B3ta
Encyclopedia
B3ta is a high-profile British
website
, described as a "puerile digital arts community" by The Guardian
. It was founded in 2001 by Rob Manuel
, Denise Wilton and Cal Henderson
.
B3ta's main feature is a newsletter
featuring the latest work of the B3ta community and other interesting, humorous or perverse things found on the Web. The newsletter is published weekly and has about 100,000 readers. A message board allows members to post digital images and short animations they have created, the ones considered the best appearing on the front page, along with various announcements. Previously there was a B3ta radio show on the London station Resonance FM
. To inspire creative works, B3ta poses a weekly image challenge, such as "if cats ruled the world", and a "question of the week", for example asking "what's your most embarrassing injury?"
Many popular Internet phenomena were created by B3ta members (also called "B3tards"). These include the Macromedia Flash cartoons created by Joel Veitch
and Jonti Picking
and the quizzes by Rob Manuel.
In March 2006, it was announced that The Friday Project
would be publishing a B3ta book entitled The Bumper B3ta Book of Sick Jokes. The book was published and made available from both online and real world bookshops on the 20th October 2006. The book consists of a series of "sick jokes" that were submitted and illustrated by B3ta contributors. A public wiki site (Sickipedia) was established to collect and edit joke material for the project. Some of the jokes are inappropriate for children as they includes sexual references.
's Female or Shemale, Jonti Picking
's Badger Badger Badger
, and Joel Veitch
's Punk Rock Kittens. Generally, the newsletter consists of the following sections:
s are posted by the members. The B3ta message board has a strong code of "netiquette
" – a new thread should generally not be started unless it contains an image or link. Spamming (promoting a website purely for financial gain) or posting something which is deemed to be clichéd is not tolerated. These cliché links are often referred to as "glasscock", named after the famous image of a female golfer kissing a glass trophy, which appeared to be a phallic shape due to the camera angle.
Newly registered users cannot post on the board until the Tuesday after they register, known as "Newbie Tuesday". This gives an opportunity to discover site etiquette before getting involved.
. This was usually used as an excuse to post anti-homosexual jokes, pictures of users' genitalia and altered images of lesbian
s. The name arose as a rhyming companion to the time period before midnight, the "day shift", and the unusually high proportion of gay men that appeared to be present around that time. Occasionally an effort was made to call it by the more politically correct name "super happy fun time".
seems to be based on the joke's longevity; a meme is a bandwagon that never gets old (or at least takes much longer to become so). Pictures which have inspired bandwagons and memes include the ambulance and the shark attacking a helicopter.
A recent bandwagon example is Flap.
After posting many crude drawings of birds in new threads, Sir Sand Goblin posted a picture apology, involving "Flap" wanting a "Happy Internets". When Mr McBadger replied with an animated Flap, many others joined in the bandwagon.
More recently films and their associated advertising materials have become bandwagon fodder (images used by members of the forum in a bandwagon) these include 'Attack of the 50 ft bandwagon' - based on the poster for the film 'Attack of the 50 ft Woman' and 'HandWagonCock' based on the promotional images for the upcoming film 'Hancock'.
Like the many message boards, the b3ta talk board has developed a clique-like atmosphere, with many users having met one another at so called "B3ta bashes". Oxford
in particular has become known amongst members as a bash hotspot, and has developed from a few B3tards getting together for a drink to a genuine spectacle. On 31 May 2008, the biggest "bash" so far took place in Earls Court, London. Although this was mainly a messageboard event.
A member of the talk board called "Boudicca" (Bou) was banned many times and caused the admins to ban the IP addresses of a whole country. (South Africa). Now, all new members (n00bs) are accused of being Bou.
, where images are posted along a certain theme – examples include "New Software Products", or "The World If It Was Run By Kittens". The entries are posted as normal threads on the message board, but are marked with a "C" icon to differentiate from normal posts. Entries are collected in a central repository that can be browsed any time, with the highest voted images displayed first. Three "special mentions" are chosen by the site mods, and these are posted along with the theme of the new challenge in the Friday newsletter.
