I finally broke down and bought me an account on the Something Awful forums.
Go me.
Any Dopers post there? Did I just waste a few bucks? I hear that they like to ban people at the drop of a hat (and GOD knows how often those damned hats fall to the ground), are there any unspoken rules I should know to get along, or to avoid a banning.
I’ve been thinking about getting an acount for a while. I’m sure I will eventually, if I can scrounge up ten dollars. I think the SA forums are right up there with the SDMB in terms of humor content, but I don’t know how long I can stand that message board slang that they seem so attatched to over there.
Pretty much the same as here: Don’t be a jerk (or “dickhead” to use their term)
Read the Forum Rules (there’s one at the top of each forum), and also check out the “Leper Colony” forum (between GBS and FYAD forums) to see what other people were banned for.
I think I tried to check out the forums there, but I it looked like you had to register or something. Can you at least read them?
Up until about a week ago, yeah you could read some of the forums without being a member, but obviously they changed it to members only.
I used to have an account there. I consider the SDMB a graduation from something awful. General Bullshit is a sad collection of antisocial college freshman who use the internet to seek human contact using pop culture references. If you are used to reading the SD then I think you will quickly tire of the juvenile posts. Debate and Discussion is a weak imitation of fark.com, news articles are posted and pointless personal bickering devolve every thread to a point where no useful knowledge is gained. In my opinion you wasted your money.
Yeah, but there they post pictures of naked boobies.
Muad’Dib
You seem desperate for boobies lately. Is this a recent development or a lifelong fascination?
Also, I’ve been wanting to do this since I saw your screen name:
He is the Kwisatz Haderach!
(btw, I did have to look up how to spell that but my copy of Dune was less than an arms-length away. Wow I’m a nerd.)
Dang. Hamsters ate my earlier post. (The hamsters at SA have better manners.)
Clichés and catchphrases are part of the Something Awful culture, but 99% of the time they get beaten into the ground. When mods get fed up with a cliché, they will make it bannable, sometimes with little warning. Pay attention to stickied threads. Better yet, just avoid using clichés - they really don’t add anything useful to a thread.
SA is sensitive to leeching bandwidth. You can post a link to an image, but don’t use the image tags unless it points to web hosting that you pay for.
Don’t ask for warez and serial numbers. Big no-no.
Racism and homophobia are bannable.
SA isn’t all about juvenile humor and name-calling. A forum member was deployed to Iraq and the Army claimed that his job wasn’t hazardous enough to warrant body armor. The forums started a fund-raising campaign to buy armor (SAPI inserts) for the member and the rest of his unit. They raised more than $14,000. Then they got back to the daily business of calling each other “Asshat.”
Just go to Fark for all that stuff you want.
I just bought an SA account too. I split my time pretty evenly between here, there, and Fark. Each place has a pretty distinct style of content, so it’s hard to compare the three, and hard to make a recommendation as to “if you like this, you’ll LOVE this”.
Fark is a great place for links and one-off joke comments with the occaisional flame war. The SDMB is great for long-running discussions with more than one-sentence or so posts. The SA Forums are the best to lurk in (especially the Comedy Goldmine). The Games board is also light years ahead of GameFAQs because there’s no teenage punks talking leet speak.
As for the bannings, I actually think their Forum Rules read less threatening than they used to. A while back I passed up registering because the rules sounded like “if we don’t think you’re cool/funny, we’ll ban you.” They read much more civilized now.
I actually see you in Fark all the time Elwood. You’re nice and levelheaded compared to most of those guys. 
I have an account at SA. My system of posting here and there is pretty nice. When I get tired of the seriousness and sensitivity of the SDMB, I head over to SA. When I get tired of the lighthearted attitudes and humor at SA, I come back here.
Don’t have an account at Fark though, though I’ve given it some thought.
I think SA was well worth the $10. Hell, just the assboat thread in the Goldmine from last May was worth it.
I’m there. Haven’t been banned yet, and even got myself platnum and a custom title. It rules.
Seriously? If true, this is a huge surprise to me, as there are things on the front page update almost every day that would easily get somebody banned for hatespeech here.
Well, people get away with a lot if it’s clear that they’re joking. And the standards are much different than here. But I also see posters calling each other out for racism and there are always a few people banned for racism each month.
Lurking is the only way to figure out what’s accepted. Even then the line is sometimes blurry and moderation isn’t an exact science.
Just thought I’d bump this, since they have some interesting projects going on over there right now.
To answer the original question, I bought myself an account about a month ago, but haven’t posted with it yet. My unofficial “lurker” period isn’t up yet!
I’m over there under a different nickname.
SA appeals to my inner twelve-year-old.
Um, I read the forums all the time (which are open in another window as I type this) and I’m not registered…yet.
I think only certain forums are readable, however. You do have to be registered for everything (and then not even all of that, if you aren’t a “goon”…heh) you would like to read.
I like the site, and the forums. While some of the members are silly and immature, others are very intense and intelligent. I’ll definitely be joining as soon as my paypal stuff is done.