|
Edit: Making this more legible because I was all hosed up on MegaCovid when I originally wrote this. When I first started coming to SA my favourite threads were the ghost story ones. I know a lot of other posters felt that way too, and to be honest those threads are more responsible for the rise of creepypasta/nosleep garbage than most of the internet realizes. This sounds dumb and pretentious but a lot of things on the internet exist because of us. Earlier this year I started gathering all those stories. I went through the archives page by page and grabbed all the annual ghost story threads, the random one-off threads, anything with a thread title that sounded like it had creepy stories. My goal isn't only to get the heavy hitters, but as much spooky goon content I can find. There are a few sites out there that have similarly gathered goon stories but I want to be the very best. There are also some very well known stories out there that were expanded upon by the authors in subsequent posts, which aren't always picked up when the story gets posted elsewhere. I am a little conservative with what I'm cataloguing though, I'm not including five billion sleep paralysis stories. Here's a quick idea of the amount of Certified Goon Content I'm sorting through. I went into the 2002 GBS archives and sorted by replies, then within the first 100 pages I saved every thread that sounded like it might have some stories. Then I did the same thing for every year up to 2015. I've only gone through GBS and the Goldmine so far, but I saved (locally, to my home) just over 6000 pages worth of threads, around 240,000 posts. With that done, now I read them and catalogue the actual good poo poo. That stuff gets uploaded to THE AWFUL MUSEUM. (Right now public access is disabled, but you can download a neat gif to your Windows or Macintosh Personal Computer) I think archiving things on the internet in a easy to consume way is really important though. Ease of use is really the most important thing. Anyone can just go into the archives and read through these threads, but unless you're some kind of hosed up freak you're going to be spending more time scrolling past posts than actually reading anything interesting. So here's what this thing actually looks like right now: Categories:   Stories:   Tags:  There's a lot to change, the design is just a rough go of things for now. I do want to keep a simple SA vibe, not a lot of extra horseshit all over the place. The site is using Omeka which is an open source platform normally used by real digital museums and art galleries. The only reason public access is disabled right now is so that I can make it pretty. My other (longer term) goal is to package threads/authors/topics/whatever into their own ePub/Mobi/PDF files, properly formatted to be easy to read offline on your phone or ebook reader. That's where this whole idea came from, I wanted to read all the old stories on my Kobo in bed. There were PDFs for some threads made a long time ago but software has evolved, especially in terms of navigation. Linked chapters and indexes make it a lot easier to read short story compilations now, rather than having to scroll or tap through pages and pages of a PDF that was meant to be read sitting in front of your desktop. I also think it would be kinda cool to eventually have more "historical forums things" than just the scary stories but it would involve figuring out an elegant way of integrating relevant posts and replies and getting rid of the chaff. One example that I think of every now and then is that time goons seriously discussed buying a small country off the coast of England. But that's a far off thing. For now I'm sticking to the spooky stuff. Please now come forward with questions, suggestions, comments, or political statements. Don't hurt my feelings. If you're reminding yourself that goon projects very rarely work out, just remember: every single lovely goon project had an "I'll build the website" guy, and they usually did it. R.L. Stine fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Nov 12, 2024 |
#
?
Nov 10, 2024 21:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? Dec 5, 2024 11:00 |
|
|
too risky imo, slenderman might get you
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2024 22:46
|
|
|
just don't ddos the forums and it's probably fine op. I'd like to see that one post someone made about The Intruder which was a weird cat that tries to make a copy of your key so it can get in your house and kill you. for some reason I still remember it like twenty years later
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2024 22:55
|
|
|
Good news for you OP
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2024 23:02
|
|
|
nothing's being served from the forums and the ~500 threads i'm getting the stories from i already have offline copies of so it has no impact on SA. forums integration would likely require knowledge of slurs i haven't even heard of
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2024 23:02
|
|
|
What's going on with the Internet Archive?
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2024 23:46
|
|
|
CaptainSarcastic posted:What's going on with the Internet Archive? They got hacked and are slowly recovering. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/internet-archive-hacked-data-breach-impacts-31-million-users/
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2024 23:48
|
|
|
Wait, why do I hate you?
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2024 23:51
|
|
|
nullandvoid posted:They got hacked and are slowly recovering. Well, poo poo. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2024 23:58
|
|
|
R.L. Stine posted:Please now come forward with questions, comments, or political statements.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 02:17
|
|
|
Orange.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 06:19
|
|
|
When will you get around to talking about the terrible secret of space?
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 06:22
|
|
|
what do you want me to do?
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 06:26
|
|
|
Can I wipe my feet on the rhythm rug
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 06:38
|
|
|
I don't know, can you?
