Fucked Company: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Website created by Philip J. "Pud" Kaplan}}

'''Fucked Company''' is a web site created by [[Philip J. Kaplan]] for his friends, initially as a "[[dot-com]] [[dead pool]]" where players could compete to see who could most accurately predict which dot-com companies would be the next to [[bankruptcy|fold]], screw up, or otherwise embarrass themselves.

'''Fucked Company''' was a [[website]] created by [[Philip J. Kaplan|Philip J. "Pud" Kaplan]] after the [[dot-com bubble]] in 2000 as a "[[dot-com bubble|dot-com]] [[dead pool]]" that chronicled troubled and failing companies in a unique and abrasive manner.<ref name="cnet2002">{{cite news |last=Festa |first=Paul |date=2002-08-26 |title=Dot-com dead pool brakes for Ford |work=CNet News |url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-955447.html?hhTest=1 |access-date=8 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925065836/http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-955447.html |archive-date=25 September 2012}}</ref><ref name="rowan">{{cite news |last=Rowan |first=David |date=17 September 2000 |title=The dead list |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/Archive/Article/0,4273,4064822,00.html |url-status=live |access-date=8 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230531100444/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2000/sep/18/mondaymediasection.newmedia |archive-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> The website also sold rumor listings to subscribers. The site's name is a parody of ''[[Fast Company (magazine)|Fast Company]]'', a magazine that began covering technology companies during the Internet dot-com boom.

A September 10, 2000 attempt by Kaplan to put the entire site up for sale on eBay attracted joke bids as high as [[US dollar|$]]10 million but no serious buyers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolverton |first=Troy |date=September 11, 2000 |title=Dot-com doom site up for auction on eBay |url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-245542.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925065843/http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-245542.html |archive-date=September 25, 2012}}</ref>

The site's name is a parody of ''[[Fast Company magazine|Fast Company]]'', a magazine that along with ''[[Upside]]'', ''[[Red Herring (magazine)|Red Herring]]'', and ''[[Wired Magazine|Wired]]'', were tireless boosters of the Internet [[dot-com boom]] of the mid to late [[1990s]].

==History==

The site became an underground hit, with users finding out about it via word of mouth. Eventually, Kaplan realized he had a potential money maker on his hands and added free and for-pay services like rumor listings and discussion boards. [[As of 2000|As of late 2000]], Kaplan claimed site revenues of US $80,000 per month based on subscriptions to his rumor-alert service (Kaplan claimed most of the subscribers were [[recruiter|headhunters]]).

Fucked Company (commonly abbreviated FC) allowed employees to post anonymous comments on why their employer was losing money, had abused employees, or was discriminating against some group, identifying unethical managers and defective products or services by name. Employees were free to explain why they thought the companies were going out of business. This made the site a target for [[strategic lawsuit against public participation|strategic lawsuits against public participation]] from companies. The site was taken offline for two days in August 2002;<ref name = "cnet2002"/> [[Ford Motor Company]] law firm Howard Phillips & Andersen had threatened litigation against FC's upstream provider [[HostGator]] as a means of silencing a discussion of a series of layoffs entitled "Ford, where finding a job is job one."<ref>{{cite news|title=Threat of Ford lawsuit shutters job-cut Web site|author=Adam Pasick (NEW YORK)|date=Aug 27, 2002|agency=Reuters}}<!-- http://wardsauto.com/threat-ford-lawsuit-shutters-job-cut-web-site archived at http://www.fordforums.com/f349/threat-ford-lawsuit-temporarily-shutters-f-dcompany-com-23037 --></ref> Ford claimed that it [[trademark infringement|infringed a trademark slogan]] "Ford, where quality is job one," discontinued after widespread use from 1980 to 1997.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ford drops 'Quality is Job 1' slogan|agency=Associated Press|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19980505&id=BVxPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kwMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4695,1895496|date =May 4, 1998|access-date=3 January 2014}} <!--http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-19714471.html --></ref> The site eventually returned minus the news of the Ford layoffs.

Even where the cases were spurious or were settled out of court for a small fee, it drained the resources of FC to fight these lawsuits. As a [[consumer complaint]] site, FC also faced increasing competition from new entrants, including [[Social networking service|social networking]] providers. [[Michael Arrington]] announced on March 31, 2007 that [[TechCrunch]] had acquired FuckedCompany.com in an [[April Fools' Day]] joke press release.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Arrington |first=Michael |date=2007-03-30 |title=TechCrunch Has Acquired FuckedCompany.com |url=https://techcrunch.com/2007/03/31/techcrunch-has-acquired-fuckedcompanycom/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422081824/https://techcrunch.com/2007/03/31/techcrunch-has-acquired-fuckedcompanycom/ |archive-date=22 April 2012 |access-date=2023-11-17 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Forum attacks==

Starting in August 2007, the site ceased posting new content, and later converted its main page to the simple message:<ref name="archive.org">{{cite web|title=Fucked Company Start Page|url=http://www.fuckedcompany.com|date=2007-08-19|publisher=Fucked Company|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20060603194832/http://www.fuckedcompany.com/|archive-date=2006-06-03|access-date=8 August 2012}}</ref>

During 2002 and 2003, the FuckedCompany BBS was at its peak. Its members had formed a closely knit society, where ranks were assigned based on the numbers of posts made (reaching 2,500 posts gave members distinctive tag on their monikers). Several "attacks" on other established forums took place during that timeframe, where trolls infiltrated other message boards with witty, sarcastic, or obscene posts.

{{blockquote|Fuckedcompany is... fucked.<br/>R.I.P. 2000-2007. If you're just now seeing this website for the first time, ask someone who was in the internet business during "round 1" to tell you all about it.}}

The most famous attack of them all was the one made on [[Stormfront]].org, where several people defaced the pro-Nazi forums. Overnight, the racially insensitive, pro-white forum was turned into an interracial homosexual sex joint, complete with obscene pictures and postings. It was considered, at the time, to be the defining moment for FC.

==References==

This had a powerful effect on the future of FuckedCompany, since from that point onwards, groups of [[anti-semite]]s infiltrated the BBS, and racism became a common problem.

{{reflist}}

From that point on, attacks were few and far between. Events like the Cass Almendral lifestyle troll, the [[Deepak Chopra]] Inner Peace troll, the Pogocentric.com VideoAssault, the Christian Forum BBS all-night trolling marathon, the Herpes Chat Self-Help attack [I have [[herpes]] and I love it!] and the Date Model Site trolls were relegated to the BBS' history.

==External links==

*{{cite news|last=Wolverton|first=Troy|url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-245542.html|title=Dot-com doom site up for auction on eBay|date=11 September 2000|work=CNet News|access-date=8 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925065843/http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-245542.html|archive-date=2012-09-25|url-status=dead}}

[[Category:NewsAmerican news websites]]

*[http://www.fuckedcompany.com Fucked Company website]

[[Category:News websites]]

[[Category:Internet forums]]

[[Category:Defunct online companies of the United States]]

[[Category:Dot-com bubble]]

[[Category:2000 establishments in the United States]]

[[Category:2007 disestablishments in the United States]]

[[Category:Internet properties established in 2000]]

[[Category:Internet properties disestablished in 2007]]