The challenge topics are alternately chosen by board members, and the "Challenge Dictator" (basically a site moderator) on a two week cycle.
The first question was "Worst Record Ever?" posed by Rob Manuel in 2003; examples of questions since include "Why should you be fired from your job?", "Mad Stuff You've Done To Get Someone To Sleep With You" and "Expensive mistakes".
(104.4 FM in London
, also available via streaming broadcast from the Resonance FM website) between 4PM and 5PM. The show was presented by Rob Manuel
, a co-owner of the site, and his accomplice, David Stevenson. There were often special guests – sometimes contributors to the site, sometimes semi-famous people, such as the drummer from Blur
, Miles Hunt
of The Wonder Stuff
and "a chap who once played a Dalek
in Doctor Who
".
s are the lifeblood of B3ta messageboard. Meme is a name given to a clichéd image that is frequently used in images as a cheap gag. Although many older board members may resent the lack of originality shown by using these clichés, some, such as Teh Quo or The Fear, crop up regularly. A brief-lived spate of postings featuring a new meme is known as a bandwagon
, in the sense that everybody is jumping on it.
Some prominent B3ta memes include:
kissing the trophy she received for winning the LPGA Longs Drugs Challenge at the Twelve Bridges Golf Club in Lincoln, California, April 21, 2002. As the name implies, the camera angle makes it look as though it is a vitreous phallus. The image was passed around via e-mail so much that the term "Glasscock" came to be known as a synonym for a cliché. A link which many people have seen before is hence derided as "glasscock" or "GC". The Glass Cock Index (see link below) was set up to list all links posted recently to B3ta, to prevent any duplicate links in a short period of time. The Glass Cock Index also sports said image as its logo.
, who claimed that
The standard response given to an image containing The Fear is "Argh! The Fear! The Fear!", with "The Fear!" repeated ad nauseam and often in capitals.
asked B3ta to run an image competition in which board members could win PlayStation Portable
s and an Xbox 360
for creating something on the theme "What would happen if you said Yes to everything?". However, Virgin cancelled the challenge early because they didn't like some of the images being created, including Richard Branson
urinating on Rob Manuel
, dressed in baby clothes.
On 4 June 2007, b3ta member Sean Stayte posted an "alternative logo" for the 2012 Summer Olympics
in London, which referenced an image from the former shock site
, goatse. The BBC
then posted this logo on its website and ran it on its BBC News 24
channel as part of a viewer-submitted contest.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
, described as a "puerile digital arts community" by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. It was founded in 2001 by Rob Manuel
Rob Manuel
Rob Manuel is the co-founder of B3ta . He is responsible for numerous quizzes and Flash animations. He also works with Joel Veitch animating videos for Tomboy Virals...
, Denise Wilton and Cal Henderson
Cal Henderson
Cal Henderson is a British computer programmer and author based in San Francisco. He was educated at Sharnbrook Upper School and Community College....
.
B3ta's main feature is a newsletter
Newsletter
A newsletter is a regularly distributed publication generally about one main topic that is of interest to its subscribers. Newspapers and leaflets are types of newsletters. Additionally, newsletters delivered electronically via email have gained rapid acceptance for the same reasons email in...
featuring the latest work of the B3ta community and other interesting, humorous or perverse things found on the Web. The newsletter is published weekly and has about 100,000 readers. A message board allows members to post digital images and short animations they have created, the ones considered the best appearing on the front page, along with various announcements. Previously there was a B3ta radio show on the London station Resonance FM
Resonance FM
Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station run by the London Musicians' Collective .The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and over 300 volunteer technical and production staff.Until September 2007, ResonanceFM...
. To inspire creative works, B3ta poses a weekly image challenge, such as "if cats ruled the world", and a "question of the week", for example asking "what's your most embarrassing injury?"