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 06:41
|
|
|
R.L. Stine posted:Orange. checks out
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 07:35
|
|
|
As always, 
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 13:19
|
|
|
when I made the thread I had a really neat fever idk why i am asking permission lol i meant to change the title before i posted it. I'm mostly just seeing if it's something people are interested in using. you can read a little spooky story before bed and get 'the willies' knowing some disgusting 2000s era goon wrote it
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 14:07
|
|
|
I'd certainly check it out, assuming you are filtering out all the "I know posting about your dream sucks, and people hate when people do it, but I swear its actually scary and interesting this time" posts.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 14:15
|
|
|
Inexplicable Humblebrag posted:just don't ddos the forums and it's probably fine op. that's dumb as hell, if a cat wants to come into my apartment without a key I'm just gonna let them in, especially if I know they're gonna kill me
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 15:18
|
|
|
IShallRiseAgain posted:I'd certainly check it out, assuming you are filtering out all the "I know posting about your dream sucks, and people hate when people do it, but I swear its actually scary and interesting this time" posts. Yeah there's a lot of those. I started off like "I'm gonna include everything" and started being more conservative after reading through 5 billion stories about seeing a scary shadow when OP was a kid. There's a lot of good poo poo though, the really popular ones that have been saved elsewhere on the internet normally had follow-up posts that the other sites don't have
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 19:12
|
|
|
I'm for it OP, go forth and archive the dumb stories.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 19:27
|
|
|
R.L. Stine posted:when I made the thread I had a really neat fever idk why i am asking permission lol i meant to change the title before i posted it. I'm mostly just seeing if it's something people are interested in using. you can read a little spooky story before bed and get 'the willies' knowing some disgusting 2000s era goon wrote it I have a physical copy of the Goonbumps book from god knows how many years ago, and I pull it out about once a year for just this purpose so YES people are interested. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 19:34
|
|
|
Clearly you cannot do this (goon project) or you'd have done it already.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 19:39
|
|
|
I say go for it this idea is giving me goosebumps of excitement. One day you may even receive the prestigious RL Stine Creative Writing Award for it: https://x.com/RL_Stine/status/1337768882988347393
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 20:24
|
|
|
it's november and you want to start a goon project???
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 20:26
|
|
|
this is a cool as hell idea, kudos
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 20:49
|
|
|
AEMINAL posted:this is a cool as hell idea, kudos
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 21:03
|
|
|
I live these old stories and wish the threads never died out. I still remember nothotbutapicy and The Blood Mirror. Also the Swastika Mask which was a goon's grandpa during The war. I dont suppose it's available yet for public viewing?I like the word cloud. I don't remember titles so it'll be a good jumping point to track old.stories.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2024 21:06
|
|
|
R.L. Stine posted:when I made the thread I had a really neat fever idk why i am asking permission lol i meant to change the title before i posted it. I'm mostly just seeing if it's something people are interested in using. you can read a little spooky story before bed and get 'the willies' knowing some disgusting 2000s era goon wrote it If you want to change the thread title you can post what you want the title to be here and I'll change it, or you could post the requested title change and report that post yourself so it goes to the report queue and someone should see it if the timing doesn't work out for me getting it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2024 00:08
|
|
|
value-brand cereal posted:I live these old stories and wish the threads never died out. I still remember nothotbutapicy and The Blood Mirror. Also the Swastika Mask which was a goon's grandpa during The war. I dont suppose it's available yet for public viewing?I like the word cloud. I don't remember titles so it'll be a good jumping point to track old.stories. live server is here: https://awfulmuseum.com/ be warned though it's pretty spooky!! I checked and I have the Blood Mirror story already 'processed' lol. The same author wrote a few stories, mostly about their creepy house and its abundance of mirrors.  I don't want to spoil the ending or anything but I forgot I added a little note to the end of that one  CaptainSarcastic posted:If you want to change the thread title you can post what you want the title to be here and I'll change it, or you could post the requested title change and report that post yourself so it goes to the report queue and someone should see it if the timing doesn't work out for me getting it. ty for this. I don't know what I'd call it. "Goon Ghosts Archival Project" or "The SA Haunted Museum" or some bullshit? I dunno. This is why I don't make threads.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2024 01:32
|
|
|
I support you, OP. In the sense that I think this is a neat project.. But don't ask me to give you money or put a hashtag in a tweet or anything like that.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2024 01:53
|
|
|
R.L. Stine posted:ty for this. I don't know what I'd call it. "Goon Ghosts Archival Project" or "The SA Haunted Museum" or some bullshit? I dunno. This is why I don't make threads. No problem, I went ahead and just snipped out part of that and I think it works okay as a title. Might get more eyes on it. If you want it changed to something else at any point just let me know or do the whole "report your own post" thing to request a thread title change. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2024 03:19
|
|
|
Super appreciated, thanks. I edited the OP so it's not insane too.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2024 05:29
|
|
|
I really loved those threads, what a great idea
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2024 06:14
|
|
|
|
| # ? Dec 5, 2024 11:00 |
|
|
Here's a lil sneak peek of some of the supplemental stuff I've been tracking down. There was a thread a long time ago that's stuck with me ever since I saw it called "I found a camera in the woods", and was floored by how cool it was at the time. The images in the thread are long gone so you gotta cast a net for them now, but they're out there. Here's a few of the original shots posted in the thread, unedited:             Probably one of my favourite old threads, a more innocent time where belief came before dismissal
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2024 23:21
|
|