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Fark Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): About Fark

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About Fark

What is Fark?

The first thing you should know is that Fark.com isn't a Weblog. Fark.com, the Web site, is a news aggregator and an edited social networking news site. Every day Fark receives 2,000 or so news submissions from its readership.

Fark isn't an acronym. It doesn't mean anything. The idea was to have the word Fark come to symbolize news that is really Not News. Hence the slogan "It's not news, it's Fark." Fark was originally a word Drew became known for using online back in the early 1990s. He can't remember why, but his guess is that it was either to replace another F-word or that he was just drunk and mistyped something. He tells everyone it was the former since it's a better story that way.

Four letter domain names were getting snapped up quickly, so on a whim in the summer of 1997 Drew checked to see if Fark.com was available. It was, and he grabbed it. At the time the only thing you could do with a Web site was put up what was then called a vanity site. This was almost all the Internet consisted of back in 1997. Think of vanity sites as poorly coded MySpace pages. Yes, MySpace pages look pretty bad, but these were worse. Drew didn't want to use the Fark.com domain name for a vanity site, so he decided to wait until he had a better idea.

For the first two years of Fark.com's existence (1997-1999), all you got was this picture of a squirrel with big nuts:

squirrel.jpg

He spent the next couple of years drinking and promptly forgot all about the domain. One day in February 1999 he had an epiphany - or a really good buzz - who knows.... He was sitting in his living room, thinking long and hard about starting Fark. He decided that if he was going to do it, he would have to do it every single day. He took a deep breath, grabbed a fresh beer, and jumped in. His friends evidently told other people about Fark and it caught on like a house on fire (or that weird ass rash you don't want to tell anyone about) and that's how it all started.

The first year Fark received 50,000 page views. That's a respectable number for a site started from scratch. The second year it was a million. The number one highest-traffic corporate Internet hitting Fark's servers was CNN. Number two: Fox News.

What is Fark exactly? Fark is what fills space when mass media runs out of news. Fark is supposed to look like news... but it's not news. It's Fark.

What is TotalFark?

For only $5 a month ($25 for 6 months or $50 per year) you get all the links submitted to Fark in real time.

That's about 1800 - 2000 links per day.

We only post roughly 50 links per day to Fark's Main page, so there's a lot more to see here. With TotalFark - you can:

  • See all the breaking news and more from all the major news sources all in one handy location.
  • Preview and post in upcoming links before they hit the main page. It's like being psychic and seeing the future. Sort of.
  • Priority access to Photoshop contests, often days before they are posted to Fark.
  • TotalFarkers can comment on Foobies.com.
  • TotalFark is archived in its entirety.
  • TotalFark is user supported -- your contributions help keep the site running!
  • Spiffy TotalFark tag next to your name.

More TotalFark features include:

  • TotalFarkers can notify Moderators and Admins of repeated links or other problems.
  • Favorite User and Ignore User features: Highlights posts from your friends in whatever color you like, and hides posts from people that annoy you.
  • Favorite links feature: Keep track of stories you liked.
  • View only new posts feature: Keeps track of what posts you've read, so you can jump straight to the new ones next time.
  • Link voting. Is it comedy gold or epic failure? You decide.

For more info on these features, see the TotalFark Questions section.

Click here to sign up for TotalFark!

What is Foobies?

Foobies is where all of the adult-oriented links go. Posting Rules for Fark and TotalFark apply to posts on Foobies as well. To post comments, you must be a TotalFark subscriber.

Foobies Submission Rules

The linked site and its content, goods, and/or services offered via the web site can NOT contain or promote:

  • content violating any law, statute, ordinance or regulation or promote illegal activities.
  • any material depicting bestiality, rape, torture, or slaughter/murder
  • harmful and/or indecent matter to minors
  • depictions of persons under the age of 18 in actual, simulated, or suggestive sexual situations
  • material which constitutes child pornography or matter which involved depictions of nudity or sexuality by an age inappropriate-looking, made-up, or costumed performer
  • material that infringes upon or violates intellectual property rights, copyrights, trademark rights, privacy rights or any other rights not specifically mentioned in this FAQ
  • discriminates against race, religion, gender, or is defamatory, slanderous/libelous
  • contains malware, spyware, or other programs designed to compromise the computer/s of site visitors

Unlike Fark, on Foobies you can buy a link to your site. The cost:

$400 for a Not Safe For Work link on the Foobies.com main page instead of Classifieds

Bulk discounts are not available.

Fark, the Book

Fark has a book called "It's Not News It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News". Click for details on the Fark Book.

Drew will be in the following cities on these dates. Stop by and say hello!


Past appearances

Lexington, KY

New York City

Cheektowaga, NY

Chicago, IL

Durham, NC

Oakland, CA

  • Wednesday June 13. 7:30 PM - Diesel

Mountain View, CA

Austin, TX

Atlanta, GA

Littleton, CO