:00 pm

www.somethingawful.com

Edit to add: the band stuff is http://www.somethingawful.com/yourbandsucks/

CSL · Post by **CSL** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:02 pm

Indeed its somethingawful. You may remember that linking to their images usually gets your fellow posters an eyeful of naked transsexuals.

ENJOY!!!

Al · Post by Al » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:02 pm

More specifically Truth Media.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:04 pm

Anyone remember this creative trolling site?

Yes.

~Neal

Tareeq · Post by **Tareeq** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:39 pm

I was such a fan of truthmedia that I used a dummy address to write them hate mail (scroll down to robotgodmachine).

I wish I'd saved some of the counterflames I received. The SA readership is barely literate, if my fanmail was a representative sample.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:46 pm

The LotR review was a classic.

JSHAW · Post by **JSHAW** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:50 pm

Someone from somethingawful.com created a really funny movie called
"Derek Smart's Desktop Commander". Google it and you'll find a website that you can download the movie from. I have it on my pc at work.

Everytime I watch it it makes me laugh so hard, it's that funny.
If you've never experienced Derek Smart's Desktop Commander, it's "must see" viewing.

Please tell me that posting this doesn't summon up demons from the depths of hell, or get me banned.

Tareeq · Post by **Tareeq** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:52 pm

That particular demon was banned from Day 1 at this site JSHAW.

SuperHiro · Post by **SuperHiro** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:55 pm

Tareeq wrote:That particular demon was banned from Day 1 at this site JSHAW.

Really? He tried to register? That's surprising considering his opinion of the moderators.

Oh, that LOTR review was brilliant... just enough horrendus inaccuracies to piss off purists and enough comparisons to modern day works to drive everyone else nutty.

I think their NWN review was awesome.

Tareeq · Post by **Tareeq** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 6:03 pm

I don't believe he registered Superhiro but the subject came up in one of the earliest threads, long before you joined us rookie. It must have been back in the days of October 13th.

I believe the Meal, damned warmonger that he is, announced that the Supreme Commander was to be preemptively banned.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 6:08 pm

Grrr!

Pretty much we've said that if this staff banned you previously, you're going to be (at best) on thin-ice from the get-go here and at worst, completely unwelcome. How scorched the bridge got when you were originally escorted to the other side would have some sway in your welcomeness-to-returnus, as would the nature of your crimes against nature on that other forum.

The real story is that staff would discuss possible reinstatements if potential-reinstatees really were interested. DS seems to be most interested in posting on the big-dog gaming sites, so I doubt this little niche in the web would even show up on his radar (oh darn). But I'm pretty sure he'd not be welcomed back due to the scorchy-bridge part, above. He saved some particularly choice material for his (various, repeated) exit speeches.

~Neal

D.A.Lewis · Post by **D.A.Lewis** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 7:04 pm

That's too bad about DS

I followed a lot of his threads (seldom participated) and felt while he was supercombative it was usually because he was flame bait. Maybe there was other stuff going on behind the scenes (private emails, other boards etc). But what I saw on GG usually made for interesting reading more than rasing my ire.

Typically on the old GG, it would go something like this: He would post something about his game and then someone would call both him and his game garbage. He in turn would respond.

Sometimes his responses were a little over the top (especailly for noobs who didn't RTFM) and not how I would handle things but hey, different strokes and what not.

Hmmm, very interesting and a little disappointing.

SuperHiro · Post by **SuperHiro** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 7:34 pm

D.A.Lewis wrote:That's too bad about DS

I followed a lot of his threads (seldom participated) and felt while he was supercombative it was usually because he was flame bait. Maybe there was other stuff going on behind the scenes (private emails, other boards etc). But what I saw on GG usually made for interesting reading more than rasing my ire.

Typically on the old GG, it would go something like this: He would post something about his game and then someone would call both him and his game garbage. He in turn would respond.

Sometimes his responses were a little over the top (especailly for noobs who didn't RTFM) and not how I would handle things but hey, different strokes and what not.

Hmmm, very interesting and a little disappointing.

I'm hoping he doesn't suddenly barge in. He has a bad habit of mysteriously appearing whenever his name his mentioned (I think he just might be the Google Masta). But on the other hand, the Penny Arcade forumers have been trying for years to get his attention and nada (of course, what they were going to do when he got there is debatable, wait... no it isn't).

Anyhoo. You are right D.A., he took a lot of flak. -LE- got banned in a DS thread. IIRC, it was one particularly virulent nasty thread that finally got him da boot. He just got nasty in a hurry, and the mods just had enough (I believe).

