Worth1000
Encyclopedia
Worth1000 is an image manipulation and contest website. Worth1000 opened on January 1, 2002 and hosts over 340,000 unique images made in theme contests such as "Rejected Transformers", "Invisible World", and "Stupid Protests". In mid-2003, Worth1000 began hosting similar competitions for photography
, text
, and multimedia
.
The website was designed by Avi Muchnick and Israel Derdik. Muchnick named it after the old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words
".
The site has been featured in many different publications, TV shows, and radio including PC Magazine
, Popular Science
, Good Morning America
, BBC
, CNN
, New York Times, Weekly World News
, Detroit Free Press
, TechTV
, USA Today
, G4
, Inside Edition
and many others.
Worth1000 and its members have created three books on image manipulation: When Pancakes Go Bad, I've Got a Human in my Throat, and More than one way to skin a cat
Others include mating animals with instruments or plants, zombifying or aging celebrities, combining several movies to one, and many others.
Even if the Photoshop contests are the main attraction of Worth1000, it also has a vast variety of contests for photography, text and a multimedia section, mostly consisting of illustration competitions. Along with the regular contests, members of Worth1000 challenge each other in head-to-head competitions too.
. The forums range from general discussions and humour to discussions on techniques for the various types of contests. Due to the many active Admins and a word-filter that monitors the forums, a high level of troll
control exists.
Similar sites have competed in an intramural tournament with Worth1000.com, including:
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, text
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
, and multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
.
The website was designed by Avi Muchnick and Israel Derdik. Muchnick named it after the old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words
A picture is worth a thousand words
The adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" refers to the idea that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image. It also aptly characterizes one of the main goals of visualization, namely making it possible to absorb large amounts of data quickly.It is believed that the modern...
".
The site has been featured in many different publications, TV shows, and radio including PC Magazine
PC Magazine
PC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...
, Popular Science
Popular Science
Popular Science is an American monthly magazine founded in 1872 carrying articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. Popular Science has won over 58 awards, including the ASME awards for its journalistic excellence in both 2003 and 2004...
, Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
, 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...
, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, New York Times, Weekly World News
Weekly World News
The Weekly World News was a supermarket tabloid published in the United States from 1979 to 2007, renowned for its outlandish cover stories often based on supernatural or paranormal themes and an approach to news that verged on the satirical. Its characteristic black-and-white covers have become...
, Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...
, TechTV
TechTV
TechTV was a 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...
, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, G4
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
, Inside Edition
Inside Edition
Inside Edition is a thirty-minute American television syndicated news program, first aired on CBS on October 9, 1988. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles a condensed version of breakfast television, exclusively with pre-recorded...
and many others.
Worth1000 and its members have created three books on image manipulation: When Pancakes Go Bad, I've Got a Human in my Throat, and More than one way to skin a cat
Contests
Competition mostly takes place in a series of themed contests. A subject title is given along with a sample photo manipulation from a previous or similar contest and a brief description of what contestants should try to do. Entries are then accepted for a fixed period of time, after which they are posted so that people can vote on them, and the results are then compiled. Examples of contests are:- Reality mangaMangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
- Alter photos of real people (celebrities are popular) so that they look like JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese animeAnimeis the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
drawings come to life. - ChimaeraChimera (mythology)The Chimera or Chimaera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her...
– Create a new animal by mating three or four other animals to one. - Invisible world - Take any object or person in an image and make it invisible using photoshop. No indication or outline of the object/animal/person should be seen, except through its function/interaction with other objects and/or people in the image.
- If Goths ruled – Show what the world would look like if Goths ruled it.
Others include mating animals with instruments or plants, zombifying or aging celebrities, combining several movies to one, and many others.
Even if the Photoshop contests are the main attraction of Worth1000, it also has a vast variety of contests for photography, text and a multimedia section, mostly consisting of illustration competitions. Along with the regular contests, members of Worth1000 challenge each other in head-to-head competitions too.
Forums
The Worth1000 website has a large community as well as a large selection of forumsInternet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
. The forums range from general discussions and humour to discussions on techniques for the various types of contests. Due to the many active Admins and a word-filter that monitors the forums, a high level of troll
Troll (Internet)
In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response...
control exists.
Terms and Worthisms
- BanhammerBanhammerThe term banhammer began as a satirical term for the power wielded by an administrator to ban or block users of internet forums, wikis, online games, or other internet media. The term is often used as a nickname for the actual anti-cheating software in video games that performs the banning action...
- What will strike you if you break the rules, resulting in a ban. - Losasig - The signature awarded by the winner of a Head-to-Head match to the loser of the match (written humiliation).
- Losatar - The avatar awarded by the winner of a Head-to-Head match to the loser of the match (animated humiliation).
- Worthism - Slang terms / made-up Worth1000 terminology that appear on the site.
- Filter - A feature of the site that changes certain keywords to other words.
- New Jersey - The filtered form of the word "Hell." The most infamous and prevalent of the conversions by the filter.
- Textor - One who participates in the Text Contests.
- Trifecta - When the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winning entries in one contest were all submitted by the same person.
- Worthiversary or Worthday - The celebration of one's x year membership on worth, where x is the number of years.
- Karma - A user's earned voting power or value.
- Jurors - Staff of volunteer site users who have a voting karma of 500, almost 3 times that of the maximum karma a normal user can acquire.
- Fantasy Series - a monthly fantasy image competition.
Intramural competitors
Similar sites have competed in an intramural tournament with Worth1000.com, including:
- Something AwfulSomething AwfulSomething Awful, often abbreviated to SA, is a comedy website housing a variety of content, including blog entries, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka in 1999 as a largely personal website, but as it grew, so...
's Photoshop Phriday - Fark.comFark.comFark is a community website created by Drew Curtis that allows members to comment on a daily batch of news articles and other items from various websites. As of June 2009, the site boasts approximately four million unique visitors per month, which puts it among the top 100 English language websites...