BBspot was a

geek The word ''geek'' is a slang term originally used to describe eccentric or non-mainstream people; in current use, the word typically connotes an expert or enthusiast obsessed with a hobby or intellectual pursuit. In the past, it had a genera ...

satire Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

and

humour Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

web site A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikip ...

founded in 2000. In 2003, the site was successful enough that webmaster Brian Briggs "quit his day job" and made the site his full-time vocation. BBspot is most notable for its technology

news satire News satire or news comedy is a type of parody presented in a format typical of mainstream journalism, and called a satire because of its content. News satire has been around almost as long as journalism itself, but it is particularly popular on t ...

. The most successful hoaxes by BBspot include an article about premium accounts on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and claims about the

MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...

conducting surveillance in private residences. BBspot is a founding member of HumorFeed, a community of

webmasters; Briggs is also a member of the editorial board for ''Check Please!'', a journal devoted to the serious examination of news satire and journalism. Content updates to BBSpot ceased in November 2011, experiencing intermittent down time in the years that followed. It resumed in December 2017 with the stor
"Valve Contracts George R. R. Martin to Complete Half-Life Story"

Content

BBspot is most notable for its

, which mainly covers technology,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

, and

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

. Responses from "BBelievers" who are fooled by the stories are posted approximately weekly. Since 2006, the site also hosts '' The PC Weenies'' cartoons by Krishna M. Sadasivam, which replaces the FuzzyLogic cartoons created between 2001 and 2004. BBspot issues an award, the ''Technical Award of Excellence'', for gadgets and technology, based on a series of obscure or superficial challenges; such as coin flips, who has the best mascot, logo or name, and the web site. The site also contains movie trailer reviews, internet-based guffs ("BBloopers"), regular guest columns and other items of general interest. There is also a

forum Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to: Common uses *Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example *Internet ...

Press coverage

Several mainstream media outlets have represented the satire on the site as real news. Fooled outlets include

TechTV TechTV is a defunct 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming ...

The Screen Savers ''The Screen Savers'' is an American TV show that aired on TechTV from 1998 to 2005.Fost, Dan (17 May 1999)A Day in the Life of ZDTV's `The Screen Savers' ''San Francisco Chronicle'' The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV (later k ...

show, the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...

as well as radio shows, major newspapers and books.

Awards

BBspot won third place in the HumorFeed Satire News Awards twice, in 2006 for its stor
"Microsoft's AntiSpyware Tool Removes Internet Explorer"
and in 2007 fo
"Teen Using Myspace To Lure Bands to Los Angeles"
''

The Register ''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tech ...

'' named BBspot the "best tech humour site" in 2000.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bbspot Internet properties established in 2000 American comedy websites

Content

Press coverage

Awards

See also

References

External links