Photograph by Kevin Clifford
The Dirty Internet - Part 2 
by Matt Fiske on 27 Oct 2007
Something Awful is one of the early pioneers of internet humor, and in recent years has become the subject of controversy amidst the geek populace.
Created by the infamous Richard Lowtax in 1999, SA has grown from a small personal site to a large-scale online community , featuring amusing news articles, blogs, editorials, the SA Forum and SA's signature digitally manipulated images.
The most famous of these is Photoshop Phriday, where users submit altered photos based on a weekly topic to the SA Forum.
SA is not without its downsides, however. To join the SA Forum as a "Goon" so as to gain access to exclusive content, a $9.95 payment is required. This is justified by SA's disclaimer: "It costs us $3,400 per month for bandwidth bills alone."
Not all is funny at SA either as the forums were alleged to have been involved in a recent homicide.
Other more humorous controversies have been cause for laughs, such as a boxing match between Lowtax and Hollywood director Uwe Boll. Lowtax had been a major critic of Boll's work, often using him as comedic fodder for SA.
As the internet grows to embrace newer social networking sites such as Digg, Flickr, YouTube and others that provide comparable content for free, the relevance of older sites such as SA is debated. Despite what its future may or may not hold, SA will no doubt remain an amusing entry on the dirty side of the internet for many years to come.
URL: www.somethingawful.com
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Steve said on 27 Oct 2007 12:49 am:
Your entry gives something awful too much credit. Everyone knows they suck ass.