Many popular Internet phenomena were created by B3ta members (also called "B3tards"). These include the Macromedia Flash cartoons created by Joel Veitch
Joel Veitch
Joel Veitch is a British web animator, singer-songwriter, and member of the humour website B3ta. Veitch is owner of the web site RatherGood where he showcases many of his animations. Joel has also created the Mr...
and Jonti Picking
Jonti Picking
Jonathan "Jonti" Picking , otherwise known as Weebl, is a British Internet personality and flash animator and is the creator of Weebl's Stuff....
and the quizzes by Rob Manuel.
In March 2006, it was announced that The Friday Project
The Friday Project
The Friday Project is a London-based independent publishing house founded by Paul Carr and Clare Christian in June 2004. It evolved out of The Friday Thing, an Internet newsletter taking an offbeat look at the week's politics, media activities and general current events, originally written together...
would be publishing a B3ta book entitled The Bumper B3ta Book of Sick Jokes. The book was published and made available from both online and real world bookshops on the 20th October 2006. The book consists of a series of "sick jokes" that were submitted and illustrated by B3ta contributors. A public wiki site (Sickipedia) was established to collect and edit joke material for the project. Some of the jokes are inappropriate for children as they includes sexual references.
Newsletter
The weekly newsletter is published on Friday afternoons, to a group of about 100,000 subscribers. It features the best work by members of the B3ta community. Famous examples include Rob ManuelRob Manuel
Rob Manuel is the co-founder of B3ta . He is responsible for numerous quizzes and Flash animations. He also works with Joel Veitch animating videos for Tomboy Virals...
's Female or Shemale, Jonti Picking
Jonti Picking
Jonathan "Jonti" Picking , otherwise known as Weebl, is a British Internet personality and flash animator and is the creator of Weebl's Stuff....
's Badger Badger Badger
Badger Badger Badger
"Badger Badger Badger" or "The Badger Song" is a Flash cartoon by British animator Jonti Picking. It consists of images of badgers doing calisthenics, a toadstool in front of a tree, and a snake in the desert...
, and Joel Veitch
Joel Veitch
Joel Veitch is a British web animator, singer-songwriter, and member of the humour website B3ta. Veitch is owner of the web site RatherGood where he showcases many of his animations. Joel has also created the Mr...
's Punk Rock Kittens. Generally, the newsletter consists of the following sections:
- "Newsletter Title" – These are usually humorous or offensive (or both), and often can relate to a news item. Recently Rob has invited suggestions for the title on the main board.
- "What B3ta people have been making this week" – websites, animations and photos created by people who either post on the messageboard, or email their work to the site directly.
- "Sites in brief: Stuff we like that wasn't made by our mates" – although in theory similar to the first section, it increasingly features oddities from around the Internet in general. This frequently includes items not intended to be humorous but that are from their context, such as a watch with inbuilt Geiger counter.
- "Things that make you go aaah" – usually linking to photographs of baby animals. The newsletter itself describes it as its "great voyage to catalogue the cutest things in the world".
- "B3ta image challengePhotoshop contestA Photoshop contest, or sometimes photochop contest, is an online game, in which a website or user of an Internet forum will post a starting image — usually a photograph — and ask others to manipulate the image using some kind of graphics editing software, such as Photoshop, Corel...
" – the results from the previous week's image challenge, and up until recently, the announcement of the next week's challenge. The image challenge is currently announced on Wednesdays. - "Question of the week" entries which caught the editors' eyes.
- "Video Schmideo" – links to online videos, often hosted on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. - "What happened next?" – follow-ups on stories previously featured.
- "Star in next week's issue" – a plea for content for further newsletters. This is very tongue-in-cheek, but occasionally one of the less ridiculous suggestions will get made.
- "Top tip" – a domestic tip provided by one of the board members. More recently this has been replaced by a random joke from Sickipedia.