There's a thread in the Avault forums about Gone Gold, and DS decided to butt in and "urinate on the corpse" so to speak. One of the mods showed up, and in the greatest bit of irony ever, DS began to spew the exact same complaints that -LE- was spewing. The thread reached comedy gold when Rm9 came in... and DS laid into him. Which is funny because Rm9 had very limited contact with DS (as rm9 never really ventured into the PC forums.). Hilarious until it got locked... one of the super-flamers from Gone Gold showed up and let loose a barrage of insults.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 9:31 pm

I'm not about to go into the details, but Derek had a long history of sticking his hooves in his mouth with regard to the site (from threatened lawsuits over old Hot Sheet columns to emails directed to staff members who Derek didn't realize were staff members). Unfortunately the Flame Cabal that you describe would show up just about at the same moment that Derek's own jackassery was about to get him banned (or more tellingly: banned again -- he earned himself a stealth six-month ban at one point and groveled his way back on the site afterwards, much to everyone's chagrin in the long run) and the staff would cut him some slack. He finally got escorted away permanently due to an unbreakable cycle of saying something mostly nasty, having the Flame Cabal show up, saying something over the top, having everyone get warned/moderated, saying that he understood what the problem was (and where everyone went wrong, sometimes including his own behavior, sometimes only pointing the finger elsewhere), and then going underground for a few weeks or months. Eventually, despite how many outward influences were affecting the situation, the staff decided that he *did not* understand the concept as to how our forums worked, and his most recent explosion earned him a (or again, another) permanant vacation. Then he sent some really ugly emails out and staff busted out the cigars and clapped each other on the backs and asked ourselves why we hadn't sent him away long earlier (which of course, we had done).

As I've said, I'm sure he's not crying in his coke-machine parts over not being invited to this new forum. He's likely after a place where he can make his big splash in front of a much larger audience.

The true irony, of course, (and we've seen this in other situations) were how his "detractors" made staff's job of dealing with the situation much more difficult. We tend to bend over backwards letting people hang themselves with their own rope. When two sides are acting like children to each other, we're hesitant about "just banning the whole lot and being done with it," just as much as we're hesitant about picking sides. The number of forum readers who'd potentially thank us for removing DS's presence vs. the number of forum readers who'd say that his banning was a black mark on the forum staff would bear witness to the difficulties involved in properly dealing with that whole situation. In the end, we're just humans, and while we'd like to think we're going to err on the side of leniency, if you make our lives difficult enough time and time (and time and time and time and time) again, we really are likely to eventually err on the side of whatever'd make our lives easier.

~Neal

Tareeq · Post by **Tareeq** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 9:53 pm

Forgive me if I was putting words in your mouth, Meal.

On the other hand, should a man who names himself The Meal be unhappy to have anything placed in his mouth?

Blackadar · Post by **Blackadar** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 9:59 pm

The Evil Dead · Post by **The Evil Dead** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 10:18 pm

The Preacher wrote:www.somethingawful.com

Edit to add: the band stuff is http://www.somethingawful.com/yourbandsucks/

Is there ANYTHING David Thorpe remotely likes?

edit: oh, nevermind. i get it

never spent much time on SA before

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:13 am

Don't *make* me go all warmonger in this thread.

~Neal

Trey · Post by **Trey** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:23 pm

SuperHiro wrote:Anyhoo. You are right D.A., he took a lot of flak. -LE- got banned in a DS thread. IIRC, it was one particularly virulent nasty thread that finally got him da boot. He just got nasty in a hurry, and the mods just had enough (I believe).

I'm pretty sure -LE- did at one point get a temp ban for his anti-DS ranting, but the permaban was applied because of his frothing at the mouth at the news that Bethesda had acquired the Fallout license. He also was banned at Qt3 for the same reason within days of his GG banning.

Blackadar · Post by **Blackadar** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:38 pm

*giggle*
*snicker*

Chesspieceface · Post by **Chesspieceface** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 1:05 am

DS did not seem capable of making a neutral statement. He always had an agenda, and usually the agenda was to make himself feel important. That is, when it wasn't to actively shit on others.... Oh wait, same thing.

[/rant]

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 10:12 am

Blackadar wrote:*giggle*
*snicker*

Gloating is in extremly poor form, and not something we're interesting in allowing here. Giggle all you want out loud, but please keep it off the forums.

~Neal

Blackadar · Post by **Blackadar** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:59 am

The Meal wrote:
Blackadar wrote:*giggle*
*snicker*

Gloating is in extremly poor form, and not something we're interesting in allowing here. Giggle all you want out loud, but please keep it off the forums.

~Neal

Fair enough.

Eel Snave · Post by **Eel Snave** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:32 pm

gloat gloat gloat

I don't even know what I'm gloating about. It's just fun to say. Try it.

gloat gloat gloat

Al · Post by Al » Tue Nov 09, 2004 12:16 pm

Meanwhile back on topic...

