Encyclopedia Dramatica

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Encyclopædia Dramatica
Official site logo
A screenshot of Encyclopædia Dramatica
URL encyclopediadramatica.com
Slogan In lulz we trust
Commercial? Yes
Type of site Satirical wiki
Registration Optional (required to edit pages)
Available language(s) English
Launched December 9, 2004[1]
Revenue Advertising and donations
Current status Active

Encyclopædia Dramatica is a website that satirizes current events and themes, especially those related to or relevant to internet culture.

Encyclopedia Dramatica's website is a wiki, running MediaWiki software.[2]

Contents

Content

Encyclopædia Dramatica characterizes itself as "[d]one in the spirit of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary".[1] The New York Times has characterized the wiki as "an online compendium of troll humor and troll lore" [3] that it labeled a "troll archive".[3] C't, a European magazine for IT-professionals, referred to it as a "troll paradise",[4] implying that it is cf.a platform from which to intentionally provoke a negative emotional response.cf. Encyclopædia Dramatica defines trolling in terms of doing things "for the lulz" (for laughs),[5] a phrase that it qualifies as "a catchall explanation for any trolling you do".[5]

The targets of this trolling come from "every pocket of the Web",[6] to include not only the non-corporeal aspects of Internet phenomena, (e.g. online catchphrases, fan pages, forums and viral phenomena), but also real people (e.g. amateur celebrities, identifiable internet drama participants and even Encyclopædia Dramatica's own forum members).[6][7] These are derided in a manner described variously as "coarse", "offensive", "obscene",[8][9] "irreverent, obtuse, [politically incorrect]",[10] "crude but hilarious",[6] "crude and abusive".[11] The material is presented to appear comprehensive, with extensive use of shock-value prose, drawings, photographs, and the like. The emotional responses are then added to the articles, often in similarly derogatory or inflammatory manner, with the purpose of provoking further emotional response. Adherents of the practice assert that visitors to the website "shouldn't take anything said on Dramatica seriously."[10]

Articles at Encyclopædia Dramatica are notably critical of MySpace.[8] In The New York Times Magazine, journalist Jonathan Dee described it as a "snarky Wikipedia anti-fansite".[7] Shaun Davies of Australia's Nine Network has called it "Wikipedia's bastard child, a compendium of internet trends and culture which lampoons every subject it touches."[10] The site "is run like Wikipedia, but its style is the opposite; most of its information is biased and opinionated, not to mention racist, homophobic and spiteful, but on the upside its snide attitude makes it spot-on about most Internet memes it covers."[12] This coverage of Internet jargon and memes has been acknowledged in the New Statesman,[13] on Language Log,[14] in C't magazine,[4] and in Wired magazine.[6]

Media attention

The website received mainstream media attention after Jason Fortuny used Encyclopædia Dramatica to post photographs, e-mails and phone numbers from one hundred and seventy-six responses to a Craigslist advertisement he posted in 2006, in which he posed as a woman seeking sexual encounters with dominant men.[3][2]

The website is best known for serving as a platform for members of the group known as "Anonymous", making Encyclopædia Dramatica a "favourite target for critics, who accuse Anonymous of propagating hate."[10] Through its association with members of Anonymous, Encyclopædia Dramatica received incidental coverage when members of Anonymous led to indictment of a man who may have solicited sex from minors,[15] when they demonstrated against Scientology in London;[16][17] when a member of Anonymous broke into the e-mail account of former vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin,[18] and when a member of Anonymous claimed credit for an attack on the virtual Second Life headquarters of former presidential candidate John Edwards.[19] The convergence of Encyclopædia Dramatica with the anti-Scientology campaign of Project Chanology was noted by technology journalist Julian Dibbell.[20]