- Some older newsletters also contained a "B3ta radio" section – a summary of the content of the up-coming radio show, and listening details.
Message board
On the message board, images and animated GIFGIF
The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability....
s are posted by the members. The B3ta message board has a strong code of "netiquette
Netiquette
Netiquette is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks, ranging from Usenet and mailing lists to blogs and forums. These rules were described in IETF RFC 1855. However, like many Internet phenomena, the concept and its application remain in a state of flux, and vary...
" – a new thread should generally not be started unless it contains an image or link. Spamming (promoting a website purely for financial gain) or posting something which is deemed to be clichéd is not tolerated. These cliché links are often referred to as "glasscock", named after the famous image of a female golfer kissing a glass trophy, which appeared to be a phallic shape due to the camera angle.
Newly registered users cannot post on the board until the Tuesday after they register, known as "Newbie Tuesday". This gives an opportunity to discover site etiquette before getting involved.
Front-paging (FP)
This is an honour granted to the best images of the day, where they are displayed on the front page of the site hence reaching many more people. The Board members vote by clicking a button labelled "I like this!", then the site moderators pick their favourites.The gay shift
The gay shift was the B3tan name for any period of time shortly after 12:00 a.m. GMTGreenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United...
. This was usually used as an excuse to post anti-homosexual jokes, pictures of users' genitalia and altered images of lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
s. The name arose as a rhyming companion to the time period before midnight, the "day shift", and the unusually high proportion of gay men that appeared to be present around that time. Occasionally an effort was made to call it by the more politically correct name "super happy fun time".
Bandwagons and bandwagoning
Bandwagoning is the act of posting images related to a certain theme, or of a similar nature to a group of previously posted images. Bandwagon posts are generally unwelcome, unless they are particularly clever or inventive. Some bandwagons are started based on various cultural references such as advertisements, news items, etc; which may explain why they cease to be amusing very quickly. The B3ta FAQ explicitly prohibits, or at the very least strongly discourages the use of bandwagons, yet they are still common. The difference between a bandwagon and a memeMeme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
seems to be based on the joke's longevity; a meme is a bandwagon that never gets old (or at least takes much longer to become so). Pictures which have inspired bandwagons and memes include the ambulance and the shark attacking a helicopter.
A recent bandwagon example is Flap.
After posting many crude drawings of birds in new threads, Sir Sand Goblin posted a picture apology, involving "Flap" wanting a "Happy Internets". When Mr McBadger replied with an animated Flap, many others joined in the bandwagon.
More recently films and their associated advertising materials have become bandwagon fodder (images used by members of the forum in a bandwagon) these include 'Attack of the 50 ft bandwagon' - based on the poster for the film 'Attack of the 50 ft Woman' and 'HandWagonCock' based on the promotional images for the upcoming film 'Hancock'.
Talk board
The talk board is identical to the main message board except for the fact that it is not possible to post images. It was created in response to the arrival of 4rthur, a (now defunct) talk based offshoot of b3ta which drew a couple of hundred members away, and, more recently, cliqr, Dynafoo (both also defunct now) and c4mbodia. Also, the site owners wanted a place where people could banter without worrying about creating images.Like the many message boards, the b3ta talk board has developed a clique-like atmosphere, with many users having met one another at so called "B3ta bashes". Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
in particular has become known amongst members as a bash hotspot, and has developed from a few B3tards getting together for a drink to a genuine spectacle. On 31 May 2008, the biggest "bash" so far took place in Earls Court, London. Although this was mainly a messageboard event.
A member of the talk board called "Boudicca" (Bou) was banned many times and caused the admins to ban the IP addresses of a whole country. (South Africa). Now, all new members (n00bs) are accused of being Bou.
Image Challenge
This is a weekly Photoshop contestPhotoshop contest
A Photoshop contest, or sometimes photochop contest, is an online game, in which a website or user of an Internet forum will post a starting image — usually a photograph — and ask others to manipulate the image using some kind of graphics editing software, such as Photoshop, Corel...