Truth Media reviews GTA: San Andreas. The main complaints are the game's long load times between levels, unchallenging game play and that it is too short.

warning · Post by **warning** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 1:50 pm

I loved the flames they got from their review of The Fellowship of the Ring. My favorite is this one:

Now here come the big guns, folks. It seems as if LoTR fans have an awful lot of spare time and absolutely no hobbies or life whatsoever, unless you consider "obsessing over a book and movie" to be a fulltime occupation. I wonder how much they get paid for that. To top it off, this LoTR zombie is none other than FRODO BAGGINS HIMSELF! What a surprise! Why, it's Frodo Baggins! Well that's what his email account says; his address is fr0d0_3aggin5@hotmail.com, so I assume ol' Frodo has turned in to a L33T COMPUTAR HAX0R!

From: Frodo Baggins
Subject: AAAHHHHH!!!!

Why don't you just dig up Tolkien and have sex with his corpse while burning the masterpieces that are the Lord of the Rings trilogy. You dumbass. If I list everything thats wrong with your review, this is going to be a long email. I'll try to make my spelling meticulous.
Number one: YOU SPELLED HIS GOD DAMN NAME INCORRECTLY! Its Tolkien faggot.
Number two: None of this book/movie takes place in Mordor except for the movie's opening, lame ass. I think what you meant was Middle Earth, genius.
Number three: I'm sorry, but what was all the Matrix bullshit you were talking about?! Just because they have a common actor?
Number four: The movie is not wholly confusing due to its certain omissions, though certain ones, including the absence of Tom Bombadil angered me.
Number five: The trilogy was written in fifties jackass.
Number six: The so-called "Hobbit town" is the Shire, fuck up.
Number Seven: At this point, Mithrandir (as the elves call him) is grey, not Galdalf the White. He is not the white wizard until he returns from Moria and his battle with the Balrog, you malodorous heap of excrement.
Number eight: The fireworks are for Bilbo's birthday, shit head.
Number nine: Gandalf does not take the Ring, Bilbo (who isn't evil, you freaking moron) leaves it (with encouragement) at Bag End for Frodo.
Number ten: "Orks" is misspelled. It is spelled with a "c", as opposed to a "k", and Orcs were NOT coming to the Shire for the ring, you blasphemous idiot.
Number eleven: you're the most mentally defficient person I don't know, and I don't know alot of them. They are Ringwraiths, in the service of Sauron, not Saruman, who is the white wizard.
Number twelve: Rivendell, or Imladris if you will, is not an elf city, but the house of the elf-lord Elrond, you seething zit of putrid slime.
Number thirteen: They do not go to Rivendell to discuss how the Orcs should be driven away, but to discuss what should be done with the Ring, cheese dick. Ok, a slight beef here that isn't your review, but the movie. In the book, Legolas helped them escape from the Black Riders, not Arwen, and the only reason they changed it is so they could give that pouty bitch a bigger role.
Number fourteen: the Ringwraiths are not fought of with ANYONE'S sword, but are washed down river by a flood mustered by Elrond (in the book); Arwen (in the fucking movie).
Number fifteen: Frodo was not poisoned by Orcs, or by anyone in this particular part. He recieved a wound from a knife of Mordor while camping near Weathertop, you foul pestilence.
Number sixteen: the whole next fucking paragraph about the council, you festering vat of maggot fecal matter.
Number seventeen: Gandalf was captured by Saruman, the white wizard (who up until that point was thought to be in aid of the enemies of Mordor) of Orthanc.
Number eighteen: its an eagle, shitstain.
Number nineteen: The orcs in Moria are not defeated, but held off.
Number twenty: The Uruk-Hai are not defeated, though they do kill Boromir, heir to the stewardship of Gondor. They also kidnap Merry and Pippin, upon orders from Saruman to bring back any halflings that were found.
Number twentyone: the movie ends just like the book, you ape anus, and the reason "its a downer" is because there is more to come. Gandalf does not defeat Saruman until the Ents destroy most of Orthanc, and even then, some malice is left in him.

I HATE YOU!

That's prime comedy right there! Wanna bet "Frodo" no longer uses that email address?

Eel Snave · Post by **Eel Snave** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 4:44 pm

And when you read that letter, it just SOUNDS like the Comic Book Guy. You can bet that he thought he was being incredibly clever when he wrote it, too.

I almost flamed them once when it looked they OBVIOUSLY didn't know what they were talking about, until I realized what kind of site it was, and I was like, "Oh. Very funny, guys."

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 6:01 pm

Oh man, i never saw this site before, it is Teh Funny!!?!!

I like the legal threats the best:

http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=88

"Dear Mr. David A. Tijoe-

My lawyer, Leonard "J." Crabs, has advised me to exercise my 16th Amendment rights on this issue. He said it's "more than three times better" than the standard fifth Amendment, so my chances of winning the lawsuit instantly tripled. "