Awards

On December 16, 2008, Encyclopædia Dramatica won the 'People's Choice Winners' category for favorite wiki in Mashable's 2nd Annual Open Web Awards.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Encyclopedia_Dramatica:About. Retrieved on May 25, 2008.
  2. ^ a b Chonin, Neva (September 17, 2006), "Sex and the City", San Francisco Chronicle: 20, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/17/PKG6BKQQA41.DTL&type=printable .
  3. ^ a b c Schwartz, Mattathias (August 3, 2008), "The Trolls Among Us", The New York Times Magazine: 24, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?pagewanted=all .
  4. ^ a b Himmelein, Gerald (February 28, 2008), "Das Trollparadies", C't: 100 .
  5. ^ a b Tsotsis, Alexia (February 04, 2009), "My Date With Anonymous: A Rare Interview With the Illusive Internet Troublemakers", LA Weekly, http://www.laweekly.com/2009-02-05/columns/my-date-with-anonymous-a-rare-interview-with-the-illusive-internet-troublemakers/ .
  6. ^ a b c d Dibbell, Julian (January 18, 2008), "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World", Wired (16.02), http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-02/mf_goons?currentPage=all .
  7. ^ a b Dee, Jonathan (July 1, 2007), "All the News That's Fit to Print Out", The New York Times Magazine: 5, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/magazine/01WIKIPEDIA-t.html?pagewanted=5&fta=y .
  8. ^ a b Mitchell, John (May 20, 2006), "Megabits and Pieces: The Latest Teen Hangout", North Adams Transcript .
  9. ^ Staff Writer (December 16, 2005), "2 Do: Monday, December 26", Chicago Tribune RedEye Edition: 2 .
  10. ^ a b c d Davies, Shaun (August 5, 2008), "Critics point finger at satirical website", 9-News, http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=459249 .
  11. ^ Peckham, Charles (February 1, 2008), "Encyclopedia Dramatica" ([dead link] – Scholar search), Chico News & Review, http://www.peckham.com/chico/Content?oid=620760 .
  12. ^ Douglas, Nick (January 18, 2008), "What The Hell Are 4chan, ED, Something Awful, And 'b'?", ValleyWag (gawker.com), http://gawker.com/346385/what-the-hell-are-4chan-ed-something-awful-and-b, retrieved on August 25, 2008 .
  13. ^ Hogge, Betty (June 5, 2008), "A lesson in hai culture", The New Statesman, http://www.newstatesman.com/scitech/2008/06/cat-pidgin-language-hai .
  14. ^ Zimmer, Benjamin (May 18, 2007), "Lol-lexicography", Language Log, http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004508.html, retrieved on August 25, 2008 .
  15. ^ Kim, Gus (July 12, 2007), "Anonymous operation leads to pedophile conviction", Global Television Network News, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHohvluf3mc .
  16. ^ Whipple, Tom (June 20, 2008), "Scientology: the Anonymous protestors", The Times, http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article4173635.ece .
  17. ^ Lee, Joe (February 11, 2008), "Anonymous Protests Outside Scientology Sites", Londonist (londonist.com), http://londonist.com/2008/02/they_came_they.php, retrieved on August 25, 2008 .
  18. ^ Singel, Ryan (August 19, 2008), "Palin Hacker Group's All-Time Greatest Hits", Wired (blog.wired.com), http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/palin-hacker-gr.html, retrieved on August 25, 2008 .
  19. ^ Cabron, Lou (August 3, 2007), "John Edwards' Virtual Attackers Unmasked", AlterNet (alternet.org), http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/48989/, retrieved on August 25, 2008 .
  20. ^ Dibbell, Julian (2008), "Sympathy for the Griefer: MOOrape, Lulz Cubes, and Other Lessons From the First 2 Decades of Online Sociopathy", GLS Conference 4.0, Madison, Wisconsin: Games, Learning and Society Group, http://hosted.mediasite.com/hosted4/Viewer/?peid=9d1cf257-52ff-4704-9cb5-37de2ecca35b, retrieved on November 7, 2008 .
  21. ^ Cashmore, Pete (December 16, 2008), "People's Choice Winners", Open Web Awards Winners, mashable.com, http://mashable.com/2008/12/16/open-web-awards-2-winners/ .

External links

v • d • e
Anonymous and the Internet
Related websites
4chan · Encyclopedia Dramatica · Something Awful · YouTube
Topics
Terms
Internet portal
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_Dramatica"
Personal tools