, where images are posted along a certain theme – examples include "New Software Products", or "The World If It Was Run By Kittens". The entries are posted as normal threads on the message board, but are marked with a "C" icon to differentiate from normal posts. Entries are collected in a central repository that can be browsed any time, with the highest voted images displayed first. Three "special mentions" are chosen by the site mods, and these are posted along with the theme of the new challenge in the Friday newsletter.
The challenge topics are alternately chosen by board members, and the "Challenge Dictator" (basically a site moderator) on a two week cycle.
Question of the Week (QOTW)
Recognizing that "not everyone wants to muck around with Photoshop", the site asks a question each week hoping to provoke amusing anecdotes. It was originally used as material for the radio show and the newsletter, but realising the popularity of the content, the site owners decided to continue the questions after the close of the show. A new topic is begun every Thursday (at which point it becomes impossible to reply to the previous QOTW) and, as with the other areas of the site, Question of the Week attracts regulars known for their characteristic posts.The first question was "Worst Record Ever?" posed by Rob Manuel in 2003; examples of questions since include "Why should you be fired from your job?", "Mad Stuff You've Done To Get Someone To Sleep With You" and "Expensive mistakes".
QOTW Off Topic
QOTW Off Topic was invented for those users of QOTW who found they had things in common and liked to talk to each other using the reply system. Over several weeks it became clear that more and more people were preferring to chat to each other through the replies instead of the /talk board which was already set up, so Off Topic was created."I like this!"
Answers to questions and Image Challenge suggestions appear to be generally listed in order of posting, with the newest responses first. However, whilst a question is open, other users can click "I like this!" which gives a score of one point to that answer. Once a question is closed a answers are listed by the number of users who have clicked the "I like this!" on that answer; however, as many answers are submitted each week, most are never clicked on and so are sorted by the time they were posted.B3ta Radio
From August 2003 until July 2004, B3ta had its own radio show, which was broadcast from Resonance FMResonance FM
Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station run by the London Musicians' Collective .The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and over 300 volunteer technical and production staff.Until September 2007, ResonanceFM...
(104.4 FM in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, also available via streaming broadcast from the Resonance FM website) between 4PM and 5PM. The show was presented by Rob Manuel
Rob Manuel
Rob Manuel is the co-founder of B3ta . He is responsible for numerous quizzes and Flash animations. He also works with Joel Veitch animating videos for Tomboy Virals...
, a co-owner of the site, and his accomplice, David Stevenson. There were often special guests – sometimes contributors to the site, sometimes semi-famous people, such as the drummer from Blur
Blur (band)
Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...
, Miles Hunt
Miles Hunt
Miles Hunt is the singer / guitarist and songwriter for the Stourbridge, England-based Alternative Rock band The Wonder Stuff.- Early life :His father was a union official for the TGWU...
of The Wonder Stuff
The Wonder Stuff
The Wonder Stuff are a British alternative rock band, originally based in Stourbridge, West Midlands, in the Black Country, England.-Origins:...
and "a chap who once played a Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
in Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
".
Memes
Internet memeInternet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
s are the lifeblood of B3ta messageboard. Meme is a name given to a clichéd image that is frequently used in images as a cheap gag. Although many older board members may resent the lack of originality shown by using these clichés, some, such as Teh Quo or The Fear, crop up regularly. A brief-lived spate of postings featuring a new meme is known as a bandwagon
Bandwagon effect
The bandwagon effect is a well documented form of groupthink in behavioral science and has many applications. The general rule is that conduct or beliefs spread among people, as fads and trends clearly do, with "the probability of any individual adopting it increasing with the proportion who have...
, in the sense that everybody is jumping on it.
