Fark is a community-driven news aggregation and discussion website created by Drew Curtis in September 1997. Here’s an overview of what the product does and its key features:
What Fark Does
Fark allows users, known as “Farkers,” to submit, comment on, and discuss a wide range of news articles and other content from various websites. The site is designed to share interesting news postings and facilitate community engagement around these topics.
Key Features and Functionality
Content Submission and Selection
- Users can submit links to news articles and other content, with approximately 2,000 submissions received daily. However, only about 50-100 of these submissions are selected (“greenlit”) by administrators to appear on the main page or topical tabs (entertainment, sports, geek, politics, and business).
Community Engagement
- Each greenlit link has an associated comment thread where users can discuss the content. This interactive aspect is a core feature of Fark, fostering a vibrant community of users who engage in discussions, debates, and humor.
Tags and Categories
- Submitters can assign various tags to stories, such as “stupid,” “interesting,” “obvious,” or “dumbass.” Special tags like “photoshop,” “audioedit,” or “videoedit” are used for threads involving edited digital content, while the “newsflash” tag highlights important breaking news.
TotalFark Subscription
- TotalFark is a subscription service introduced in 2002, currently priced at $10 per month. Subscribers (TotalFarkers) get access to all submitted links, not just those greenlit for the main page. They also enjoy features like no duplicate URL blocking, early participation in contests, and a more active, smaller community. Additionally, TotalFarkers receive updates on proposed site changes and can participate in the TotalFark Discussion tab.
BareFark
- BareFark is a subscription option that removes all ads from the site for a monthly fee of $5 or an annual fee of $50. This helps support Fark while improving the user experience by avoiding ad-related issues with browser ad blockers.
FarkUnits
- FarkUnits (FUs) are tokens that can be purchased and redeemed for various actions on the site, such as subscribing to TotalFark or BareFark, or using the SwearJar to include profanity in comments. FarkUnits replace the previous Farks2Give system.
SwearJar
- The SwearJar allows users to pay 20 FarkUnits to include profanity in their comments, bypassing the site’s usual filters. However, all other posting rules must still be followed.
Mobile and Technical Aspects
- Fark has mobile compatibility, including an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch app, and allows users to submit links directly from mobile Safari. The site is hosted on Vultr’s cloud service and uses homebrew software written in Perl’s Plack toolkit, backed by MariaDB on FreeBSD cloud instances.
Community Culture
- Fark has a unique culture with specific tags like “Florida” for articles about unusual events in Florida and “Wheaton” for articles about Wil Wheaton, a Fark user himself. The community is known for its humor and active participation in discussions and contests.
In summary, Fark is a dynamic platform that combines news aggregation with robust community engagement, offering various subscription options and unique features that enhance the user experience.