Some prominent B3ta memes include:
Teh Quo
The band, Status Quo, are represented by an image of the two principal members of the band laughing, and has proved to be one of the most long lived memes. This image is usually hidden in another, often one portraying a scene of havoc or a disaster - the implication being that "Teh Quo" have caused the disaster. These hidden images can range from the blindingly obvious to the extremely subtle, sometimes only involving their outline rather than the band members themselvesThe Glass Cock
An image of golfer Cristie KerrCristie Kerr
Cristie Kerr is an American professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She has 14 wins on the LPGA Tour, including two major championships, and over $13 million in career earnings...
kissing the trophy she received for winning the LPGA Longs Drugs Challenge at the Twelve Bridges Golf Club in Lincoln, California, April 21, 2002. As the name implies, the camera angle makes it look as though it is a vitreous phallus. The image was passed around via e-mail so much that the term "Glasscock" came to be known as a synonym for a cliché. A link which many people have seen before is hence derided as "glasscock" or "GC". The Glass Cock Index (see link below) was set up to list all links posted recently to B3ta, to prevent any duplicate links in a short period of time. The Glass Cock Index also sports said image as its logo.
The Fear
A heavily photoshopped image of a peculiar creature with two heads. It was originally made by user Spacefish, but the name was given to it by Joel VeitchJoel Veitch
Joel Veitch is a British web animator, singer-songwriter, and member of the humour website B3ta. Veitch is owner of the web site RatherGood where he showcases many of his animations. Joel has also created the Mr...
, who claimed that
- "That creature's purpose is to be waiting, staring at your face, as soon as you wake up, and then to sneak up and stare at you until you turn slightly and see it and leap with shock. All day, every day."
The standard response given to an image containing The Fear is "Argh! The Fear! The Fear!", with "The Fear!" repeated ad nauseam and often in capitals.
I Love Horses
Links to shock sites are generally looked down on at b3ta, so quite often people post links that lead to the site of I Love Horses Magazine, as it automatically loads the girly theme song, often leading to embarrassment for the reader if they have the volume turned up and other people are in the vicinity.Controversy
VirginVirgin Group
Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...
asked B3ta to run an image competition in which board members could win PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
s and an Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
for creating something on the theme "What would happen if you said Yes to everything?". However, Virgin cancelled the challenge early because they didn't like some of the images being created, including Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
urinating on Rob Manuel
Rob Manuel
Rob Manuel is the co-founder of B3ta . He is responsible for numerous quizzes and Flash animations. He also works with Joel Veitch animating videos for Tomboy Virals...
, dressed in baby clothes.
On 4 June 2007, b3ta member Sean Stayte posted an "alternative logo" for the 2012 Summer Olympics
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...
in London, which referenced an image from the former shock site
Shock site
A shock site is a website that is intended to be offensive, disgusting and/or disturbing to its viewers, containing materials of high shock value which is also considered distasteful and crude, and is generally of a pornographic, scatological, extremely violent, insulting, painful, profane, or...
, goatse. The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
then posted this logo on its website and ran it on its BBC News 24
BBC News 24
BBC News is the BBC's 24-hour rolling news television network in the United Kingdom. The channel launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 17:30 as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic television channels, becoming the first competitor to Sky News, which had been running since 1989...
channel as part of a viewer-submitted contest.
External links
- B3ta web site
- B3ta press – a collection of press clippings about B3ta site.
- Glasscocx now defunct, this site collected all the posted links into one place, and provided a working search engine for the B3ta message board, until one was built into the messageboard itself.
- B3ta image kit – images of the most common memes.
- http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/shark.asp – Snopes' discussion of the "Is it Real?" meme.
- B3ta Radio Includes archived B3ta radio shows.
- Resonance FM, on which the B3ta radio show was broadcast.
- Spin off sites run by messageboard regulars or ex-regulars include Tattyworld and c4mbodia
- Homepages of the site owners, Rob Manuel, Denise Wilton & Cal Henderson
- Sickipedia
- http://www.crn.com.au/News/153125,top-10-workplace-time-wasters.aspx